“So we extrapolated that to Asia as a whole. It’s a bit dodgy, but if you did that there’s more than a billion descendents. I would say hundreds of millions is probably right though. We can’t really be sure just by multiplying it by the population of Asia because there are some parts of the continent that we didn’t sample very well in our study. I would say hundreds of millions is a good ball-park figure.”
In the report, Professor Jobling explains how the chromosomes for some lineages may have become so prevalent: “The youngest lineages, originating in the last 1700 years, are found in pastoral nomadic populations, who were highly mobile horse-riders and could spread their Y chromosomes far and wide. For these lineages to become so common, their powerful founders needed to have many sons by many women, and to pass their status – as well as their Y chromosomes – on to them. The sons, in turn, could then have many sons, too. It’s a kind of trans-generation amplification effect.”
Although the team are not completely sure about who the dynastic leaders are, as they would have to test their remains to be sure, Genghis Khan is widely thought to be one.
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