Men who carry the CT clade have Y chromosomes with the SNP mutation M168, along with P9.1 and M294.

These mutations are present in all modern human male lineages except A and B-M60, which are both found almost exclusively in Africa.

The most recent common male line ancestor (TMRCA) of all CT men today probably predated the recent African origin of modern humans, a migration in which some of his descendants participated.

This means that all males carrying this haplogroup are also defined as being in one of the several major branch clades.

All known surviving descendant lineages of CT are in one of two major subclades, CF and DE.