A lot of Google searches from people visiting rhesusnegative.net involve rh negative origin. It is interesting how much interest regarding our origin rh negatives have in common. Is it an rh negative personality trait to want to know? My guess is yes. If you do a simple Google search, you will probably find that rhesusnegative.net is the only science driven publication within the top results. Most of the other sites are about theories that may get attention, but have no proof attached. In this post, I am going to give my 2 cents to some of these theories, discuss what has been proven and will continue updating as new research comes my way. Here are some theories and my take on them:

1) "Rh negative blood comes from aliens, because we lack the monkey blood"

The term "Rh" was originally an abbreviation of "Rhesus factor." It was discovered in 1937 by Karl Landsteiner and Alexander S. Wiener, who, at the time, believed it to be a similar antigen found in rhesus monkey red blood cells. It was subsequently learned the human factor is not identical to the rhesus monkey factor, but by then, "Rhesus Group" and like terms were already in widespread, worldwide use. Thus, notwithstanding it is a misnomer, the term survives (e.g., rhesus blood group system and the obsolete terms rhesus factor, rhesus positive, and rhesus negative – all three of which actually refer specifically and only to the Rh D factor and are thus misleading when unmodified. Contemporary practice is to use "Rh" as a term of art instead of "Rhesus" (e.g., "Rh Group," "Rh factors," "Rh D," etc.).

As for the claim that we come from aliens: No comment.

2) "Rh negatives were the descendants of Atlantis"

Did Atlantis even exist? Plato was known for fabrications. Could it have been inspired by the story of Doggerland disappearing due to sea levels rising? We don't know, but there is nothing that indicates that we could have come from an island that no longer exists. Much more evidence points towards the Black Sea region where the Yamnaya are said to have had high percentages of rh negative blood, blue eyes originated and also red hair was quite frequent.

3) "Rh negatives come from the Neanderthals"

While there is no evidence, this is a possibility. However, the 2 specimens examined from the Altai region and the Denisovan cave were rh positive homozygotes (+/+). They could however have been mixed with Denisovans. No data on other Neanderthal specimens exists regarding their rh factor.

What do we know?

It is important for us to focus on what we know in order to go back in time and look at tribes frequent in rh negative blood.

1) The Yamnaya people

They are said to have been 40% rh negative. Around their region, blue eyes first came to be. Red hair was frequent among them. They had different phenotypes, though. They were the ancestors of today's Celts, history's Scythians, Aryans, Persians. Their offspring invaded the Proto-Basques 3,000-4,000 years ago "replacing" most of their y-DNA.


2) The Proto-Basques

What were their rh negative frequencies before the Proto-Celtic invasions? Where did they come from? How related to the Armenians were they? All questions relevant. We know, that mtDNA K (common in Ashkenazi Jews) and J were much more frequent before the invasions. It may pinpoint ancestry in the Fertile Crescent. Supposedly, their rh- frequencies were more than half.

HOW did rh negative blood come to be?

This part might be too boring for some to accept, but rh negative blood is the result of a simple gene deletion. The function of the D gene might be additional oxygen transport, so it would make sense for the mutation to first have taken place and survived somewhere by the sea (sea-level). The Black Sea is a possibility, but not the only one.

Continue here...

See also:

Who were the original Basques?

Rh Negative Origins: The Yamnaya People

Oxygen shortage and larger impact from toxic gases and acids