Funny Pictures Thread. It begins again

Dave

Staff member
Can they even successfully clone or generate a viable breeding population from only two creatures? Last I knew it took at least 2000 individuals to prevent mutations from inbreeding.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Can they even successfully clone or generate a viable breeding population from only two creatures? Last I knew it took at least 2000 individuals to prevent mutations from inbreeding.
Presumably they're hoping that future knowledge of genetics will allow them to take those two base models and create a viable population.
 
Can they even successfully clone or generate a viable breeding population from only two creatures? Last I knew it took at least 2000 individuals to prevent mutations from inbreeding.
Given how many "colony" types of animals work, as well as other weird shit, I'd bet it heavily depends on the species. But I'm not a biologist, so... ?

That said, I think that the truth is somewhere between what @figmentPez and @AshburnerX suggest. Or maybe just keeping the species "alive" through cloning. That's also possible (presumably).
 
They're bringing the black-footed ferret population back from 14 individuals. Granted this is more than 2, but they (so far) aren't resorting to frog DNA.

I haven't heard of any major problems due to the small gene pool but who knows what the future will bring.
 
Can they even successfully clone or generate a viable breeding population from only two creatures? Last I knew it took at least 2000 individuals to prevent mutations from inbreeding.
The number of individuals is only one side of the equation. The other is the lifespan of the organism. It's the balance between the two that determines how a species evolves. Each successive generation just has to add sufficient individuals to the population that the species as a whole doesn't die out. I would assume that a species could theoretically be repopulated from a single pregnant female individual, so long as the child was male and all their future progeny survive long enough to bring the population up to a size where it can sustain itself. After that it's just a waiting game...thousands or even millions of generations might be required, but so long as the inbreeding does not create a situation serious enough that the individuals can't survive as a result, diversity should eventually return.
They're bringing the black-footed ferret population back from 14 individuals. Granted this is more than 2, but they (so far) aren't resorting to frog DNA.
I've read confident claims that, with careful selection of the starting pool and judicious breeding, the starting pool could be as low as 20 with no ill effects.

--Patrick
 

fade

Staff member
While I enjoyed it, I could definitely see it as one of those shows that are internet darlings, but then bomb with the physical release.
I remember back in the pre-YouTube days, Odd Todd's Laid Off was a great show. He got picked up for a pilot by Comedy Central. He was gone for a while, then make a new episode basically saying "things didn't work out at Comedy Central". Same kind of deal. It worked as a one-man show, but died when a whole crew came on board.

Huh. He's still around apparently. He kind of dropped off for a while after that.
 
I disagree about zip codes. It's a unique numerical identifier for an area to guard against street name conflicts. I think if anything you should be able to write the zip code and leave the city/state out of it.
 
I disagree about zip codes. It's a unique numerical identifier for an area to guard against street name conflicts. I think if anything you should be able to write the zip code and leave the city/state out of it.
Was also all ready to post about ZIP codes and then found you'd already done so.
These days, most shipping software autofills your city/state anyway as soon as you're done entering the ZIP code, even changing what you've already entered to what IT believes to be true.

That said, I think the "death" of ZIP codes is more about the move to electronic correspondence instead of physical.

--Patrick
 
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