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One in every 200 men alive today is a relative of Genghis Khan. An international team of geneticists has made the astonishing discovery that more than 16 million men in central Asia have the same male Y chromosome as the great Mongol leader.

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Curiously enough, though he didn't know it, he was also a direct male-line descendent 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 mighty ancestry were a pronounced stoutness about the tum and a predilection for little fur hats.

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"Good," said Wowbagger, and made a little tick on his clipboard. He looked up. "Genghis Khan," he said, "you are a wanker; you are a tosspot; you are a very tiny piece of turd. Thank you." With that, he retreated into his ship and flew off.

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'There are only two ways a single Y chromosome can make such a mark on a population,' Tyler-Smith said. 'The chromosome could in some way confer its owners with some biological advantage. But given that a Y chromosome is little more than a biochemical switch that turns an embryo into a male child, it is hard to see how it could have such an effect.

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Option #3: the explanatory theories on offer are inadequate. To discount this possibility, one would like some contrast class. Can you isolate another population with a similar homogeneity? Going the other way, can you pick a famous person from the same era whose Y chromosome could be identified, and then check a population to see how widespread it is? If this has been done, what is the contrast? I would be curious to know.

In any case, the story does seem remarkable, on the face of it.

Genghis and his hordes were one of the most destructive, awful forces in history, justly reviled from China to Europe. What the newspaper story does not mention is that while the beautiful women were "saved" for Genghis, men were put to the sword. In Genghis' wake, tens of millions died. The land became a waste of rotting corpses, disease, and famine. Truly a hideous individual with, it would seem, little to redeem him but his fertility.

I gather from the article that the scientific data only suggests that these 16 million men had a common ancestor; that it was probably Genghis is a historical inference.

[ 06 March 2003: Message edited by: rasmus_raven ]

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My ex believes I am the reincarnation of Gengis Khan

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the explanatory theories on offer are inadequate.

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