In the video above from The Infographics Show, they try to explore the scenario in which the entire human race gets wiped out and only two people survive, one male and one female who are unrelated to each other. The question is whether they will be able to repopulate the earth. And the answer has several layers to it, using a hypothetical couple named Aiden and Ellie to sort out the intricacies of the scenario.
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The primary consideration was the effects of inbreeding in future generations. There have been a lot of cases documented in which children born from first-degree parents had short lifespans, birth defects, or other anomalies that hampered their physical, emotional, and mental development. However, there were cases in which they lived long and had no glaring issues. But one can argue that that must have been a matter of luck in which they were simply the statistical outlier. Still, if the Aiden-Ellie couple had many children and those children had just as many children as well, there was a greater probability that some of their grandchildren would come out okay.
There have been previous studies however, which examined the minimum number of people to repopulate the earth after an apocalypse scenario. The video above actually states 98 unrelated individuals is the minimum number. In any case, the answer to the question is a hesitant yes but with many caveats. Hopefully, we won’t have to face such a situation.
(Video credit: The Infographics Show/Youtube)
Source: neatorama