Most modern European men are descendants of just three Bronze Age genera, according to geneticists at the University of Leicester. This became possible thanks to the leaders and warriors, and the population growth associated with their activities, which began about 4000 years ago and ended at the turn of the old and new era. Research materials are presented in the journal Nature Communications.
Scientists worked with DNA sequences on Y chromosomes (which are passed only from fathers to sons) of 334 men in Europe and the Middle East. The new genealogical tree of European Y chromosomes has shown that 64 percent of modern males are descendants of the three youngest "branches" of this tree.
“The explosive growth of patrilineal clans occurred in the Bronze Age - when funeral rites changed radically, horse riding and new types of weapons spread. Probably, the social selection, which was carried out by the leaders and warriors associated with these phenomena, is responsible for the modern set of Y-chromosomes,”said study leader Mark Jobling.
In addition, geneticists found that the male population of all of Europe (from the Balkans to the British Isles) grew sharply between the 2nd millennium BC and the first centuries of our era. Interestingly, mitochondrial DNA data (which is inherited from mothers to daughters) pointed to much more ancient population growth.
In January 2015, another group of geneticists discovered that more than 800 million Asians are descendants of just 11 men - including the founder of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan. Scientists have found unique nucleotide sequences in the Y chromosomes of modern Asians, and traced their origins back to several "founding fathers."