Question

In 1789 a small band of mutineers led by Fletcher Christian took over the British warship HMS Bounty. They fled first to Tahiti and then to tiny Pitcairn Island (which had no humans on it prior to this) in the South Pacific, along with a small population of native Tahitians. Some of the sailors married Polynesians there and raised families. All contemporary Pitcairn islanders can trace at least part of their family tree back to the colonization event. Describe all the evolutionary forces that were at work, and their impact, in this small, isolated population during and after the arrival of the mutineers and Polynesians?

Answer 1

Some of the evolutionary forces that were in play are are genetic drift, gene flow, founder effect, genetic variation, mutation. Among these, genetic drift, gene flow, founder effect works considerably among isolated populations. For example, founder effect causes loss of genetic variation which occurs when a new population is established by like the family of Polynesians by a very small number of individuals from a larger population like that of mutineers.