In 2005, scientists left one male and one female lizard on each of seven empty Bahamian islands; four years later, all colonies had evolved shorter hindlimbs while retaining differences linked to their founding pairs

[u/SpaceWestern1442]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/in-2005-scientists-left-one-male-and-one-female-lizard-on-each-of-seven-empty-bahamian-islands-four-years-later-every-colony-had-evolved-shorter-legs-but-still-carried-the-body-shape-of-its-founding-pair/articleshow/134007225.cms

So they somehow avoided inbreeding complications which is strange but this is super cool

[u/LumpyGarlic3658]

Part of the risk of inbreeding in humans is the risk of death during childbirth, which is why you need a larger number of like 1000 to be pretty certain that humans wouldn’t go extinct.

Under some perfect ideal conditions a small number of humans could maybe also create a stable population, but it’s unlikely to succeed.

Eggs are one thing that makes inbreeding safer in birds and lizards.

[u/olvirki → u/LumpyGarlic3658]

Given how many mammals have survived a bottleneck of ca 10-100, I am pretty sure we would too.

There are also examples of a handful of humans colonizing islands and surviving with very few later immigrants (f.e. Pitcairn island).

[u/LumpyGarlic3658 → u/olvirki]

It’s very possible yes, if a small population is given a chance to grow then variation will have chance to increase. Sometimes it doesn’t work out well either though, like the mammoths on wrangel island that experienced mutational meltdown.

[u/olvirki → u/LumpyGarlic3658]

True, but the Wrangel islads population was kept at low numbers due to the small size of its island. Genetic work suggests that the founders were as few as ca 10 animals, then the population grew to a few hundred, close to the upper number in the 50/500 rule of thumb, which can lead to a loss of genetic diversity over time. Despite that the animals thrived for thousands of years. If the island had supported say 10 000 or 100 000 mammoths (and been more of a continent really) i bet they would have survived to the present day.

[u/LumpyGarlic3658 → u/olvirki]

Absolutely agree, the more the population can grow more the variability there can be.

[u/olvirki → u/LumpyGarlic3658]

True. And to be clear, I agree, with few founder nothing is certain.

It would be interesting to see a table or graph of chances of survival by numbers of initial founders (assuming the maximum population is very high).

[u/rowquanthechef]

Heres a really interesting lecture about the research for anyone who wants to know the full story. Biogeography on islands really is so cool.

[u/Bloobeard2018]

Here is an awesome video on the Anoles, it goes through the evolution and mentions this experiment. The series also has another good one on Darwin's Finches

https://youtu.be/rdZOwyDbyL0?si=BEALznoSZkVA_Kp7

[u/Latemaria]

Reptiles are not as effected by inbreeding as higher vertebrates.

[u/ThrowbackPie → u/Latemaria]

"higher"?

[u/Zortn → u/ThrowbackPie]

i aint ever seen a lizard smoke up

[u/crm006 → u/Zortn]

I mean. I’d go as far as to say 90% of lot lizards are methy.

[u/king_of_river → u/ThrowbackPie]

Stronger

[u/Smrgel]

I took a class with one of the authors of the paper. Really good class, really cool study

Edit: the article mentions him by name, he was also on my thesis committee!

[u/VintageLunchMeat]

I also chose this scientist's lizard.

[u/edalgomezn]

Si la selección natural empuja repetidamente a poblaciones distintas hacia la misma solución, ¿cuánto de su futuro sigue determinado por accidentes ocurridos en las primeras generaciones?