Far fewer people alive today are related to Genghis Khan than is commonly believed, according to a new study that upends the popular myth that one in 200 modern men are descendants of the Mongol conqueror.
Khan unified Mongol tribes and conquered vast swathes of northern China and Central Asia, with his territories stretching from Korea in the east to the Caspian Sea in the west. His successors then expanded the empire to Persia, Russia, and parts of the Middle East and Europe.