I googled the amount of people that lived on earth throughout its entire history, it’s roughly 108 billions. If I take 1 person and multiply by 2 for each generation of ancestors, at the 37th generation it already outnumbers that 108 billions. (it’s 137 billions). If we take 20 years for 1 generation, it’s only 740 years by the 37th generation.
How??
(I suck at math, I recounted it like 20 times, got that 137 billions at 37th, 38th and 39th generation, so forgive me if it’s not actually at 37th, but it’s still no more than 800 years back in history)
In: 1391
The 50/500 rule says that a minimum of 50 individuals are required to repopulate the world after a near-extinction, and 500 are needed to combat genetic drift.
This means that no matter how far back you go in your family tree, a generation could have as few as 50 individuals in it, even if there wasn’t an extinction event. And that’s assuming there was no inbreeding at any point in it, which is highly unlikely.
Latest Answers