Descent from Genghis Khan
DNA evidence
Zerjal et al. (2003) identified a Y-chromosomal lineage present in about 8% of the men in a region of Asia "stretching from northeast China to Uzbekistan" (about 0.5% of the world total), which would be around 16 million men at the time of publication, "if [Zerjal et al's] sample is representative." The authors propose that the lineage was likely carried by male-line descendants of Genghis Khan, because of its presence in certain ethnic groups rumored to be their descendants. One study published in the Russian Journal of Genetics found that 24% of Mongolians carry this haplogroup, and that it occurs in low frequencies in neighboring Turkic states (with the exception of Kazakhstan).
Descent from Genghis Khan-22