So Genghis Khan has 35 million male descendants. Not bad for a little guy with stupefying body odor.

It also gives an idea just how many conquered males the Mongols would slaughter, and how they took control of a land and its people by propagating their genes which meant propagating their power structure. Something similar happened in Mexico after the conquest–the Mexican national genome has markers from indigenous females and male Spaniards, with far more varied female markers present than male, meaning that Mexico was repopulated after its sixteenth century population crash (population reduced by up to 90% from its 1491 level) by a small population of Spanish males who kept themselves quite busy. Denying the conquered males the chance to propagate is something right out of the great ape playbook, and indeed goes back further, with so many mammals and birds and even fish following the same strategy. As for body odor, Genghis–and indeed the whole rank Mongol army who you smelled, they say, before you ever saw them–would have been potent androstadienone cocktails. Hubba hubba. It’s all about romance. Say it with slaughter.