Genghis Khan Probably Didn't Procreate as Much as Thought

That oft-cited claim that one in every 200 humans alive today descends from Genghis Khan just took a hit. A new DNA study of remains from Kazakh mausoleums tied to the Mongol Empire suggests the genetic footprint of the 13th-century conqueror's male line is much smaller than earlier research implied. Because the remains of Genghis Khan have never been found, researchers analyzed male skeletons from three medieval mausoleums in Kazakhstan's Ulytau region, formerly known as the Golden Horde, which was ruled by Genghis' eldest son, Jochi, and later his descendants, per Live Science.

They didn't find Jochi himself, but they uncovered the remains of three men—one each from the 13th, 14th, and 18th centuries, per the Jerusalem Post—who were paternally related on a rare branch within a larger C3* lineage. The 2003 study that underpinned the estimate that 0.5% of the world's men are descendants of Genghis Khan had proposed C3* as the "Genghis Khan haplotype," but since then, C3* has been revealed as a very large and complex family tree. The new work, published in PNAS, shows the Golden Horde haplotype is extremely rare in modern populations. That means far fewer modern men likely descend from Genghis Khan than estimated two decades ago, though researchers say finding a direct descendant of Khan, or Khan himself, could settle the question once and for all.