Researchers developed a new method called FitCoal (fast infinitesimal time coalescent process), which cleverly sidesteps many of the problems faced by traditional methods. FitCoal doesn’t require old DNA or extensive historical information.
Instead, it uses the DNA of people alive today, specifically looking at genetic variations known as alleles.
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Yi-Hsuan Pan, a genomic researcher from East China Normal University, emphasized the significance of this method, stating, “The novel finding opens a new field in human evolution because it evokes many questions, such as the places where these individuals lived, how they overcame catastrophic climate changes, and whether natural selection during the bottleneck accelerated the evolution of the human brain.”
