Kevin Thomas Riley wrote:I just find it really hard to think that such a prominent genetic difference as the forehead ridges could develop in such a short time, especially considering the longevity of Vulcans/Romulans.
It is possible. All it takes is one mutation in one person. And if that proto-Romulan passes that gene onto 2 kids, who each pass it on to 2 children, well, you get the "doubling penny" situation. In thirty generations that did
not interbreed and had two kids each, you'd have 536,870,912 - or a over half-a-million - bumpy-headed Romulans. In another generation, 1,073,741,824 Romulans - over 1 million - would have the gene. In a 32nd, over 2 million bumpy Romulans. In 35 generations, 17,179,869,184 Romulans - over 17 million - would have the trait. And, as previously estabilished, it would be about 30 to 70 generations between the Vulcan/Romulan split and the events of ENT. It
could be possible, provided the gene was potent enough - and that's just assuming each bumpy-headed Romulan had only two kids. Given the.... oh, I forget how someone put it exactly on the original thread, but given the rather... non-Vulcan appitites of Romulans, I think expecting only 2 kids from each Romulan is a little impossible; make each bumpyheaded Romulan have 3 kids and you get 6.86 billion bumpyheads in 30 generations...
Now, none of this includes the inevitable interbreeding, but subtract out say, 10% for that and you still get 480 million bumpyheads in 30 generations with the 2 kids each scenario and 6.1 billion bumpyheads in 30 with the 3 each.
So, again, it is possible. Assuming that the first wave of Romulans to leave Vulcan contained only 5,000, 1 of whom was a bumpyhead... with 0% population growth, it would only take 13.5 generations for the bumpyhead gene to spread (at the rate of 2 children each). Plenty of time. Even if the population had a 10% growth rate, in 16 generations, the population would be 22,975, and all of whom would be bumpyheads (and probably unviably interbred)... Do the same assuming that the first wave of proto-Romulans had 10,000, it would take only 14.5 generations with 0% population growth and 17 generations at 10% population growth with a poupulation of 45,950 bumpyheads at the time.... Do the same for 20,000 and it's 16 generations and 18 generations (with a population of 101,090 bumpyheads) respectively... and you get the picture.
whoo.
And
that is how bumpyheads
can happen, to the best of my memory of my genetics and biodiversity classes... which were 4, 5 years ago, mind, but still. Not bad after the day I've had.