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Why an Allele Fixed Before Our Species Cannot Explain Variation Today

This is the payload of the archaic-sharing thread and the most likely place for a reader to overclaim. Shared-and-fixed licenses a claim about the gene's age and importance; it licenses nothing about why two living people sound different, because there is no variation left at the site.

Questions this Concept answers

Why can a fixed allele not explain why two living people's voices differ?

jeremy Text

Fixed allele

A fixed allele is one whose frequency has reached 1: it is the only variant of that gene left in the population, so every member is homozygous for it and, where genotype maps to phenotype, every memb…