Most European men descend from a handful of Bronze Age forefathers

Science Daily ^ | 05/27/2015 | University of Leicester

[SeekAndFind]

Geneticists from the University of Leicester have discovered that most European men descend from just a handful of Bronze Age forefathers, due to a 'population explosion' several thousand years ago.

The project, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, was led by Professor Mark Jobling from the University of Leicester's Department of Genetics and the study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

The research team determined the DNA sequences of a large part of the Y chromosome, passed exclusively from fathers to sons, in 334 men from 17 European and Middle Eastern populations.

This research used new methods for analysing DNA variation that provides a less biased picture of diversity, and also a better estimate of the timing of population events.

This allowed the construction of a genealogical tree of European Y chromosomes that could be used to calculate the ages of branches. Three very young branches, whose shapes indicate recent expansions, account for the Y chromosomes of 64% of the men studied.

Professor Jobling said: "The population expansion falls within the Bronze Age, which involved changes in burial practices, the spread of horse-riding and developments in weaponry. Dominant males linked with these cultures could be responsible for the Y chromosome patterns we see today."

In addition, past population sizes were estimated, and showed that a continuous swathe of populations from the Balkans to the British Isles underwent an explosion in male population size between 2000 and 4000 years ago.

This contrasts with previous results for the Y chromosome, and also with the picture presented by maternally-inherited mitochondrial DNA, which suggests much more ancient population growth.

[Billthedrill]

Yeh - it’s getting so I don’t even like to look in the mirror in the mornings anymore...

[Pollster1]

According to the Bible, King Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.

According to Persian records, King Fat’h Ali Shah Qajar (lived from 1772 to 1834) had 158 wives, all named in the book, Tarikh-e Azodi, and fathered 260 children by those wives.

Warren Steed Jeffs (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) married roughly 80 women and had about 250 children before his 2007 arrest.

While Genghis Khan did not marry all of his women, he is believed to have fathered 1,000 to 2,000 children.

And, of course, Wilt Chamberlain claims to have slept with 10,000 women.

It doesn’t take many people like them to squeeze out other male lines.

[Towed_Jumper]

“Bottom line, is that dominant males were able to spread their genes....”

I just came back from England last week and I can assure you that Euro-wussy males were everywhere I went. Their Bronze Age Forefathers are turning in their pagan graves at what their progeny has become. The majority of men there seem to be fixated on their fashion, their hairstyles and their handbags. Except for most of the working class guys, the majority of these metro-males looked like a bunch of pussies. I was shaking my head the whole time...pathetic.

[Crystal Palace East]

There is another far more interesting concept at play here.

In Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code,” the author build a book around finding a person who was in the blood lineage of Jesus. Finally, one woman was found.

In reality, if you make an assumption, as the movie and book did, that Mary had another child or that Jesus had a child, there is a greater than 50% likelihood that some small genetic remnant of Jesus runs through each of us.

This is determined by multiplying the average number of children, the average number of mothers and the multiplicative effect of approximately 102 generations.

The chances would be less for Asians, and American/South American Indians, Canadian First Nation peoples, Icelanders, etc. and more Middle Easterners of all sects, but would average out to better than 50%.

Hmmmmm

[Verginius Rufus]

334 men doesn’t seem like a large number to draw conclusions about hundreds of millions of people. Would they have found any more lineages if they had a sample 10 times as large?

[Verginius Rufus]

334 men doesn’t seem like a large number to draw conclusions about hundreds of millions of people. Would they have found any more lineages if they had a sample 10 times as large?

[Vigilanteman]

Hate to bust your bubble, but most of them were.

William I and Henry VII both claimed their thrones in battle. The Royal Family of Monaco traces their lineage back to a couple of thugs who climbed the hill to the Monastery, killed the Monks and transformed it into their castle.

Charlemagne, at least, earned his throne at the Battle of Pointers.

[RossA]

Learn some math. Charlemagne lived 1200 years ago. That’s roughly 40 generations. So you had 2**40 (about 1 trillion) ancesors...far more than the population of the world today. So each of us is a descendant of Charlemagne many, many times. Similarly most English speakers are descendants of Henry VIII...but none of the first Queen Elizabeth.

[EternalVigilance]

I have at least one direct line back to Charlemagne. But more noteworthy, at least in my book, is that if you're descended from Charlemagne, you're descended from his grandfather, who kept the Muslims out of Western Europe. His name, of course, was Charles Martel, aka The Hammer.

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

I’m not sure Henry VIII has any living descendants.

His three children, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, all died childless.

Henry VIII did have one known bastard son, but he also died childless at the age of 17.

The English monarchs who reign today are all descended from Henry VII and Henry VIII’s sister.

[PUGACHEV]

I read an interesting theory once about the emergence of modern man. Based on a number of genetic studies, it appears that humans went through a genetic bottle neck sometime between 100K-50K years ago. At that point there were perhaps less than a thousand humans alive, and no one knows exactly what brought this about. The article I read suggested that our ancestors were preyed upon nearly to extinction by Neanderthals and other hominids. Then, somehow a series of genetic mutations gave us the ability and social skills to organize in larger groups of fifty or more and develop proto-armies larger than the bands of our competitors, while at the same time heightening our aggressive tendencies. This turned the tables on the Neanderthals and we hunted them to extinction..

[Vigilanteman]

The greatest share of that one trillion is duplicated. England was home to a mere 2.8 million people at the reign of Henry VIII. Do the math just back that far, 500 years or so, and your potential ancestors are many times the population of England . . . or even England and several neighboring countries.

For most of earth's history, our TOTAL population has ranged within 15% or so of a half billion people. It was only the invention of capitalism and the industrial revolution which led to the planet's capability of supporting many times that number.

[Buckeye McFrog]

“See, infidelity is really GOOD and NECESSARY for the human race PING...” /s

[sparklite2]

“If the human race is to survive,
we have to start making babies.”
-—President Laura Roslin

This has all happened before.
It will all happen again.

[WayneS]

In addition, past population sizes were estimated, and showed that a continuous swathe of populations from the Balkans to the British Isles underwent an explosion in male population size between 2000 and 4000 years ago.

So then, this is all based on some guy's GUESS as to what the populations of parts of Europe were over a 2,000 year span, more than 2,000 years ago.

[Nachoman]

I’m guessing “low T” wasn’t an issue in the Bronze Age.

[WayneS]

At that point there were perhaps less than a thousand humans alive, and no one knows exactly what brought this about. The article I read suggested that our ancestors were preyed upon nearly to extinction by Neanderthals and other hominids.

The Neanderthal EPA put humans on the Endangered Species list. Through centuries of habitat restoration & conservation, captive breeding programs, and managed hunting, we were saved from extinction.

We showed our gratitude by wiping out the Neaderthals, down to the last man, woman and child.

So, does anyone STILL want to save the Snail-Darter?

[Tijeras_Slim]

"This is the town my Pappy tol' me about."

[silverleaf]

a handful of wild and crazy guys, looking for some foxes?

[Crystal Palace East]

Beats Obama’s guess of what it means to be an American.