  The Wright-Fisher model is the most popular population model for describing
the behaviour of evolutionary systems with a finite population size.
Approximations to the model have commonly been used for the analysis of
time-resolved genome sequence data, but the model itself has rarely been tested
against genomic data. Here, we evaluate the extent to which it can be inferred
as the correct model given experimental data. Given genome-wide data from an
evolutionary experiment, we validate the Wright-Fisher model as the better
model for variance in a finite population in contrast to a Gaussian model of
allele frequency propagation. However, we note a range of circumstances under
which the Wright-Fisher model cannot be correctly identified. We discuss the
potential for more rapid approximations to the Wright-Fisher model.
