chng.it/CBGQKBrC22

Thanks

Good news indeed

🤣 Yeah, evolution’s been a thing for awhile, lol. Always impressed with physicists, too brainy for me. Great to chat!

I just posted some papers if you’re interested in the science. 🧪

And here’s a 2022 Science article: The critically endangered vaquita is not doomed to extinction by inbreeding depression www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

You’re right. If you’re curious, I posted a recent paper to this thread that shows vaquita to have the second lowest genome-wide heterozygosity of ~50 mammal species analyzed. And I’ll add Science article from 2022 (to follow)…

Helpful article: Reference genome and demographic history of the most endangered marine mammal, the vaquita pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33089966/

Me too. Thanks. 🙏

The population estimate is down to 10 individuals, which is agonizingly low, but… that number has remained stable for a few years, suggesting those last few are avoiding gillnets better than their ancestors.

Some of the encouraging news I will be sharing: recent studies show the population, having always lived in isolation, purged lethal alleles over thousands of years, so genetic decline isn’t a worry. Nice to hear, yes?