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http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/10/eaat4457
Unlike previous studies, Scythians here appears to be most closely related to both Southern and Northern European populations and, to a lesser extent, North Caucasians. All of the Scythian and Sarmatian samples, except for one, are R1b.
PCA on the autosomal genomic data (Fig. 1C and table S5) revealed the following: (i) Srubnaya-Alakulskaya individuals exhibited genetic affinity to northern and northeastern present-day Europeans (fig. S3), and these results were also consistent with outgroup f3 statistics (table S6 and fig. S4A). (ii) The Cimmerian individuals, representing the time period of transition from Bronze to Iron Age, were not homogeneous regarding their genetic similarities to present-day populations according to the PCA. F3 statistics confirmed the heterogeneity of these individuals in comparison with present-day populations (table S6 and figs. S3 and S4C). (iii) The Scythians reported in this study, from the core Scythian territory in the North Pontic steppe (12), showed high intragroup diversity. In the PCA, they are positioned as four visually distinct groups compared to the gradient of present-day populations (Fig. 1C): (i) A group of three individuals (scy009, scy010, and scy303) showed genetic affinity to north European populations, hereafter referred to as a north European (NE) cluster. (ii) A group of four individuals (scy192, scy197, scy300, and scy305) showed genetic similarities to southern European populations, hereafter referred to as a south European (SE) cluster. (iii) A group of three individuals (scy006, scy011, and scy193) located between the genetic variation of Mordovians and populations of the North Caucasus, hereafter referred to as a steppe cluster (SC). In addition, one Srubnaya-Alakulskaya individual (kzb004), the most recent Cimmerian (cim357), and all Sarmatians fell within this cluster. In contrast to the Scythians, and despite being from opposite ends of the Pontic-Caspian steppe, the five Sarmatians grouped close together in this cluster. (iv) A group of three Scythians (scy301, scy304, and scy311) formed a discrete group between the SC and SE and had genetic affinities to present-day Bulgarian, Greek, Croatian, and Turkish populations, hereafter referred to as a central cluster (CC). All PCA results were consistent with outgroup f3 statistics (table S6 and figs. S3 and S4, B and D). Finally, one individual from a Scythian cultural context (scy332) is positioned outside of the modern West Eurasian genetic variation (Fig. 1C) but shared genetic drift with East Asian populations (table S6 and fig. S4B).
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