Saturday, September 14, 2013

Y Chromosome Distribution Map

Click on this image for a quick sketch of the distribution of Y chromosome types around the world. Note the distribution of R1a, which may be the signature of the Indo-Europeans. I got this from Dienekes' anthropology blog; he says:
I don't know if this type of visual representation is even possible: there are peoples like native Americans, or Bantu farmers where a single haplogroup dominates decisively, but most human groups show a mix of a variety of lineages at different frequencies. The wide distribution of haplogroup G for example -which occurs throughout west Eurasia, but is only dominant in the Caucasus and some populations of the Near East- could not be guessed from this map. The labeling of R1 as "NE Amerindian" is peculiar, given the likely introduction of this lineage with European colonists. In any case, this pushes to the limit what is possible for map-making at this scale, and underscores the complexities of the present-day distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroups.

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