Daybreak, Part 3 (421)

[Espeon1962]

I think he still loved her myself, but I also believe there was simply rage at the deception by his own - I forget the moment, but I recall that Tory said something to Galen not long after Cally's death, about her maybe being despondent or something along those lines - I believe it was as much the rage since Tory blatantly lied to his face, knowing the truth. She would have been better off to say nothing. I suspect this was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back.

[Espeon1962]

The 20 breeding females number comes from a special on the history channel that I watched, I want to say it was 7 ways the Earth would end or something like that. It is speculation that a global natural disaster 10's of thousands of years ago, a super volcanic eruption brought the human population to its knees and the number the special gave was as few as 20 breeding females left on the planet.

We had some discussion on this earlier in the thread. Whoever came up with that 20 breeding females number knew nothing of either mathematics or biology. Nor history for that matter. Approx 80,000 years ago there was a supervolcanoe eruption (Toba in Sumatra) which severly impacted our species - general consensus is that it may have reduced the human population by as much as 60% (other estimates use numbers like 5000 to 10000 people left and so on), but if the number of 20 females was used, I think that was what might be termed "writer's discretion" in order to pump up their story. It is extremely doubtful we would be here today if only 20 women had survived Toba.

[Skydiver]

one way that the '20' may have come into things....so, mitochondiral dna only passes down mother to daughter, thus there has to be an unbroken female bloodline. so if a woman has only sons or has no children, her mitochondrial dna dies with her.

it's possible that, over the millennia, that there are only 20 unbroken female lines left in the world. Taht yeah, more women survived that volcanic eruption and the issues stemming from it, but only 20 female lines of descendance exist today because some of those descendants had sons, some never had children, or some of those children died before reproducing. (think about it, a random car crash where a whole family dies, if that woman had no sisters, her mitochondrial line dies with her)

It's possible that during the human genome project - where they sampled dna from all over the world - they've only found 20 lines. Not to say that more might not be out there. we'll never have dna from everyone, or even a majority, of those in the world, so there will always be lines of dna out there untapped and unrecorded.

So there may have never been only twenty females on the planet, but there may only be twenty different mitochondial lines in existence today (among the samples taken)

[HAL2100]

I was watching something on NBC last night and realized that it would have been hilarious if in the week leading up to the finale if NBC had subtly inserted Head-Six and Head-Baltar into all of their prime time shows simply as two characters in the background that were noticable, but not remarkable. I would have been LMAO! Picture the interns on the apprentice working the streets of NYC and they walkby or Law & Order where they appear in the audience in the courtroom.

[Skydiver]

week leading up to would have given away the ending, but the week after woulda been funny

[HAL2100]

I don't know that it would have given away the ending per se as it would leave the question open as to whether BS:G happened in our past or our present...however, I do like the idea of doing it the week after though.

[Splitsecond]

one way that the '20' may have come into things....so, mitochondiral dna only passes down mother to daughter, thus there has to be an unbroken female bloodline. so if a woman has only sons or has no children, her mitochondrial dna dies with her.

it's possible that, over the millennia, that there are only 20 unbroken female lines left in the world. Taht yeah, more women survived that volcanic eruption and the issues stemming from it, but only 20 female lines of descendance exist today because some of those descendants had sons, some never had children, or some of those children died before reproducing. (think about it, a random car crash where a whole family dies, if that woman had no sisters, her mitochondrial line dies with her)

It's possible that during the human genome project - where they sampled dna from all over the world - they've only found 20 lines. Not to say that more might not be out there. we'll never have dna from everyone, or even a majority, of those in the world, so there will always be lines of dna out there untapped and unrecorded.

So there may have never been only twenty females on the planet, but there may only be twenty different mitochondial lines in existence today (among the samples taken)

The whole point of mitochondrial eve is that there is only one mitochondrial line. The 20 females thing was a terrible theory that tried to explain why all humans are so genetically alike. There's not enough variation in our gene pool. Modern theories have explained how this could happen without a bottleneck.

[HAL2100]

The whole point of mitochondrial eve is that there is only one mitochondrial line. The 20 females thing was a terrible theory that tried to explain why all humans are so genetically alike. There's not enough variation in our gene pool. Modern theories have explained how this could happen without a bottleneck.

There is only NOW one mitochondrial line.

[Splitsecond]

There is only NOW one mitochondrial line.

There has always been a mitochondrial eve though. A few generations ago it may have been a mitochondrial eve that's older than the current one. In the future there will be a different one. If you go back far enough, there is only one mitochondrial line. Right now, there's loads of lines if you draw them back a few thousand years.

[HAL2100]

There has always been a mitochondrial eve though. A few generations ago it may have been a mitochondrial eve that's older than the current one. In the future there will be a different one. If you go back far enough, there is only one mitochondrial line. Right now, there's loads of lines if you draw them back a few thousand years.

That is not correct. The reason why there is currently only one matrilineal common ancestor is simply because the other lines have died out as the result of not producing any female children - just like a family surname dying out. When my Uncle dies, my mother's maiden name will die out simply because he has no sons to carry on the name.

[Splitsecond]

That is not correct. The reason why there is currently only one matrilineal common ancestor is simply because the other lines have died out as the result of not producing any female children - just like a family surname dying out. When my Uncle dies, my mother's maiden name will die out simply because he has no sons to carry on the name.

But my point is that all matrilineal lines merge if you take a long enough time-scale. Over short time-scales the lines never meet and are separate.

[HAL2100]

But my point is that all matrilineal lines merge if you take a long enough time-scale. Over short time-scales the lines never meet and are separate.

mDNA does not merge like chromosomal DNA it is preserved from mother to child in the same way that a father passes his y-chromosome to his sons.

http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-...estion/?id=160

[Splitsecond]

mDNA does not merge like chromosomal DNA it is preserved from mother to child in the same way that a father passes his y-chromosome to his sons.

http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-...estion/?id=160

I don't mean merge forwards through time, I mean backwards through time like the tree of life. A new branch appears every time a woman has another girl (not the first girl). A branch dies every time a woman doesn't have a girl. If there are two branches that never die, you eventually end up with two species. There is probably one mitochondrial eve for all life on the planet. Interestingly, the y-chromosome decays over generations and eventually dies out, at which point a species is asexual, however some females of the species end up becoming the new males and an x-chromosome mutates into a y-chromosome.

[Pharaoh Atem]

so i wonder how the people on new caprica are doing after 150.000 years??

i want answers

[Ian-S]

probably all died from radiation poisoning long before now.

(remember Gina set the Nuke off in orbit).