How come Central Europeans look somewhat closer to Northern than Southern Europeans?

[Tooting Carmen]

I meant if u consider them the archetype souther Europeans since you said Serbs are more c Euro leaning, but IMO they are also s. Euros. S. Euros are diverse.

Oh OK I get you now. Serbs and other South Slavs are also Southern Europeans, but they are considerably less Med/West Asian than are Albanians, Greeks and Sicilians, as well as being less Med/NW African than Iberians. Similarly, Brits and Germans have considerably more Med admixture than do Scandinavians. My point is that, if you took the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Europe, then Central Europeans such as Austrians would generally be closer to the former than the latter in both genes and phenotypes.

[Seya]

i think they do look half way...

[brennus dux gallorum]

Following on my from other thread where I asked why a lot more Southern Europeans (superficially at least) look Nordic/Scandinavian than the other way round, I now want to ask this. How come Central Europeans such as the Swiss, Austrians, Czechs, Slovaks and possibly even the French and Hungarians look considerably more similar to Danes and Swedes than to the Portuguese and Greeks, despite being geographically half way between both?

At least Swiss do not look closer to Scandinavians than south Europeans, they are intermediate

The people who should look less pigmented but look very much southern are French

[Desperado]

they don't?

[Tooting Carmen]

At least Swiss do not look closer to Scandinavians than south Europeans

Swiss are maybe a little less blonde than Austrians, but not hugely different, and Austrians certainly look closer to Scandinavians than Southern Europeans (except possibly Northern Italians and some ex-Yugoslav groups).

[Hadouken]

central europe



it depends who you mean exactly and to which south europeans you compare them

[brennus dux gallorum]

Swiss are maybe a little less blonde than Austrians, but not hugely different, and Austrians certainly look closer to Scandinavians than Southern Europeans (except possibly Northern Italians and some ex-Yugoslav groups).

My impression is that it has to do with climate, and partially with "italo-celts vs baltoslavs+germanics"

BTW I personally perceive yugoslavian groups as eastern Europe, not south

[Tooting Carmen]

At least Swiss do not look closer to Scandinavians than south Europeans, they are intermediate

The people who should look less pigmented but look very much southern are French

Modern-day French people have a lot of ancestry from Iberia and Italy in particular, but if you look at ethnic French people with little or no foreign ancestry, most don't look especially pigmented or Med at all (at least North of the Auvergne, at any rate).

[RN97]

Oh OK I get you now. Serbs and other South Slavs are also Southern Europeans, but they are considerably less Med/West Asian than are Albanians, Greeks and Sicilians, as well as being less Med/NW African than Iberians. Similarly, Brits and Germans have considerably more Med admixture than do Scandinavians. My point is that, if you took the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Europe, then Central Europeans such as Austrians would generally be closer to the former than the latter in both genes and phenotypes.

Well Serbs have less WHG than Iberians. Iberians are almost only WHG and basal-like components. They have very little ANE or EHG-like ancestry. XenophobicPrussian, a self proclaimed WHGist claims that Iberians are much more northern than Serbs, but Serbs are indeed closer to NE Europeans by far compared to Iberians. That's also a think you have to take into account. Romanians and Serbs are more NE European like, while Iberians more WHG/ Basque like. I meant that you shouldn't use "southern European" when discussing genetics so loosely since it doesn't make sense as there is genetic continuity throughout Europe. For example Italians are southern Europeans, but Austrians are central Europeans right? Well the Sicilians have genetic continuity with southern Italians who have genetic continuity with central Italians who have genetic continuity with northern Italians, who have genetic continuity with southern Austrians who have it with northern Austrians etc. Southern Europeans are very diverse genetically.

[Tooting Carmen]

central europe



it depends who you mean exactly and to which south europeans you compare them

Denmark and Sweden vs Portugal and Greece. (Despite being in the opposite corners of Southern Europe, I find Portuguese and Greeks to look very alike).