pedigree collapse en · NOUN
Etymology
Coined by Robert C. Gunderson.
Meanings
-
(qualifier:genealogy, uncountable) The phenomenon in which ancestral inbreeding causes the number of a descendant’s distinct ancestors to be smaller than that predicted by a binary tree (∑ᵢ₌₁ⁿ 2ⁱ, where n represents the number of generations).
Less well-known is the argument that we may all have a single mitochondrial foundress — not necessarily a single ancestress — owing to the likelihood of ‘lineage extinction’ and ‘pedigree collapse’ as a result of mating with cousins, small population sizes, and high mortality before reproductive age.
1989, Jonathan Benthall, “The ‘Annual Review’ 1988 Reviewed: He but There-to Come(s) No(t) / Which-Who Fear(s) Deep Water”, in Anthropology Today, V, № 5 (October 1989), page 16:
Relateds
Translations (3)
sv anförlust (phenomenon in genealogy) · fr implexe (phenomenon in genealogy) · de Ahnenschwund (phenomenon in genealogy)