Science Blogs
I'll start you out with this lovely article about King Charles II of Spain and how he was insanely inbred. Some of you may remember a post I did almost exactly three years ago about the lineage of the King of Sweden and I was able to connect him to King George I six times. I think I might try a similar thing with King Charles II and see what I get.
Not Exactly Rocket Science
The earlier article let me to this second article which I found fascinating. The gist of the article is that a couple who are third cousins tend to have more children and more grandchildren than other more or less related couples. The mentioning of grandchildren is important as it means that their own children were healthy enough to have their own children, which is not always the case with more closely related couples. However, why more distantly related couples have fewer children and grandchildren is a bit of a mystery.
1 comment:
Following the connections on King Charles II's family tree was disturbing. And I'm wondering if the article about moderately related couples having more children is more sociological than biological.
Closely related couples are more likely to be from rural families, and have more children. And such couples may have more extended family willing to help with raising children.
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