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Kaalmimaibi t1_iu44n7f wrote

Reply to comment by iayork in Is it possible that only 4 moose imported to Newfoundland in 1904 could produce a viable modern population of 110,000 today? by SlipCritical9595

So European royalty would have been fine if they’d just persisted with consanguineous relationships just a little longer? How extraordinary.

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iayork t1_iu4be82 wrote

European royalty were pretty much the opposite of “a long period of low-level inbreeding”, so no.

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Kaalmimaibi t1_iu4e05b wrote

The data here indicates the predominance were second cousins and it’s been going on for a thousand years. What degree of relatedness and timeframe is necessary then?

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Alis451 t1_iu4o4ta wrote

> second cousins

these aren't actually any inbreeding, second cousins are functionally strangers.

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iayork t1_iu4kjqp wrote

Are you arguing that the royalty of Europe have entirely gone extinct due to inbreeding? Or are you arguing that occasional members showed deleterious recessives, while most (like Charles) have been spared those effects, as you’d see with purging of recessives?

I know you just made a throwaway joke, but if you’re actually going to make an argument of it, you should think through what you’re actually claiming.

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PhilistineAu t1_iu4pjo5 wrote

They would have been fine if they had removed the deleterious genes.

You can be fine if your starting gene population doesn't lead to cascading abnormalities or a high level of disease susceptibility.

If those moose are that genetically close, and they lack sufficient diversity to handle a new disease (or environmental) threat, then you are looking at population collapse. Without that challenge, the population looks fine.

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viridiformica t1_iu4z4yp wrote

There's not much selective pressure on royalty though - rather the opposite

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