News in Science - Ten men fathered Europe - 14/11/2000

News in Science - Ten men fathered Europe - 14/11/2000

Having read the news article but not the original publication, it is not entirely clear to me exactly what it is saying.

The study identified three types of 'distinct geography and culture'

1. Basques and Western Europeans
2. Middle Eastern
3. Eastern European populations from Croatia, Ukraine, Hungary and Poland."

Then it talks about lineages and markers and it is not entirely clear how they relate to the 3 distinct types of geography and culture above.

1. the oldest male lineage M173 is found in half the men in the study and dates to the Paleolithic - "M173 is an ancient Eurasiatic marker that was brought in, or arose in the group of Homo sapiens (modern humans) who entered Europe and diffused from east to west about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago, spreading the Aurignac culture."

2. M170 'dates to about 22,000 years ago and is associated with the Gravettian culture' - this Britarch affirmed (but not the article) was linked to Britain.

3. the third group (no marker given) - about 20 percent of the men - seem to date from more recent times, having come into Europe between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago. ' These men were probably the first Neolithic farmers who migrated from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East and, as might be expected, their genes are found most frequently along the Mediterranean. '

My question is - how do the 3 distinct geographic types link to the Markers? - are West Europeans mostly Marker M170 (2 above), are most mediterreans Marker 3 above? Are eastern Europeans M173 marker 1 above?

I note that the study also seems to contradict Cappelli et al who seemed to find a 'haplogroup' which made Basque and W and S British Isles distinct from the other haplogroups in Europe. This study says:

'Although Basques in Spain, Sardinians in Italy and Saami people in Finland have distinct cultures, their genes look like those of other Europeans'

Very interesting to compare to the archaeology.

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