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The Y-chromosome is one that geneticists love to study. Because it is passed on from father to son with no matching chromosome to confuse the issue it’s possible to study lines of descent in a much more direct way than is usually possible. Mitochondrial DNA, another favorite for study, provides a similar line of descent for women. In both cases since the inheritance is direct and unadulterated, it makes certain kinds of studies much easier (or even possible). The headlines from a decade ago about locating “Eve”, the earliest common mother of humankind, stemmed from studies of mitochondrial DNA.
Recently geneticists studying the Y-chromosome in Asiatic populations came upon an interesting result. Approximately 8% of the male population in large portions of Mongolia and the surrounding areas has the same Y-chromosome, indicating a shared common ancestor. The number works out to approximately sixteen million direct male descendants all sharing one common ancestor – but who is he?
Random mutations, neutral in effect, happen at a fairly consistent rate over time and they can be used much like a clock. This allowed the researchers looking across this population to work out an approximate time frame. They concluded that the lineage of this Y-chromosome converged at around 1,000 years ago – near the time of the first millennium.
The time frame eliminated the first candidate, Genghis Khan, who was born in 1162 – or did it? The researchers thought that the originating man might be a male ancestor of the Khan’s, perhaps a great-grandfather.
Certainly the hypothesis is plausible. Genghis Khan regularly sealed the conquest of new lands by taking women from their ruling families into his family. Some he married, some he gave to his relatives— including his sons and brothers— as wives. His eldest son, Tushi, is reported to have had forty sons of his own, and his younger sons were no different. The habit continued on for many generations, with some of his descendants holding power up until the 20th century.
Plausible or not, proving the hypothesis is another matter altogether. The only definitive proof would be to find Genghis Khan’s long hidden grave, and to recover some DNA from the Khan himself for genetic matching. In the absence of the grave, less direct support must be found.
The best evidence for the hypothesis so far, comes from outside Mongolia. In all their studies, the geneticists found only one example of this particular genetic lineage outside of the boundaries of the ancient Mongol empire. The Hazaras of Pakistan have a long oral tradition that says they are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. They also share in the lineage so commonly found in Mongolia, with almost a quarter of the Hazaras males having the Y-chromosome being tracked.
Presuming that the genetic hypothesis is correct, just how successful was Genghis Khan at propagating his lineage? After all, the world population has increased dramatically in the last thousand years, so you would expect most of the people who lived a thousand years ago to have numerous descendants. Following a strict mathematical progression, if every person who lived in the times of the Mongolian Empire had been equally successful, you would expect each man to have twenty direct male descendants. Compared to the 16 million attributed to Genghis Khan, this would make him approximately 800,000 times more successful.
Another question that arises with this data is: are there any others? So far this study is the only one of its kind. Will future studies show other historic men who have been as dramatically successful in spreading their genes? Possibly, but not necessarily. In order to achieve this kind of spread, not only does the originator of the lineage need to have a lot of male progeny, but they must be widespread geographically, and they must continue the trend for a number of generations. In Europe, there is no tradition of harems to allow for the astounding numbers of children, while in Africa, the tribal organization of a thousand years ago would make the required geographical spreading difficult. The most likely area to find another widespread lineage would be among the early Muslims. There the tradition of multiple wives had been long established, and remains today in many Middle Eastern countries, while the many trade routes, and the expansion of empires would allow for the geographical spreading.
Regardless of the results, it is interesting to see such an enormous genetic footprint still visible, the invisible legacy of a man who may just be the most successful patriarch in history.
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I saw a thing about the search for the real ‘Adam’ on National Geographic a while ago…very interesting
I could not read this and pass up a perfectly good chance to quote from the second page of Chapter 1 of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (sorry for the incorrect use of italics; underline tags are not allowed in comments):
“Curiously enough, thought he didn’t know it, [Mr. L. Prosser] was also a direct male-line descendant of Genghis Khan, though intervening generations and racial mixing had so juggled his genes that he had no discernible Mongoloid characteristics, and the only vestiges left in Mr. L. Prosser of his might ancestry were a pronounced stoutness about the tum and predilection for little fur hats.”
There’s another piece to the puzzle.
Man that guy was horny!!!
bernietbb said: “I saw a thing about the search for the real ‘Adam’ on National Geographic a while ago…very interesting”
As a non-Christian, the statement ‘real ‘Adam” is probably my definition of an oxymoron.
Adam and eve are in many religions. Muslim to name one off the top of my head. Their names were Adem and Hava. I’m not sure what was written 1st, The Koran or The Bible. I’m assuming The Bible was. But it still holds true. Adam/Adem and Eve/Hava aren’t just for Christians
Ok I shouldn’t have said non-Christian, I should have said agnostic. I certainly don’t believe in the literal truth of religious texts and therefore not in Adam, Eve and the creation of the Universe in 7days. And so i still find the term ‘real Adam’ to be oxymoronic. But this isn’t damn-interesting is it?
Only, there’s a problem with this.
Even if this is close to the mark, which it may be, it wouldn’t be Genghis Khan who originated this copy of Y, but rather one of his ancestors. He may well have been responsible for the largest distribution of that copy, but he received his copy probably unadulterated from his father. (His brothers, to whom he gave many women, helped spread the SAME copy most likely.) In fact, it probably wasn’t even his grandfather, or great grandfather, but rather some totally unknown person from 5-10 generations prior who was the “most recent” y-mutant.
So much for “finding Adam.”
What a freaking man whore
cwm9 – yes, actually, the thought is that the originator of the line is probably two to four generations back, rather than Genghis Khan himself. It seem pretty indisputable though (provided the hypothesis is accurate), that Genghis Khan is the main cause of its tremendous success and distribution.
Because of the fairly constant rate of mutation within the quiescent portions of the Y-chromosome, the researchers seem pretty certain that the origination is not much farther back than that. So the 10 generations back is unlikely to be accurate.
Actually, there was recently a similar story from Ireland about a prolific warlord called Niall of the Nine Hostages (you just don’t get monikers like that anymore!). Not a prolific as Mr Khan, but still…
Story located at: http://shep.wordpress.com/2006/01/18/the-true-father-of-ireland/
How can someone have that mcuh sex? Well I suppose they didn’t have TV back then so perhaps…
Hugh Hefner, take that!
The man in question did not, in fact, have all that sex by himself. A very crude form of artificial insemination was widely used in that area of the world at that time. Through the use of animal sacrifice and black magic, one man could have easily inpregnated all those women almost simultaneously leaving little to no cause for alarm or argument about this article.
black magic.. no wonder I have 20 brothers and 12 sisters!!
Could there be an “Eve”? Mitochondrial DNA is from the maternal side. Does anyone know if its possible.
God of Biscuits said: “The man in question did not, in fact, have all that sex by himself. A very crude form of artificial insemination was widely used in that area of the world at that time. Through the use of animal sacrifice and black magic, one man could have easily inpregnated all those women almost simultaneously leaving little to no cause for alarm or argument about this article.”
did you actually find that somewhere? ….Where?
I saw on TV that once genghis khan had experimented with dangerous drugs, in an attempt in be immortal. Maybe that had some effect on him.
I once saw on TV that genghis khan had experimented with dangerous drugs in an attempt to be immortal.
Maybe that must have had some effect on him.
Do you ever wonder about how the “real” Adam and Eve managed to be related to everyone? I mean, if Eve was the great-great-however-many-greats grandmother ov everyone, what was every other woman in the world doing? They must’ve been really ugly or something…
Go looking for Adam long enough and you’ll stumble across a monkey.
Stuart said: “Ok I shouldn’t have said non-Christian, I should have said agnostic. I certainly don’t believe in the literal truth of religious texts and therefore not in Adam, Eve and the creation of the Universe in 7days. And so i still find the term ‘real Adam’ to be oxymoronic. But this isn’t damn-interesting is it?”
I’d like to point out that that (probably) wasn’t intended to mean literal days. Not only did the term ‘day’ in the Bible often mean a certain number of years, but surely you’re familiar with phrases such as ‘back in the day’. ‘Day’ doesn’t necesarrily always mean a 24-hour period.
I’d also like to point out that I am Christian and I think evolution is more of how it happened than it is why it happened.
RageIsTheNewBlack said: “I’d like to point out that that (probably) wasn’t intended to mean literal days. Not only did the term ‘day’ in the Bible often mean a certain number of years, but surely you’re familiar with phrases such as ‘back in the day’. ‘Day’ doesn’t necesarrily always mean a 24-hour period.”
No, “day” didn’t mean ” a certain number of years,” it meant “a single day.” “Back in the day” refers back to a particular time period, it is not saying that a day equals some number of years. However, if you actually read Genesis it repeatedly says, “And there was an evening, and there was a morning – the XXXX day.” That sounds like a regular day to me.
Even if we suppose that what you said is true, then a “day” equals about 2 billion years (~13.7 billion years divided by 7 days). One wonders how plants created on day 3 could have existed for 2 billion years before the sun was created on day 4 (see Genesis 1:11-19). The point is, no matter how you try to reinterpret it, it doesn’t fit the facts. I wouldn’t take Genesis as anything more than another ancient creation mythology.
RageIsTheNewBlack said: “I’d also like to point out that I am Christian and I think evolution is more of how it happened than it is why it happened.”
The how and the why of evolution are the same thing: natural selection. It’s the unavoidable consequence of heritability, variations in traits, and lots of time.
I think what was implied was that god creates the rules of the environment, not the resultant configurations using those rules. That is to say, god got the ball rolling. To me thats a much more sane approach to religion than saying god actively controls everything. If I had a god, it would’ve done things that way. However, I retract my statement if active control was also implied.
Jewish-Christians-Muslims. All share the same god and have the same (or very similar) stories. Adam and Eve (and for that matter Mary, Joseph, et al) are English versions of Hebrew names. Some other religons have a “mother-father” myth, although usually they are descriped as gods. Or you know, a giant cow that licked an icicle. What ever.
Anyhoo, cool article.
First things first, just to get it out of the way, don’t get so uptight about use of the names “Adam” and “Eve”. It’s just a cultural reference, one that obviously works because you all understood exactly what it was trying to mean, whether you’re personally religious or not.
Now on to the second cooler part, this article made me think of the genogrpahic project going on at National Geographic http://www.nationageographic.com/genographic
Basically they are studying the same Y-chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA to draw a map of human migratory history. One of the interesting things they found is that they can trace back the Mitochondrial DNA (from the mother) to 200,000 years, but they can only trace the Y chromosome back 60,000 years. Apparently this difference comes from a very severe bottleneck in our history where humans almost reached extinction.
Here’s also a TED video on Spencer Wells, the project manager, explaining the Genographic project.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/spencer_wells_is_building_a_family_tree_for_all_humanity.html
“Will future studies show other historic men who have been as dramatically successful in spreading their genes?”
Bill Clinton comes to mind.