What do you say that? I watched a discussion of this recently. I’d be interested in what your serious objections to it are.
“ I’d be interested in what your serious objections to it are.”
Well, to me the very idea is ridiculous. How could that possibly be known? Even if you took what we imagine today’s population to be and did a lot of fancy math to end up with such an accurate number from that long ago is difficult to accept. There was no census. There were no records of anything except various layers of sediment. 1200 breeding pairs in the whole world? That is a stretch. I guess to me it just sounds farcical. I am not a scientist, so this could be an elementary fact. I doubt it though.
I don’t have the time to watch the discussion...but here would be my objections...ahem...
Too many factors involved in population growth model. Assume a known amount and extent of unperturbed reproduction cycles. Assume length of generation in years. 15 years, 20 years, ?. Assume a uniformitarian model of earth history. Assume the extent of geological and/or meteorological effects on generation cycle time. Assume number of progeny per generation. Assume exact number of famine, diseases, predation, privation, war, murder events and their effects on population growth. Based on those consideration, I would guess the number of reproducing units was 1354...IMHO.