population bottleneck
The genome can be associated with a library, in that both store large volumes of information. So a population bottleneck is like a library fire in which a large percentage of the books are destroyed. If a fire destroys 90% of the books, only 10% remain to be copied, read and understood for future generations.
A well known example is the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. It is speculated that a huge amount of cultural knowledge was lost in its destruction.
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.