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Europe's 'Founding Fathers'

Posted by Hemos on from the meaningless-studies dept.

Alphamike writes "This story was spotted on BBC SCI/TECH. Studies of the Y chromosome in more than 1000 men from Europe and the Middle East have enabled scientists (writing in Science) to trace the lineage of 95% of European men to 10 common ancestors (!). The story also talks about how the data was used to date early migrations from Asia and the Middle East. "

7 comments

  1. See? by MrScience · · Score: 1

    The Bible is true! So there!

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    1. Re:See? by sporktoast · · Score: 1

      The Bible is true! So there!

      In more ways that we are just beginning to know about.

      Y-Chromosome research is proving to be much more illuminating than mitochondrial DNA that threw science for a loop in the late 80's, suggesting that we all have a single female ancestor from Africa 200,000 years ago.

      Cohen or Kohen as a Jewish surname comes from "priest", as the priesthood from Moses was inherited father-to-son. Research has shown that Cohens typically have Y-chromosome markers that just don't show up in members of the Jewish population at large.

      But here's the kicker. The Lemba in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa have long maintained that they were descended from Northern ancestors, priests and tradeworkers, who sailed South through the Indian Ocean. Most of the world had not believed them, but DNA tests of their Y-chromosomes show them to contain the same markers as Cohens!


      On the opposite site of the globe...
      I wonder what researchers are currently making out of deCODE's Book of Icelanders. I understand that access is free for locals. Being an island without much immigration, they must have a small, but very interesting gene pool.

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    2. Re:See? by sporktoast · · Score: 1

      Ahem.

      I did a bit of a botch job of re-editing my words.

      I meant that the priesthood was decended from Moses' brother Aaron, and that the Y-chromosome markers just don't show up as freqently in the general Jewish population, and that it is very rare in non-Jewish populations.

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  2. Re:what about the huns? what about the '0' group? by SigVn · · Score: 1

    There is an answer to that but it would take longer then I care to type to explain it.

    (Also Bio is not my gig so I am going to get SOME of it wrong.)

    I strongly suggest you go to the libary and hunt up some books on genetics & human evolution.

    It is an interesting subject...esp when you get to the concpt of race.

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  3. So... by Siqnal+11 · · Score: 1
    The Europeans really are inbred.

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    You are a fucking moron.
  4. what about the huns? what about the '0' group? by DiviN · · Score: 1

    so they can trace everyone to two main groups if migrants - if that holds true, whatever happened to the kids of the huns [as an example].
    the huns pestered the roman empire for a long time and settled in - you guessed it 'hun-garia' or 'hun-gary'.
    when they were not busy fighting the romans, they fought FOR them as mercenaries. that would have taken huns to spain, france, britain, germany, libya, syria...etc.
    and the certainly were not among the best behaved boyz around, but enjoyed procreative sports and pillaging as favourite pasttimes. and none of them managed to imprint on the gene pool ???
    certainly the huns did not come from the near east originally, which preempts the suggestion that they might belong to the farming migrant group.
    science suggests that the huns originate from north-western mongolia. which would put them into the A and B-heavy blood groups.

    at the same token, only a minority of the population has blood group '0', which can be found in higher concentrations in Northern Europe - and the lower Middle East, but is negligable in between. So where exactly are these guys from? Egyptian traders that where having harbour parties in Scandinavia some 10,000 years ago?

  5. Whole lotta women though... by Brazilian+Geek · · Score: 2

    If they managed to count 10 different men and the Europeans manage to look so different from each other doesn't that mean that there must of been a whole lot of willing ladies around at that time? Luck dogs... :)

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