I think eventually this will feed back into modifying our understanding of population genetic theory and how sensitive it is to real-life events. |
The really curious thing is how the species managed to persist for around 3,000 years with almost no genetic variation. Genetic variation is the toolkit for dealing with whatever the environment has to throw at you. If you have only a couple of tools, you don't have a lot of resilience for dealing with an unexpected event. |
This advance in the analysis is fundamentally different from anything anyone has done with ancient DNA. What we're trying to do is basically make a moving picture of their history instead of just a snapshot. |