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Re:1 in 200 of men alive today are direct descendants of Gen... by iwwr on Saturday August 06, 2011 @06:42AM (#2853580)
I wonder what the degree of relatedness (assuming inbreeding) these descendants actually have with Genghis Khan. We know that family trees break down into direct acyclic graphs over the longer term.

Note that the title assumes just patrilinear descent, so any man that may have had only daughters will not pass on the Y chromosome, though he will still have a non-patrilinear lineage (carried by both sons and daughters).

BTW, what are the main structural differences between strictly male and strictly female lineages?

Re:1 in 200 of men alive today are direct descendants of Gen... by Someone on Saturday August 06, 2011 @09:35AM (#2853796)
The obvious one is a difference in branching factor. Women can have ten children, and I would expect many more men than women die childless (not only because more than half of all newborns are male)
Re:1 in 200 of men alive today are direct descendants of Gen... by jodrellblank on Saturday August 06, 2011 @05:24PM (#2854940)
I remember reading a long article/blog entry once, and it claimed that we living humans are descended from 80% of all the women who ever lived but only 40% of all the men.

Haven't been able to find it again, though.

Re:1 in 200 of men alive today are direct descendants of Gen... by salemh on Sunday August 07, 2011 @12:14AM (#2855737)
Hrm, this may help you / someone else get closer. This also relates to the 2,000 - 5,000 year subject: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.62....

from Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=all+living+hum...