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Geneticists from the University of Leicester have discovered that millions of modern Asian men are descended from 11 powerful dynastic leaders who lived up to 4,000 years ago - including Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan.
The study, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust and published in the journal European Journal of Human Genetics, examined the male-specific Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son, in more than 5,000 Asian men belonging to 127 populations.
Most Y-chromosome types are very rare, but the team discovered 11 types that were relatively common across the sample and studied their distributions and histories.
Two common male lineages have been discovered before, and have been ascribed to one well-known historical figure, Genghis Khan, and another less-known one, Giocangga. The Leicester team found genetic links via a chain of male ancestors to both Genghis Khan and Giocangga, in addition to nine other dynastic leaders who originated from throughout Asia and date back to between 2100 BC and 700 AD.
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-millions-modern-men-descendants-asian.html
[Abstract]: http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ejhg2014285a.html
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fritsd on Thursday March 12 2015, @12:15AM
6000 years is the time frame in Sid Meyer's Civilization series so that's a subtle geek reference.
If we did start with two people back 6000 or 4000 years, how long would it have taken to get to 7 billion?
If you know about exponentials then the answer won't surprise you.
Well, 7 billion is 2 * 4294967296, give or take a bit, so log(7 billion) / log(2) is about 33: (1 + 32)/1.
33 doublings.
If we assume for simplicity that each generation only reproduces amongst themselves in a short timespan, and each pair of parents (*) has 2 boys and 2 girls who like each other a bit too much, and in-breeding has no negative effects, then 33 doublings == 33 generations.
33 generations is not even a millennium. If people would marry at age 25 then you could fit 40 generations in a millennium, 33 in 825 years.
I remember being taught in school that there were 4 billion people on our world. Now it's 7. When my grandmother was born, it was about 1.7 billion, looking at the graph (it must have slowed down because of the Spanish Flu, WW I and WW II).
(*) obviously this calculation model doesn't take into account polygamy or Genghis Khan
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2015, @02:38AM
If people would marry at age 25
What does marriage have to do with reproduction? It's just a title.