Sykes published the first report on retrievingDNA from ancient bone (Nature, 1989). He was involved in a number of high-profile cases dealing with ancient DNA, including that ofÖtzi the Iceman. He also suggested a Florida accountant by the name of Tom Robinson was a direct descendant ofGenghis Khan, a claim that was subsequently disproved.[3][4][5][6]
Sykes is best known outside the community ofgeneticists for his two popular books on the investigation of human history and prehistory through studies ofmitochondrial DNA.
In 2001 (Banta Press Hardback) Sykes published a book for the popular audience,The Seven Daughters of Eve, in which he explained how the dynamics of maternal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) inheritance leave their mark on the human population in the form of genetic clans sharing common maternal descent. He notes that the majority of Europeans can be classified in seven such clans, known scientifically ashaplogroups, distinguishable by differences in their mtDNA that are unique to each group, with each clan descending from a separate prehistoric female-line ancestor. He referred to these seven 'clan mothers' as 'daughters of Eve', a reference to themitochondrial Eve to whom the mtDNA of all modern humans traces. Based on the geographical and ethnological distribution of the modern descendants of each clan he assigned provisional homelands for the seven clan mothers, and used the degree to which each clan diverges to approximate the time period when the clan mother would have lived. He then uses these deductions to give 'biographies' for each of the clan mothers, assigning them arbitrary names based on the scientific designation of their haplogroup (for example, using the name Xenia for the founder of haplogroup X).
In his 2006 bookBlood of the Isles (published in the United States and Canada asSaxons, Vikings and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland), Sykes examines British genetic "clans". He presents evidence from mitochondrial DNA, inherited by both sexes from their mothers, and theY chromosome, inherited by men from their fathers, and makes the following claims:
The genetic makeup ofBritain and Ireland is overwhelmingly what it has been since theNeolithic period and to a very considerable extent since theMesolithic period, especially in the female line, i.e. those people, who in time would become identified as British Celts (culturally speaking), but who (genetically speaking) should more properly be calledCro-Magnon.[citation needed] In continental Europe, this same Cro-Magnon genetic legacy gave rise to theBasques. "Basque" and "Celt" are cultural designations, not genetic ones.[citation needed]
The contribution of theCelts of Central Europe to the genetic makeup of Britain and Ireland was minimal; most of the genetic contribution to theBritish Isles of those we think of as Celtic, came from western continental Europe, i.e. theAtlantic seaboard.
ThePicts were not a separate people: the genetic makeup of the formerly Pictish areas ofScotland shows no significant differences from the general profile of the rest of Britain. The two "Pictland" regions are Tayside and Grampian.
TheAnglo-Saxons are supposed, by some, to have made a substantial contribution to the genetic makeup of England, but in Sykes's opinion it was under 20 percent of the total, even inSouthern England.
TheVikings (Danes and Norwegians) also made a substantial contribution, which is concentrated in central, northern and eastern England – the territories of the ancientDanelaw. There is a very heavy Viking contribution in theOrkney andShetland Islands, in the vicinity of 40 percent. Women as well as men contributed substantially in all these areas, showing that the Vikings engaged in large-scale settlement.
TheNorman contribution was extremely small, on the order of 2 percent.
There are only sparse traces of theRoman occupation, almost all in Southern England.
In spite of all these later contributions, the genetic makeup of the British Isles remains overwhelmingly what it was in theNeolithic: a mixture of the firstMesolithic inhabitants withNeolithic settlers who came by sea fromIberia and ultimately from the easternMediterranean.
There is a difference between the genetic histories of men and women in Britain and Ireland. Thematrilineages show a mixture of original Mesolithic inhabitants and later Neolithic arrivals fromIberia, whereas thepatrilineages are much more strongly correlated with Iberia.
There is evidence for a "Genghis Khan effect", whereby some male lineages in ancient times were much more successful than others in leaving large numbers of descendants; e.g.Niall of the Nine Hostages in 4th and 5th century Ireland andSomerled in 12th century Scotland.
Sykes used a similar approach to that used inThe Seven Daughters of Eve to identify the nine "clan mothers" of Japanese ancestry, "all different from the seven European equivalents."[7]
With the advent of whole-genome sequencing andanalysis of ancient DNA, many of Sykes' theories regarding the origins of the British have been largely invalidated. A 2018 study argues that over 90% of the DNA of the Neolithic population of Britain was overturned by a North EuropeanBell Beaker population, originating from the Pontic Steppes, as part of an ongoing migration process that brought large amounts of Steppe DNA (including the R1b haplogroup) to North and West Europe.[8] Modern autosomal genetic clustering is testament to this fact, as both modern and Iron Age British and Irish samples cluster genetically very closely with other North European populations, rather than Iberians, Galicians, Basques or those from the south of France.[9][10] Similar studies have concluded that the Anglo-Saxons, while not replacing the previous populations outright, may have contributed more to the gene pool in much of England than Sykes had claimed.[11][12][13]
Sykes and his team atOxford University carried outDNA analysis of presumedYeti samples and thinks the samples may have come from a hybrid species of bear produced from a mating between abrown bear and apolar bear. Sykes toldBBC News:
I think this bear, which nobody has seen alive, may still be there and may have quite a lot of polar bear in it. It may be some sort of hybrid and if its behaviour is different from normal bears, which is what eyewitnesses report, then I think that may well be the source of the mystery and the source of the legend.
He conducted another similar survey in 2014, this time examining samples attributed not just to yeti but also toBigfoot and other "anomalous primates." The study concluded that two of the 30 samples tested most closely resembled the genome of apalaeolithic polar bear, and that the other 28 were from living mammals.[16]
The samples were subsequently re-analysed by Ceiridwen Edwards and Ross Barnett. They concluded that the mutation that had led to the match with a polar bear was a damaged artefact, and suggested that the two hair samples were in fact fromHimalayan brown bears (U. arctos isabellinus). These bears are known in Nepal as Dzu-the (a Nepalese term meaning cattle-bear), and have been associated with the myth of the yeti.[17][18] Sykes and Melton acknowledged that theirGenBank search was in error but suggested that the hairs were instead a match to a modernpolar bear specimen "from the Diomede Islands in the Bering Sea reported in the same paper". They maintained that they did not see any sign of damage in their sequences and commented that they had "no reason to doubt the accuracy of these two sequences any more than the other 28 presented in the paper".[19] Multiple further analyses, including replication of the single analysis conducted by Sykes and his team, were carried out in a study conducted by Eliécer E. Gutiérrez, a researcher at theSmithsonian Institution and Ronald H. Pine, affiliated at theUniversity of Kansas. All of these analyses found that the relevant genetic variation in brown bears makes it impossible to assign, with certainty, the Himalayan samples to either that species or to the polar bear. Because brown bears occur in the Himalayas, Gutiérrez and Pine stated that there is no reason to believe that the samples in question came from anything other than ordinary Himalayan brown bears.[20]
Sykes married Sue Foden, whom he met as a student in Oxford. They were married from 1978 to 1984, but remained close, and their son Richard was born in 1991. Sykes was a keen croquet player, representing Ireland in the 1984 Home Internationals.[21] Sykes died in December 2020.[22]
^Lao O, Lu TT, Nothnagel M, et al. (August 2008), "Correlation between genetic and geographic structure in Europe",Curr. Biol.,18 (16):1241–8,doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.07.049,PMID18691889
^Ross P. Byrne, Rui Martiniano, Lara M. Cassidy, Matthew Carrigan, Garrett Hellenthal, Orla Hardiman, Daniel G. Bradley, Russell McLaughlin: "Insular Celtic population structure and genomic footprints of migration" (2018)
^Martiniano, R., Caffell, A., Holst, M. et al. Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons. Nat Commun 7, 10326 (2016).https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10326Archived 21 February 2022 at theWayback Machine
