Remarkable genetic similarity of native European peoples

[Peterski]

People seem to think there's one distinctly European race running From Norway to Sicily

Genetic distances between populations (most of native Europeans are very similar; except maybe Lapps / the Sami people):

http://jaymans.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/global-genetic-distances-map.jpg

http://s30.postimg.org/4td3tv5v5/Euro_cluster.png

Close up look (most are very close to each other, only Lapps / Sami, Komi, Mari, Sardinians and Adygei are more different):

http://s24.postimg.org/juaxw68ed/European_race.png

http://s28.postimg.org/6v2w23slp/European_race2.png

[Tooting Carmen]

I see Greeks, South Italians and Maltese are missing. It'd be interesting to see where they plot.

[Black Wolf]

This should probably be moved to the genetics section.

[aimar]

There's also a portuguese city called Beja, like that one in northeast Sudan

[Peterski]

Yes, sorry, and please move it to the genetics section (this is a request to moderators).

[Hevo]

@Litvin, i moved the thread.

[Peterski]

Thank you!

[Xanthias]

why are the Sardinians set aside ?

[Tooting Carmen]

why are the Sardinians set aside ?

Too much Med and too little of either Northern Euro or West Asian compared to most other Europeans.

[Peterski]

I see Greeks, South Italians and Maltese are missing. It'd be interesting to see where they plot.

Yes, they should have included nations from the Balkans, Italians, Greeks, Portuguese, Lithuanians or Latvians and maybe Ukrainians?


why are the Sardinians set aside?

I think Sardinia had a "founder effect" (the island was colonized by a rather small group of people in prehistoric times - maybe those were just a few clans of prehistoric Non-Indo-European population -, who then increased in numbers without absorbing many of new groups of people).

This is why Sardinian population is quite specific genetically:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardinian_people#Genetic_peculiarities_of_the_popu lation


Sardinians are one of the most genetically isolated peoples in Europe, though they are the single population that encloses all the genetic characteristics of the Europeans, such as the highest variability of the Y chromosome found among all of them.[34][35][36][37]

According to some studies, along with the Basques they represent an example of a pre-Indo-European population surviving in Europe from the Paleolithic period.[38][39] The lineage of most Sardinians today goes back approximately 20,000 years, to the island's original settler population.[40][41]

While Sardinians do not constitute a homogeneous population from a genetic point of view (studies have found micro-differentiation in the population genetic structure in different sub-regions of the island[42]), in comparison to other European and Mediterranean populations (Italians included), are distinguished by own genetic characteristics.[43]

[askra]

why are the Sardinians set aside ?

Because we are genetically isolated, like the lapps and the basques.

[Peterski]

And probably you also had a "founder effect" (a very small founder population, which rapidly increased in numbers).

Imagine you take five English families from Cornwall and settle them on an uninhabited island:

1) You have no idea if these 5 families are genetically representative for English people as a whole (but most likely not).

2) In the end entire population of the island will be descendants of these five families, if no other groups settle there.


Because we are genetically isolated, like the lapps and the basques.

The Lapps are not genetically isolated. They are "recent" (shortly Before Christ, IIRC) immigrants from North-Eastern Siberia.

They differ from other Europeans because they used to be partially Mongoloid. But now they are mixed, so they look more Caucasoid.

[Peterski]

Kalash people seem to be quite close to Lapps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalash_people

https://www.google.pl/search?q=Kalash+people&client=firefox-a&hs=L7C&rls=org.mozilla:pl:official&channel=sb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nFgwVKLyN5PuaNDQgdgI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1525&bih=691&dpr=0.9

[Insuperable]

Kalash people seem to be quite close to Lapps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalash_people

https://www.google.pl/search?q=Kalash+people&client=firefox-a&hs=L7C&rls=org.mozilla:pl:official&channel=sb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nFgwVKLyN5PuaNDQgdgI&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1525&bih=691&dpr=0.9

How come they seem to be pulled towards Amerindians? Something to do with ANE? If one dimension contains much of variations compared to others it could be a different story, but still...

[Black Wolf]

How come they seem to be pulled towards Amerindians? Something to do with ANE? If one dimension contains much of variations compared to others it could be a different story, but still...

Probably because of higher levels of ANE.

[Gaston]

That is a very old and outdated plot, although there are interesting things on it. And Adygei people aren't European by the way.


But yes, most Europeans are very much alike.