Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
Gene flow in the Pleistocene
1Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109.
Abstract:
Previous estimates by Weiss and Maruyama (1976) and Rouhani (1989) of the time that an advantageous gene would take to disperse throughout hominid populations in the Pleistocene were considered to support the multiregional and single origin theories of the origin of modern humans, respectively. With the addition of some long-range gene flow, current simulations indicate that this dispersal could occur in 4000 generations, or in about 80,000 years. However, with a mutation rate of 10(-7) to mutants with the same selective advantage, such mutants would occur in populations before the 1 original mutant could disperse over this large area. The importance of gene flow in maintaining the species seems to be overemphasized.
Related Concept Videos
Speciation Rates
Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift
Genetics of Speciation
Genetic Drift
Gene Flow
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...

