However, the numerical success of the R1a1 in India and in Europe raises some
obvious questions:
1) In the populations north of Black Sea and Caspian Sea where Hg I and Hg N3 are at
high frequencies:
– What has prevented the carriers of ostensibly much older genetic markers from 26
blossoming and taking over the planet and leaving R1a1 chromosome in a minor
role?
– What prevented N3 from supplanting R1a1?
– What prevented Hg I from doing the same, or Hg P which is considered to be even
older than Hg I?
2) In the populations south of Black and Caspian Seas:
– Why have the Anatolian and Middle East agriculturists, with older haplogroups such
as Hg J and Hg E, lagged behind R1a1 populations in numbers, since they would
have had a head-start in time, agricultural food production and technology?
3) Was the agro-pastoral way of life the sole means to provide this advantage, or was
it a combination of some other form of the 'elite dominance' in culture, warfare,
technology or resistance to particular diseases that enabled the populations with the
high frequency of R1a1 chromosome to surpass in frequency all others in Eurasia?
How can the high frequency of ~10 % of Hg R1a1 in the world's male population be
accounted for, when the expected percentage is less than 1 %, since the lineage is just one
out of 153 and at the same time considered to be one of the youngest. S. Wells (2003 p.
84) has attempted to explain why certain genetic lineages are more numerous than others.
He offers a rather simplistic explanation, based on intelligence and the ruthlessness of the
founder and his progeny. The progenitor was more intelligent than other members of his
clan. He was also a better hunter, since he had better knowledge of the animal behavior
and devised better tools to hunt them. He became their leader; members of his clan ate
well, prospered and he was able to father many children. Then his children, when grown,
killed or chased away other males of the clan. Thus the lineage had a head-start and was
able to prosper. There are probably also other reasons.
There is anecdotal evidence that people of East Indian descent in Canada have a much
higher incidence of cardio-vascular diseases than other nationalities. These diseases affect
primarily individuals past their best reproductive years (Ogilvie 2008). Therefore, in light
of the high population numbers with the R1a1 genetic marker, it would be reasonable to
expect that people with this genetic marker may have had better resistance to other forms
of disease, during their reproductive years. Such an advantage could have provided them
with better survival rates with respect to other 152 lineages.
Also part of the answer will probably be found to be in the evidence that the age of
Hg R1a1 is considerably older than the estimates of Kharkov et al (2004) of 2,500-3800
years. Passarino et al (2001) presented two different dates for the age of R1a1 M17 lineage,
namely, 7,654 years and 13,031 years. However, they do mention that when an attempt was
made to estimate the age of mutations M173 and M17, the values obtained were compatible
with a Palaeolithic origin.
We estimate that mutation is in all probability much older; we estimate the age at more
than 100,000 years based on compounding calculations and the results agree with the
straight line estimates (Skulj 2007). In addition to the antiquity of this genetic marker, the
carriers of R1a1 must also have had a tremendous Darwinian advantages mentioned above, to surpass the other Y-chromosome genetic competitors in their reproductive fitness.
Furthermore, their data shows that the highest frequency of what could be the oldest
c-haplotype, namely c-Ht 17 of the M17 lineage, occurs in India, where it was observed
in 10.5% of the males or ~57.5 million men. In Eastern Europe, it occurs at 9.5% or in
~12 million males, in the Balkans at 3.8%, in Western Europe at 0.3% and Middle East
at 2.5%. Another haplotype, c-Ht 19 has been found almost exclusively in the Balkans,
Eastern Europe and India. Here again India represents 8%, Eastern Europe 4%, Balkans
0.5% and Western Europe 0.2% of the male population with this haplotype. The percentages
and absolute numbers suggest the direction of the gene flow. These statistics are also an
indication that the gene flow appears to be from India to Europe.