Blue eyes, facial shape, and perceived trustworthiness

A new paper suggests that Czechs tend to view brown-eyed people as more trustworthy than blue-eyed ones, although the difference seems to be due to differences in facial structure between brown- and blue-eyed people; an article in Scientific American covers this new paper fairly well.

I will add that the location of the sample (Czech Republic) is interesting, as it is intermediate between the Baltic area (where light eye pigmentation reaches quasi-fixation, and, hence, presumably, light eyes are not viewed with any suspicion) and southeastern Europe and Anatolia (where there is well-documented folklore about the association of eye pigmentation with the "evil eye").

I had encountered an explanation for this phenomenon in a work by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart on ancient color terminology, in which an argument was made that in predominantly dark-eyed peoples, light eyes -because of their rarity- may have an indirect association with glaucoma and viewed suspiciously for that reason -perceived chance of morbidity; the Wikipedia article suggests the phenomenon is explained on the basis of encounters with light-eyed foreigners who might be unaware of cultural norms against direct staring. But, the frequency of different eye colors in Czechs today is probably fairly balanced, making either explanation unsatisfactory.

Getting back to the article at hand, it appears that -at least in men- blue eyes are associated with a suite of other facial features. Razib offers the suggestion that the possible disadvantage conferred by reduced "trustworthiness" may be compensated in another way through pleiotropy, and the authors suggest:

The trade-off between a preference for colorful and visible physical features and the advantage of a trustworthy-looking face might have contributed to the high variability of European eye and hair color.

But, I'll get back to the possibility that the phenomenon may be driven by a historical process, i.e., the encounter between peoples who differed statistically in eye pigmentation and other facial features.

The picture on the left is from the Gospel Book of Otto III and is about 1,000 years old. Now, all eyes appear conventionally painted as brown dots here, but we can notice that the different provinces are painted with different hair color, with Sclavinia being darker than Germania and lighter than Gallia and Roma. This might make some sense, since Germanic peoples are thought to have originated in northern Germany/southern Scandinavia, and Slavs in C/E Europe (perhaps somewhere between Poland and Ukraine).

This raises the possibility that early Slavs were phenotypically somewhere in the middle of the European pigmentation continuum, although their exact position therein might only be determined with ancient DNA evidence. Today, the lighter-pigmented Slavs are probably those close to the Baltic (e.g., Russians and Poles), the darker ones from the Balkans, perhaps indicating different types of gene flow ("northern" Germanic/Baltic/Finno-Ugrian vs. "southern" Thraco-Illyrian-Greek).

If this is correct, then the slightly negative association of blue eyes in the present Czechs might be a culturally-transmitted vestige of inter-ethnic contact during the medieval period. A possible test would be to repeat the experiment with the Czechs' German neighbors, in which the process ought to operate in reverse -if my hypothesis is correct.

PLoS ONE 8(1): e53285. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053285

Trustworthy-Looking Face Meets Brown Eyes

Karel Kleisner et al.

We tested whether eye color influences perception of trustworthiness. Facial photographs of 40 female and 40 male students were rated for perceived trustworthiness. Eye color had a significant effect, the brown-eyed faces being perceived as more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones. Geometric morphometrics, however, revealed significant correlations between eye color and face shape. Thus, face shape likewise had a significant effect on perceived trustworthiness but only for male faces, the effect for female faces not being significant. To determine whether perception of trustworthiness was being influenced primarily by eye color or by face shape, we recolored the eyes on the same male facial photos and repeated the test procedure. Eye color now had no effect on perceived trustworthiness. We concluded that although the brown-eyed faces were perceived as more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones, it was not brown eye color per se that caused the stronger perception of trustworthiness but rather the facial features associated with brown eyes.

Link

Y-chromosome gene pool of Western Slavs

Interesting tidbit from the paper:

Age calculations based on evolutionary and pedigree

mutation rates gave significantly different date estimates,

5.5–8.0 and 2.3–3.4 ky, respectively. In our opinion,

the age calculations of the subcluster R1a1-WSL

based on the pedigree mutation rate appear to be more

consistent with the archeological record, as well as with

the limited distribution of this Y-STR subcluster in

Europe.

So, this paper, together with two other papers on Roma, and the one on Maronites, is added to my recent enumeration of cases where the pedigree (or germline, or genealogical) mutation rate gives better results than the "evolutionary" rate. Since both analysis of the Y-STR mutation model and empirical data suggests the superiority of the pedigree rate, it is perplexing why the evolutionary rate continues to persist in the literature.

Getting back to the paper:

Southern parts of present Poland were under Celtic influence. In the second century B.C., the Celts arrived in southern Poland via the Moravia and Bohemia regions, where they prevailed with their La Te`ne culture from the fifth century B.C. Therefore, it is probable that the R1a/R1b proportion varied in those regions according to the degree of influence of one population or another (i.e., Slavic or

Celtic).

I recently suggested a possible Celtic or Germanic link with some R1b subclades, and the presence of both R-U106 and R-U152 clades in Western Slavs (from the Myres et al.) paper suggests that both processes may have been important. It will be interesting to see ancient DNA studies confirm/disprove these hypotheses about an ethnic affiliation of particular Y-chromosome lineages.

American Journal of Physical Anthropology DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21253

Similarities and Distinctions in Y Chromosome Gene Pool of Western Slavs

Marcin Wozniak et al.

Analysis of Y chromosome Y-STRs has proven to be a useful tool in the field of population genetics, especially in the case of closely related populations. We collected DNA samples from 169 males of Czech origin, 80 males of Slovakian origin, and 142 males dwelling Northern Poland. We performed Y-STR analysis of 12 loci in the samples collected (PowerPlex Y system from Promega) and compared the Y chromosome haplotype frequencies between the populations investigated. Also, we used Y-STR data available from the literature for comparison purposes. We observed significant differences between Y chromosome pools of Czechs and Slovaks compared to other Slavic and European populations. At the same time we were able to point to a specific group of Y-STR haplotypes belonging to an R1a haplogroup that seems to be shared by Slavic populations dwelling in Central Europe. The observed Y chromosome diversity may be explained by taking into consideration archeological and historical data regarding early Slav migrations.

Link

30,000-year old evidence of plant food processing

PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1006993107

Thirty thousand-year-old evidence of plant food processing

Anna Revedin et al.

European Paleolithic subsistence is assumed to have been largely based on animal protein and fat, whereas evidence for plant consumption is rare. We present evidence of starch grains from various wild plants on the surfaces of grinding tools at the sites of Bilancino II (Italy), Kostenki 16–Uglyanka (Russia), and Pavlov VI (Czech Republic). The samples originate from a variety of geographical and environmental contexts, ranging from northeastern Europe to the central Mediterranean, and dated to the Mid-Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian and Gorodtsovian). The three sites suggest that vegetal food processing, and possibly the production of flour, was a common practice, widespread across Europe from at least ~30,000 y ago. It is likely that high energy content plant foods were available and were used as components of the food economy of these mobile hunter–gatherers.

Link

Brown-eyed men perceived to be more dominant

(Last Update June 21)

The authors discovered that males with brown eyes were considered more dominant than males with blue eyes, but when they altered their pictures to turn brown eyes into blue, the effect persisted. Thus, it is not the color itself that creates the impression of dominance, but rather other factors correlated with the brown-eyed phenotype.

One of these "other factors" could be chin breadth, which is known to be perceived as dominant. From the paper:

The question arises: why are brown-eyed males rated as more dominant than blue-eyed? Some facial features such as square jaws, thick eyebrows and broad cheekbones are linked with higher perceived dominance; facial submissiveness, on the other hand, is characterized by a round face with large eyes, smallish nose, and high eyebrows (Berry, 1990; Berry & Mcarthur, 1986; Cunningham,Barbee, & Pike, 1990; Mazur, Halpern, & Udry, 1994; Mueller & Mazur,1997; Thornhill & Gangestad, 1994). The morphological differences between blue-eyed and brown-eyed males were visualized by deformation of thin-plate splines (Fig. 3). In contrast with blue-eyed males, brown-eyed males have statistically broader and rather massive chins, broader (laterally prolonged) mouths, larger noses, and eyes that are closer together with larger eyebrows. In contrast, blue-eyed males show smaller and sharper chins, mouths that are laterally narrower, noses smaller, and a greater span between the eyes. Especially the broader massive chin, bigger nose, and larger eyebrows of brown-eyed males may explain their higher perceived dominance.

The authors propose that true genetic linkage between eye color and these other facial features is unlikely, as eye color is determined by few loci, and these are unlikely to be the same ones that influence these other facial features. Thus, they propose a different explanation, namely that blue-eyed and brown-eyed children are treated differently by their parents as they grow up, and this "different treatment" manifests itself phenotypically. The argument in favor of different treatment stems from the fact that many people are born blue-eyed, but their eye color is set to a darker shade eventually. The authors write:

It is possible that subjects with blue eyes are treated as a small child for a longer period than brown-eyed children. Such early social experience may have been literally ‘‘inscribed” into their faces, preserved until adulthood, and finally bring on the perception of higher submissiveness. Rosenberg and Kagan (1987, 1989) investigated the association between eye color and behavioral inhibition, revealing that children with blue eyes are more inhibited. Coplan et al. (1998) found a significant interaction between eye color and social wariness within preschoolers. Blueeyed males were rated as more socially wary, i.e. being more temperamentally inhibited, displaying more reticent behavior and having more internalizing problems, than males with brown eyes, though there were no differences between blue- and brown-eyed females (Coplan et al., 1998).

There is an alternative explanation, that requires neither genetic linkage nor an environmental factor such as upbringing. That factor is latent population structure.

In a truly long-term random mating population, and assuming that eye color is not genetically linked with e.g. chin breadth, then all combinations of chin breadth and eye color would occur with a probability determined entirely by the frequency of their genetic determinants in the population.

However, consider the possibility that the population is an incomplete mixture of a blue-eyed "facially submissive" population element, and a brown-eyed "facially dominant" one. If that was the case, then brown-eyed folks would tend to have dominant facial features by reason of their ancestry rather than any genetic linkage between the two traits.

As an analogy, consider a hypothetical population made up of Europeans and East Asians. Initially, there would be a statistical association between straight hair and short stature in the total population that would be entirely due to population structure rather than either pleiotropic effects of genes affecting both characters or genetic linkage of hair/stature genes.

The Czech population is intermediate in its bigonial diameter between Germans and Slovaks (its immediate neighbors) [1], they are also genetically intermediate between Germans and Slavs. Procopius noted in early medieval times that Slavs had intermediate pigmentation. So, I wouldn't discount the possibility that population structure due to incomplete blending may account for eye color/facial structure associations in this population.

UPDATE:

Here are some values for German and Czech males from [1].

Bigonial (go-go): 97.6 / 109.5

Nasal height (n-sn): 52 / 54.0

Nasal breadth (al-al): 34.0 / 36.2

Mouth breadth (ch-ch): 50.9 / 53.8

Intercanthal distance (en-en): 31.2/30.9

Unfortunately there is no data for the eyebrows, but all of the above differences are in the expected direction under my theory: Germans have narrower jaws, smaller noses, narrower mouths, and eyes placed further apart than Czechs.

So, I think it is quite likely that the blue-eyed facially submissive type found in this sample may have a German origin.

PS: I did an average of the blue- and brown-eyed averages for reference:

[1] International anthropometric study of facial morphology in various ethnic groups/races, Leslie G Farkas, J Craniofac Surg 16:615-46

Personality and Individual Differences
Volume 49, Issue 1, July 2010, Pages 59-64

Eye color predicts but does not directly influence perceived dominance in men

Karel Kleisner et al.

This study focuses on the relationship between eye color, gender, and psychological characteristics perceived from the human face. Photographs of 40 male and 40 female students were rated for perceived dominance and attractiveness. Attractiveness showed no relation with eye color. In contrast, eye color had a significant effect on perceived dominance in males: brown-eyed men were rated as more dominant than men with blue eyes. To control for the effect of eye color, we studied perceived dominance on the same photographs of models after changing the iris color. The eye color had no effect on perceived dominance. This suggests that some other facial features associated with eye color affect the perception of dominance in males. Geometric morphometrics have been applied to reveal features responsible for the differences in facial morphospace of blue-eyed and brown-eyed males.

Link

mtDNA of Czech population

Hum Biol. 2008 Dec;80(6):669-74.

Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups in the Czech population compared to other European countries.

Vidrová V, Tesarová M, Trefilova E, Honzík T, Magner M, Zeman J.

The analysis of mtDNA haplogroup frequency in various populations is a tool for studying human history and population dynamics. The aim of this study is to map the frequency of major mtDNA haplogroups in 300 maternally unrelated individuals representing the Czech population of the central part of the Czech Republic. Eighteen polymorphic sites in the coding region of mtDNA were screened by PCR-RFLP to determine 11 mtDNA haplogroups and 5 subhaplogroups. The most frequent haplogroups were H (41%) and U (21%). Less frequent haplogroups were J and T, each with a frequency of 8%. Frequencies of other haplogroups (V, K, HV, W, preV, X, and I) did not exceed 5%. The results of our study reveal that the frequency of mtDNA haplogroups in the Czech population is similar to the frequencies obtained in other European countries, especially Poland, Germany, and Russia. On the contrary, significant differences in haplogroup frequency were found between the Czech and Finnish populations (haplogroups U, T, W) and populations from Bulgaria and Turkey (haplogroups H).

Link

Human remains from the Moravian Gravettian

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology doi:10.1002/oa.1088

Human remains from the Moravian Gravettian: morphology and taphonomy of additional elements from Dolní Vestonice II and Pavlov I

E. Trinkaus et al.

Abstract

Zooarchaeological analysis of the earlier Mid Upper Paleolithic (MUP) (Pavlovian) assemblages from Dolní Vstonice II and Pavlov I, southern Moravia, have yielded 11 additional remains from Dolní Vstonice II (five of which may be associated) and 20 remains from Pavlov I (16 of which come from a pair of hands, Pavlov 31). These remains are those of early modern humans, albeit with a few generally archaic features. At least two of them represent very tall individuals, among the tallest known for the Upper Paleolithic. These remains also raise the question, previously posed, as to the nature of differential treatment of the dead among MUP humans, given the presence of ritual burials, isolated bones and (with Pavlov 31) selected associated anatomy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Link

ESHG 2008 abstracts

The European Society of Human Genetics conference is coming up, and there are some very interesting abstracts.

Note: The ESHG site has updated with a notice that the abstracts are embargoed until their presentation time. Therefore, I have decided to remove the body of this post until then, although I think it is a bit weird to embargo something that one places on the public web. In any case, you can find the abstracts easily by going to the site above. (June 1): post restored.

The peopling of North Asia: Y and X perspectives

V. A. Stepanov, V. Kharkov, I. Khitrinskaya, O. Medvedeva, M. Spiridonova, A. Marusin, V. Puzyrev; Institute for Medical Genetics, Tomsk, Russian Federation.

Presentation Number: P07.056

To reconstruct the origin and evolution of human populations in North Asia we investigated the genetic diversity in 50 population samples (about 2000 individuals totally) using Y and X chromosome lineages. Y-chromosomal haplotypes were constructed with unique event polymorphisms (UEP) and STR markers according to Y Chromosome consortium (YCC) classification. SNP markers in a single 60 kb linkage disequilibrium region of ZFX gene was used to trace the X chromosomal population history. The genetic diversity of Y haplogroups was quite high (0.70 - 0.95) in most populations except few very isolated groups. The proportion of inter-population differences in the total genetic variability measured by Fst statistics is 17% for binary haplogroups and 19% for YSTR. Multidimensional scaling and principal component analysis revealed four major components in North Asian Y gene pool, reflecting the presence of Paleoasiatic (Q), Proto-Uralic (N3, N2), Eastern Asian (O, C), and Western Eurasian (R1, I, J) lineages. X-chromosomal haplotypes in North Asia are less divers (gene diversity within populations 0.65 - 0.80) and less differentiated (Fst = 4%) compared to Y lineages. The population clustering by X and Y gives, to a first approximation, a similar picture, and matrixes of genetic distances between populations for X and Y haplotypes significantly correlates. The age of genetic diversity generation and time of population differentiation demonstrates the Upper Paleolithic origin of major Y and X lineages and post-glacial population expansions. This work is supported by RFBR grants ##06-04-48274 and 07-04-01629.

The following seems to be a very important study; in particular the notion that particular Y chromosome/mtDNA haplogroups may be associated with higher or lower fertility may have implications about their distribution.

UPDATE (May 21): I did a quick and dirty analysis of the Y-haplogroup and mtDNA-haplogroup data from Bosch et al. (2006) (Ann Hum Genet. 2006 Jul;70(Pt 4):459-87.), and there is a -0.43 correlation between Y-haplogroup I and mtDNA-haplogroup H and a +0.46 correlation between Y-haplogroup R1 and mtDNA-haplogroup H. While not significant (with only 10 populations), this is definitely in the right direction for a selection effect for/against specific Y-DNA/mtDNA combinations.

... on the other hand, another quick and dirty analysis of 23 populations from Rootsi's survey on Y-haplogroup I and mtDNA frequencies from AJHG Volume 80, Issue 4, April 2007, Pages 759-768 didn't turn up any correlation. Perhaps, someone can look at possible correlations between Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplogroups in Europe to see if anything interesting turns up.

Male infertility induced by mtDNA/Y unfavorable combination? An association study on human mitochondrial DNA

S. C. Gomes1, S. Fernandes2, R. Gonçalves1, A. T. Fernandes1, A. Barros3, H. Geada4, A. Brehm1; 1Human Genetics Laboratory, University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal, 2Genetics Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal, 3Centre of Reproductive Genetics A Barros, Porto, Portugal, 4Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal.

Presentation Number: P07.084

There is growing evidence that certain mtDNA haplogroups determine a genetic susceptibility to various disorders bringing out the interest in the possible role of mtDNA background on the phenotype expression of mitochondrial genetic disorders. An association between haplogroup T and asthenospermia has been reported and several sublineages of haplogroup U were associated with differences in sperm motility and vitality. The deletion of some DAZ copies gene in 10-15% of azoospermic and oligospermic patients has been reported but also present in fertile men belonging to certain Y-haplogroups. The findings of one study have rarely been replicated by studies in other populations and conflicting associations have been reported. Our focus in this case-control study is to investigate the existence of other influences, besides a weak mtDNA background, promoting male infertility. The occurrence of a specific mtDNA variant associated to a certain Y-chromosome haplogroup could represent a vital link that will compromise the sperm function and be responsible for male infertility. A group of 99 infertile men and other one composed by 90 subjects with proven fertility were selected and analysed. The frequency of the combination mtDNA-haplogroup H (especially with the CRS sequence) and Y-haplogroup R was higher in fertile than in infertile men seemingly to be favorable to fertility. On the other hand, a considerable number of infertile men belonging to mtDNA-haplogroup H (CRS) and to Y-haplogroup I, associated to a specific DAZ gene deletion pattern- 2+4d, suggests a non favorable combination to male fertility.

The Bayash Roma: phylogenetic dissection of Eurasian paternal genetic elements

I. Martinovic Klaric, M. Pericic Salihovic, L. Barac Lauc, B. Janicijevic; Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia.

Presentation Number: P07.110

The Bayash consist of numerous and small Romani groups speaking different dialects of the Romanian language and living dispersedly in Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, and to the lesser extent in Macedonia, Greece, Ukraine, Slovakia and Slovenia. Larger Bayash groups migrated to Croatia most likely during the 19th century, after abolition of slavery in Romania. Molecular architecture and the origin of the Croatian Bayash paternal gene pool was addressed by analysing 151 Bayash Y chromosomes from two Croatian regions, 332 Y chromosomes from Romani populations across Europe, 814 Y-chromosomes from non-Romani host populations living in Southeastern, Southern and Eastern Europe as well as with 1680 Y-chromosomes from South Asian populations. The Bayash in Croatia represent one population of largely shared paternal genetic history characterized by substantial percentage (44%) of common H1-M82 and E3b1-M78 lineages. Relatively ancient expansion signals and limited diversity of Indian specific H1-M82 lineages imply descent from closely related paternal ancestors who could have been settled in the Indian subcontinent between 7th and 9th centuries AD. Minimal time divergence of the Bayash subpopulations is consistent with their putative migratory split within Romania towards Wallachia and Transilvania. Substantial percentage of E3b1 lineages and high associated microsatellite variance in the Bayash men is a reflection of significant admixture with majority populations from the Vardar-Morava-Danube catchment basin - possibly a common paternal signature of Romani populations in Southeastern Europe. Additional traces of admixture are evident in the modest presence of typical European haplogroups.

Are the Moravian Valachs of Czech Republic the Aromuns of Central Europe? Model population for isolation and admixture

E. Ehler1,2, V. Vančata2; 1Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Prague, Czech Republic, 2Department of Biology and Ecological Education, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education, Prague, Czech Republic.

Presentation Number: P07.129

Moravian Valachs of Czech Republic are one of the most distinct ethnic groups from Central Europe. Related to similar populations in Poland and Slovakia, they emerge at the end of 15th century, as the north-westernmost prominence of migration that started 250 years earlier in northern Romania. Being predominately highland sheep herders and of putative Romanian origin, they represent a Central European analogue of Balkan Aromanian populations. We have gathered Y-chromosomal, linguistic, ethnographic and historical data for this population and compared them with surrounding as well as with east European populations. Linguistic data show specific parts of shared vocabulary of Romanian origin between several pastoral groups in Central and Eastern Europe. Comparing genetic and linguistic pairwise distance matrices (Mantel test) in these populations did not revealed any significant correlation. Thus we confirmed that plain geographical distance still plays the major role in genetic distances between populations in Europe. From our further analysis it is clear, that the Moravian Valachs, after at least five centuries of admixture, are not overly genetically different from surrounding populations. On the other hand, from the point of view of intra-population diversity, they are much more similar to isolated Balkan populations (e.g. Aromuns) than to Central European populations.

Phylogeography of the human Y chromosome haplogroup E3a

F. Cruciani1, B. Trombetta1, D. Sellitto2, C. Nodale1, R. Scozzari1; 1Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy, 2Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy.

Presentation Number: P07.134

The Y chromosome specific biallelic marker DYS271 defines the most common haplogroup (E3a) currently found in sub-Saharan Africa. A sister clade, E3b (E-M215), is rare in sub-Saharan Africa, but very common in northern and eastern Africa. On the whole, these two clades represent more than 70% of the Y chromosomes of the African continent. A third clade belonging to E3 (E3c or E-M329) has been recently reported to be present only in eastern Africa, at low frequencies. In this study we analyzed more than 1,600 Y chromosomes from 55 African populations, using both new and previously described biallelic markers, in order to refine the phylogeny and the geographic distribution of the E3a haplogroup. The most common E-DYS271 sub-clades (E-DYS271*, E-M191, E-U209) showed a non uniform distribution across sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the E-DYS271 chromosomes found in northern and western Africa belong to the paragroup E-DYS271*, which is rare in central and southern Africa. In these latter regions, haplogroups E-M191 and E-U209 show similar frequency distributions and coalescence ages (13 and 11 kyr, respectively), suggesting their involvement in the same migratory event/s. By the use of two new phylogenetically equivalent markers (V38 and V89), the earlier tripartite structure of E3 haplogroup was resolved in favor of a common ancestor for haplogroups E-DYS271 (formerly E3a) and E-M329 (formerly E3c). The new topology of the E3 haplogroup is suggestive of a relatively recent eastern African origin for the majority of the chromosomes presently found in sub-Saharan Africa.

Y-chromosome lineages in Xhosa and Zulu Bantu speaking populations

R. P. A. Gonçalves, H. Spínola, A. Brehm; Human Genetics Laboratory, Funchal, Portugal.

Presentation Number: P07.137

Y-chromosome Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms have been analysed in Zulu and Xhosa, two southern Africa Bantu speaking populations. These two ethnic groups have their origin on the farmer’s Bantu expansion from Niger-Congo border towards sub-Sahel regions on the southern tip of the continent, during the past 3000 years. Seven different Y-chromosome haplogroups were found in Zulu contrasting with only two in Xhosa. E3a, a common haplogroup among West sub-Saharans associated to Bantu migration was the most prevalent in both populations (56.9% in Zulu and 90% in Xhosa). The second most common haplogroup was E2 (29.3% in Zulu and 10% in Xhosa), present both in West and East African populations. The present-day Zulu and Xhosa paternal legacy is essentially of West sub-Saharan origin. Zulu population shows a most diverse genetic influence comparing to Xhosa, revealing some pre-Bantu expansion markers and East African influences. Zulu presents 8.6% Y-chromosome haplogroups (A, B, J1) of non-Bantu influence that could indicate gene flow from other populations, particularly Khoisan.

Human genetic population structure: Patterns and underlying processes

Presentation Time: Tuesday, 9:15 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.

G. Barbujani; University of Ferrara, Department of Biology and Evolution, Ferrara, Italy.

Presentation Number: S15.2

Classical studies of genetic diversity in humans consistently showed that the largest proportion of human diversity occurs among members of the same population. On average, differences among different populations in the same continent represent 5% of the global human variance, and differences among continents another 10%. Genetic variation is largely discordant across the genome, meaning that different loci show different spatial patterns, and implying that a good description of population structure can only be based on the analysis of multiple loci. Studies of single loci are also unlikely to reasonably identify an individual’s place of origin. A general decline of genetic of genetic diversity with distance from Africa, and a parallel increase in linkage disequilibrium, can be accounted for by the effects of a series of founder effects accompanying the spread of anatomically-modern humans from Africa. Recent DNA analyses at the global level show that most allelic variants are cosmopolitan and only a small percentage are continent-specific, whereas a clearer continental structure emerges when considering composite haplotypes. This suggests that, at the global level, gene flow has had a strong impact on genetic diversity, through both directional dispersal and successive short-range migratory exchanges. At the local level, several factors have contributed to genetic differentiation, and, in particular, language barriers have been shown to be associated with small but non-negligible increases of the genetic differences between neighboring populations.

Hierarchical analysis of 28 Y-chromosome SNP’s in the population of the Republic of Macedonia

P. Noveski, S. Trivodalieva, G. D. Efremov, D. Plaseska-Karanfilska;
Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Research Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Skopje, Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of.

Presentation Number: P05.211

Analysis of Y-chromosome haplogroups, defined by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP’s), has become a standard approach for studying the origin of human populations and measuring the variability among them. Furthermore, Y-SNP’s represent a new forensic tool, because their population specificity may allow to determine the origin of any male sample of interest for forensic purposes. The aim of this study was to develop a strategy for rapid, simple and inexpensive Y-chromosome SNP’s typing in the population of R. Macedonia. We have studied a total of 343 DNA male samples; 211 Macedonians, 111 Albanians and 21 of other ethnic origin (Roma, Serbs and Turks). Methodology included multiplex PCR and single nucleotide extension reaction by SNaPshot multiplex kit. The set of 28 markers has been grouped in 5 multiplexes in order to determine the most frequent haplogroups using only 1 or 2 multiplexes. Twenty different Y haplogroups were determined among 343 male DNA samples. The finding that five haplogroups (E3b1, I1b1, J2b1a, R1a and R1b) comprise more than 70% of the Y chromosomes is consistent with the typical European Y chromosome gene pool. The distribution of the Y-haplogroups differs between Macedonians and Albanians. The most common Y haplogroup among Macedonians is I1b1 (27.5%), followed by three haplogroups present with similar frequencies E3b1 (15.6%), R1a (14.2%) and R1b (11.4%). Among Albanians the most frequent Y haplogroup is E3b1 (28.8%), followed by R1b (18.0%), J2b1a (13.5%) and R1a (12.6%).

The following paper (probably) refers to a recent study, according to which:

One of the most elevated values of 35delG prevalence corresponds to Greece (1/28); the pattern of various 35delG prevalences is interpretated in the present meta-analysis as the result of Ancient Greek colonizations of the "Magna Grecia" in historical times.

Strong linkage disequilibrium for the frequent GJB2 35delG mutation in the Greek population
H. Kokotas¹, L. Van Laer², M. Grigoriadou¹, V. Iliadou³, J. Economides⁴, S. Pomoni¹, A. Pampanos¹, N. Eleftheriades⁵, E. Ferekidou⁶, S. Korres⁶, A. Giannoulia-Karantana⁷, G. Van Camp², M. B. Petersen¹;
¹Institute of Child Health, Athens, Greece, ²University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, ³AHEPA Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece, ⁴‘Aghia Sophia’ Children’s Hospital, Athens, Greece, ⁵St. Loukas Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece, ⁶Athens University, Athens, Greece, ⁷Athens University Medical School, Athens, Greece.

Presentation Number: P06.080

Approximately one in 1,000 children is affected by severe or profound hearing loss at birth or during early childhood (prelingual deafness). Up to forty percent of autosomal recessive, congenital, severe to profound hearing impairment cases result from mutations in a single gene, GJB2. The 35delG mutation accounts for the majority of GJB2 mutations detected in Caucasian populations and represents one of the most frequent disease mutations identified so far. Some previous studies have assumed that the high frequency of the 35delG mutation reflects the presence of a mutational hot spot, whilst other studies support the theory of a common founder. Greece is amongst the countries presenting high frequency of the 35delG mutation (3.5%), and a recent study raised the hypothesis of the origin of this mutation in ancient Greece. We genotyped 60 Greek deafness patients homozygous for the 35delG mutation for six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and two microsatellite markers, mapping within or flanking the GJB2 gene, as compared to 60 Greek hearing controls. A strong linkage disequilibrium was found between the 35delG mutation and markers inside or flanking the GJB2 gene, at distances of 34 kb on the centromeric and 90 kb on the telomeric side of the gene, respectively. Our study supports the hypothesis of a founder effect and we further propose that ethnic groups of Greek ancestry could have propagated the 35delG mutation, as evidenced by historical data beginning from the 15^th century BC.

mtDNA phylogeny in Eastern and Western Slavs

Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msn114

Mitochondrial DNA phylogeny in Eastern and Western Slavs

B. Malyarchuk et al.

To resolve the phylogeny of certain mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups in Eastern Europe and estimate their evolutionary age, a total of 73 samples representing mitochondrial haplogroups U4, HV*, and R1 were selected for complete mitochondrial genome sequencing from a collection of about 2000 control-region sequences sampled in Eastern (Russians, Belorussians, Ukrainians) and Western (Poles, Czechs and Slovaks) Slavs. On the basis of whole-genome resolution, we fully characterized a number of haplogroups (HV3, HV4, U4a1, U4a2, U4a3, U4b, U4c, U4d, and R1a) that were previously described only partially. Our findings demonstrate that haplogroups HV3, HV4, and U4a1 could be traced back to the pre-Neolithic times ( 12,000-19,000 YBP) in Eastern Europe. In addition, an ancient connection between the Caucasus/Europe and India has been revealed by analysis of haplogroup R1 diversity, with a split between the Indian and Caucasus/European R1a lineages occurring about 16,500 years ago. Meanwhile, some mtDNA subgroups detected in Slavs (such as U4a2a, U4a2*, HV3a, R1a1) are definitely younger being dated between 6,400-8,200 YBP. However, robust age estimations appear to be problematic due to the high ratios of non-synonymous to synonymous substitutions found in young mtDNA subclusters.

Link

Variability of Předmostí skulls and comparison with recent humans

HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology
Volume 59, Issue 1, 7 March 2008, Pages 1-26

Variability of the Upper Palaeolithic skulls from Předmostí near Přerov (Czech Republic): Craniometric comparison with recent human standards

J. Velemínská et al.

Abstract

One of the largest skeletal series of the Upper Palaeolithic period from Předmostí was destroyed during the Second World War, but the study of this material continues up to the present. The discovery of Matiegka's original photographic documentation on glass plates [Velemínská et al., 2004. The use of recently re-discovered glass plate photo-documentation of those human fossil finds from Předmostí u Přerova destroyed during World War II. J. Nat. Mus. Nat. Hist. Ser. 173, 129–132] gives an opportunity to perform a new and detailed craniometric analysis of five adult skulls in their lateral projection.

The craniometric data were analysed using specialised Craniometrics software, and the analysis included morphological and dimensional comparisons with current Central European norms. The aim of the study was not only to monitor the skull shape as a whole, but predominantly, to evaluate the size and shape of various parts of the splanchnocranium.

The Upper Palaeolithic skulls are significantly longer, and male skulls are also higher than the current norms. The crania of anatomically modern humans are characterised by two general structural features: mid-lower facial retraction and neurocranial globularity. The height of the face of the Palaeolithic skulls corresponds to that of the current Central European population. The face has a markedly longer mandibular body (3–4 SD), while female mandibular rami are shorter. The skulls are further characterised by a smaller gonial angle, the increased steepness of the mandibular ramus, and the greater angle of the chin. These changes in the size and shape associated with anterior rotation of the face produce a strong protrusion of both jaws, but the sagittal inter-maxillary relationships remain unchanged. The observed facial morphology is similar to the Czech Upper Palaeolithic skulls from Dolní Věstonice.

This study confirms the main diachronic changes between skulls of Upper Palaeolithic and present-day human populations.

Link

Origins of African mtDNA in Slavs

See also Origins of Mongoloid mtDNA in Slavs. and Sub-Saharan African mtDNA admixture in several West Eurasian (Caucasoid) populations.

European Journal of Human Genetics advance online publication 9 April 2008; doi: 10.1038/ejhg.2008.70

Reconstructing the phylogeny of African mitochondrial DNA lineages in Slavs.

Malyarchuk BA, Derenko M, Perkova M, Grzybowski T, Vanecek T, Lazur J.

To elucidate the origin of African-specific mtDNA lineages, revealed previously in Slavonic populations (at frequency of about 0.4%), we completely sequenced eight African genomes belonging to haplogroups L1b, L2a, L3b, L3d and M1 gathered from Russians, Czechs, Slovaks and Poles. Results of phylogeographic analysis suggest that at least part of the African mtDNA lineages found in Slavs (such as L1b, L3b1, L3d) appears to be of West African origin, testifying to an opportunity of their occurrence as a result of migrations to Eastern Europe through Iberia. However, a prehistoric introgression of African mtDNA lineages into Eastern Europe (approximately 10 000 years ago) seems to be probable only for European-specific subclade L2a1a, defined by coding region mutations at positions 6722 and 12903 and detected in Czechs and Slovaks. Further studies of the nature of African admixture in gene pools of Europeans require the essential enlargement of databases of African complete mitochondrial genomes.

Link

Origins of Mongoloid mtDNA in Slavs

A very interesting article which addresses the issue of the Mongoloid mitochondrial component in Slavs. I like this kind of paper that looks at the minor features of populations, rather than their broad general characteristics that are well known by now, and indeed were known even before genetics came into the picture.

From the paper:

The overwhelming majority of mtDNA clusters, identified in Czechs, were of the western-Eurasian origin. The frequency of eastern-Eurasian (Mongoloid) mtDNA lineages in this population constituted 1.8% (haplogroups A, N9a, and M). African lineage (with the frequency of 0.4%) belonging to haplogroup L2a and marked by the +13803HaeIII variant was also detected.

...

Low frequency of Mongoloid mtDNA variant in Letts and Lithuanians suggests that Mongoloid component was probably not typical of Balto-Slavic protogene pool. Thus, it seems reasonable that accumulation of Mongoloid mtDNA lineages in Slavs and their ancestors was intensified only in the last 4000 years.

...

The highest frequencies of the Mongoloid component are typical of the Russian populations from Russian Pomor’e and Northwestern region. These populations, however, differ in the mtDNA haplogroup composition. It was established that assimilation of the indigenous pre-Slavic population of Eastern Europe by true Slavs was of great importance to the process of the development of Russian population.

...

It is suggested that after the decay of Avar Khaganate the populations included into it were assimilated by Slavic tribes [34]. It is thereby suggested that rather high frequencies of eastern-Eurasian mtDNA lineages observed in the gene pools of some populations of Western and Southern Slavs (especially on the territoryof former Avar Khaganate) can be considered as a consequence of the process described.

Concerning the population of Eastern Europe, it should be noted that the forest zone of Eastern Europe was the area of intense population admixture [35]. It seems likely, that formation of the complex of Mongoloid traits happened not later than in Upper Paleolithic. For this reason, it is suggested that East Siberian populations could have much time for migration to Eastern Europe [35]. The number of such migrations still remains unclear, since in the northwest of Eastern Europe Mongoloid component is detected 10 000–8000 years ago; in Dnepr–Donetsk tribes, 7000–6000 years ago, and on the territory of Ivanovo oblast (Sakhtysh), 6000–5000 years ago [35, 36]. The data on mtDNA variation in Russian populations are consistent with anthropological data, since they point to the substantial differences in the frequencies of Mongoloid mtDNA lineages between the Russian populations of the Russian North, Northwest, and the central/southern regions of the European part of Russia (Table 3). We hope that future investigations would provide
the possibility of analyzing the chronology of the development of the Mongoloid component diversity in the gene pools of Russians and other Slavic populations.

Russian Journal of Genetics, 10.1007/s11177-008-3016-9

On the origin of Mongoloid component in the mitochondrial gene pool of Slavs

B. A. Malyarchuk, M. A. Perkova and M. V. Derenko

Abstract The data on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction polymorphism in Czech population (n = 279) are presented. It was demonstrated that in terms of their structure, mitochondrial gene pools of Czechs and other Slavic populations (Russians, Poles, Slovenians, and Bosnians) were practically indistinguishable. In Czechs, the frequency of eastern-Eurasian (Mongoloid) mtDNA lineages constituted 1.8%. The spread of eastern-Eurasian mtDNA lineages belonging to different ethnolinguistic groups in the populations of Europe was examined. Frequency variations of these DNA lineages in different Slavic groups was observed, with the range from 1.2 and 1.6% in Southern and Western Slavs, respectively, to 1.3 to 5.2% in Eastern Slavs, the Russian population of Eastern Europe. The highest frequency of Mongoloid component was detected in the mitochondrial gene pools of Russian populations from the Russian North and the Northwestern region of Russia. This finding can be explained in terms of assimilation of northern-European Finno-Ugric populations during the formation of the Russian population of these regions. The origin of Mongoloid component in the gene pools of different groups of Slavs is discussed.

Link

mtDNA of Czechs

Hum Biol. 2006 Dec;78(6):681-96.

Mitochondrial DNA variability in the Czech population, with application to the ethnic history of Slavs.

Malyarchuk BA, Vanecek T, Perkova MA, Derenko MV, Sip M.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variability was studied in a sample of 179 individuals representing the Czech population of Western Bohemia. Sequencing of two hypervariable segments, HVS I and HVS II, in combination with screening of coding-region haplogroup-specific RFLP markers revealed that most Czech mtDNAs belong to the common West Eurasian mitochondrial haplogroups (H, pre-V HV*, J, T, U, N1, W, and X). However, about 3% of Czech mtDNAs encompass East Eurasian lineages (A, N9a, D4, M*). A comparative analysis with published data showed that different Slavonic populations in Central and Eastern Europe contain small but marked amounts of East Eurasian mtDNAs. We suggest that the presence of East Eurasian mtDNA haplotypes is not an original feature of the gene pool of the proto-Slavs but rather may be mostly a consequence of admixture with Central Asian nomadic tribes, who migrated into Central and Eastern Europe in the early Middle Ages.

Link

Walking speed in different cities

The New Scientist reports on a study regarding the average walking speed over a distance of 18 meters in different cities. The times to walk 18m are listed below

1) Singapore (Singapore); 10.55
2) Copenhagen (Denmark); 10.82
3) Madrid (Spain); 10.89
4) Guangzhou (China): 10.94
5) Dublin (Ireland); 11.03
6) Curitiba (Brazil); 11.13
7) Berlin (Germany); 11.16
8) New York (United States of America); 12.00
9) Utrecht (Netherlands); 12.04
10) Vienna (Austria); 12.06
11) Warsaw (Poland); 12.07
12) London (United Kingdom); 12.17
13) Zagreb (Croatia); 12.20
14) Prague (Czech Republic); 12.35
15) Wellington (New Zealand); 12.62
16) Paris (France); 12.65
17) Stockholm (Sweden); 12.75
18) Ljubljana (Slovenia); 12.76
19) Tokyo (Japan); 12.83
20) Ottawa (Canada); 13.72
21) Harare (Zimbabwe); 13.92
22) Sofia (Bulgaria); 13.96
23) Taipei (Taiwan): 14.00
24) Cairo (Egypt); 14.18
25) Sana'a (Yemen); 14.29
26) Bucharest (Romania); 14.36
27) Dubai (United Arab Emirates); 14.64
28) Damascus (Syria); 14.94
29) Amman (Jordan); 15.95
30) Bern (Switzerland); 17.37
31) Manama (Bahrain); 17.69
32) Blantyre (Malawi); 31.60

The Arabs' leisurly pace is rather obvious from this list. Also, predictably "tall" nations tend to be on the top of the list, but so is Singapore; perhaps in a crowded city-state fast walking may be a culturally acquired trait.

The website of the study has more info.

AAPA 2007 abstracts

The 2007 meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists will be held in about a month. As in previous years, here are some interesting abstracts to be presented at the meeting (pdf).

(up to page 94)

Homo floresiensis Cranial and Mandibular Morphology
J.Y. Anderson, University of New Mexico
These results suggest the Flores material does not represent a population derived from Australomelanesians, and do not represent a non-pathological dwarfed population of Homo sapiens. These results do not completely rule out a representation of a microcephalic dwarfed population, at the same time it is suggested possible affinities to earlier hominin groups is equally parsimonious.

Do Qafzeh and Skhūl represent the ancestors of Upper Paleolithic modern humans? A dental perspective.
S.E. Bailey et al.
If these fossils represent the source of early Upper Paleolithic people, there is no need to invoke admixture with Neandertals to explain archaic dental features observed in some early Upper Paleolithic humans.

Ancient Cemetery Social Patterning Project: Ancient DNA in Tirup Cemetery.
L.E. Baker et al.

Reconstructing the settlement history of the central Andes from mitochondrial DNA analyses.
K. Batai et al.
We found that among central Andean ancient and modern population samples, haplogroup B frequencies increased through time, while haplogroup A frequencies declined. At this point, we do not yet have sufficient data to determine whether these patterns indicate different population histories between ancient coastal and modern highland populations, or a larger temporal trend in entire central Andes region

Analysis of Genetic Diversity in Ethnic Populations of Afghanistan
P. Bermudez et al.
The Middle East has the distinction of being a major crossroads of human migration. The genetic diversity of Afghanistan, however, has long remained a missing piece to this rich and complex puzzle. To explore both the diversity within Afghanistan and to understand the relative genetic contributions from various groups throughout the Eurasian continent, buccal swabs were collected from 252 unrelated Afghani men for mitochondrial DNA analysis. Each of these men hailed from
one of four major ethnic groups inhabiting the region: the Pashtun, Hazara, Tajik or
Nooristani. The Indo-Iranian speaking Pashtun represent the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan; the Tajiks have a complex genetic history that likely involves admixture between Turkic groups and smaller distinct ethnic groups within Afghanistan; the Hazara, on the other hand, are thought to represent remnants of Ghengis Khan’s army left behind as it expanded through Asia; and the Nooristani have biological links to populations in northern Pakistan and the
claim of descent from Alexander the Great’s army. All samples were analyzed for HVS1
and SNP variation. In all of these populations, Western Eurasian haplogroups (H, HV, R, J, I, U, X) were most common, with the highest frequency occurring in the Nooristanis, while the remaining East Eurasian haplogroups including D, G, and various other M types. The results of this study will be instrumental in expanding our knowledge of Afghani genetic history, in addition to broadening our understanding of population migrations throughout West and Central Asia.

Dental variation in Holocene Khoesan populations.
W. Black et al.

Are the Koh an indigenous population of the Hindu Kush? II: a dental morphology investigation.

S. Blaylock and B.E. Hemphill

Little is known about the population history of the ethnic groups in Chitral District, Pakistan, an area long been regarded as the “crossroads of Asia.” Some scholars emphasize that the Koh lifeway is the consequence of long-standing indigenous isolation. Others stress the equestrian
tradition among Koh villagers indicate they are descendants of Central Asians who emigrated across the Hindu Kush Mountains during the second millennium BC. To still others, an array of Persian linguistic inclusions indicates the Koh are more recent emigrants from the Iranian Plateau. This investigation tests these hypotheses for Koh origins through assessment of dental
morphology variations of the permanent dentition scored as 17 tooth-trait combination in accordance with the Arizona State University Dental Morphology System in a sample of 134 Kho school children from Chitral City. These data were contrasted with 17 additional samples. Comparisons are in two stages and include cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling and principal coordinates analysis. First, sex-pooled and sex-specific data compared Koh to six contemporary ethnic groups from India. Results indicate the Koh share equidistant affinities to Indo-European speaking west-Central Indian and Dravidianspeaking South Indian ethnic groups.
Second, sex-pooled data compared the Koh to 13 prehistoric samples from Neolithic to Early Iron Age sites located in the Indus Valley, Central Asia and the Iranian Plateau. Results indicate that the Koh share little affinity to prehistoric Indus Valley groups. Rather, the Koh share nearly equal affinities to prehistoric inhabitants of the Iranian Plateau and Central Asia.

A Howells grasp on prehistoric and recent Japan: A precursor to the Kennewick connection.
C. L. Brace, N. Seguchi.
Using many more samples, our results are compatible with what Howells showed for his Japanese comparisons, and,using the neighbor-joining technique, we can go on to show that Kennewick ties with the Ainu who are the descendants of the Jōmon.The Jōmon then are the probable ancestors of
the first inhabitants of the western hemisphere.

Admixture in Mexico City: implications for admixture mapping.
E. Cameron et al.
"The average proportions of Native American, European and West African admixture were estimated as 65%, 30% and 5% respectively."

"In a logistic model with higher educational status as dependent variable, the odds ratio for higher educational status associated with an increase from 0 to 1 in European admixture proportions was 9.4 (95% credible interval 3.8 – 22.6). This association of socioeconomic status with individual admixture proportion shows that genetic stratification in this population is
paralleled, and possibly maintained, by socioeconomic stratification."

Intracontinental Distribution of Haplotype Variation: Implications for Human Demographic History.
M.C. Campbell et al.
"These results suggest that diverse African populations were more subdivided with lower levels of gene flow during human history."

Social stratification in a Christian cemetery? An assessment of stress indicators and social status at Anglo-Saxon Raunds.
E.F. Craig, J.L. Buckberry
"The occurrence of statistically more individuals with both cribra orbitalia and tibial periostitis in plain graves rather than graves with stone arrangements, and LEH in plain graves rather than graves with a cover or marker, suggests that individuals buried in more elaborate graves enjoyed better levels of health and may been of higher social status than those buried in plain graves."

Variability of the Stature of the Central European Population from the Neolithic Age to Present
M. Dobisíková, S. Katina, P. Velemínský
The aim of our contribution is to characterize the changes of the stature in adult populations that have lived in Central Europe from the Neolithic period up to the present. Our sample consisted of 802 male and 704 female skeletons. The evaluation was conducted taking into account the demographic structure of the groups studied. We confronted the findings with the living
conditions of the populations known to have a significant impact on human stature, in
addition to genetic factors. We thus considered the socioeconomic status of the populations that might have influenced the quality of nutrition. We focused our attention on the socioeconomic aspect of populations of the early Middle Ages and the recent population. We compared socially higher placed part of the society with socially poorer classes (agricultural groups) (177 male, 178 female) in the early-medieval population of Great Moravia. No statistically significant
differences were found among individual social groups. To calculate the stature of last populations we used the regression equations developed by Breitiger (1937) and Bach (1965). The
calculation was based only on the length of the femur that is directly involved in body length. The impact of the secular trend was evaluated in the recent population. We compared two autopsy skeletal samples from the beginning and ends of the 20th century (107 male, 53 female). Statistically significant differences between them was found. Finally, we proposed regression equations for calculating the stature of the contemporary Czech population usable in forensic practice.

A phylogeographic analysis of haplogroup D5 and its implications for the peopling of East Asia.
M.C. Dulik
While genetic studies have focused on the Altai region of South Siberia as a possible place of origin for Native Americans, it is also possible that it played a similarly significant role in the peopling of East Asia. A Siberian connection to other East Asian populations has already been proposed based on archaeological, linguistic and classical genetic marker evidence. In this study, we examined a rare and ancient haplogroup, D5c, in an effort to elucidate early population movements in East Asia. Previous studies suggested that D5 first emerged in China and
spread northwards from there. However,given the number of D5c individuals (12) and the range of variation in D5 from the Altai region, it is conceivable that this haplogroup instead originated in South Siberia and spread from there during the initial movements of Paleolithic peoples. To est this hypothesis, we obtained complete mtDNA sequences for individuals represented by aplogroups D4 and D5 and acquired additional sequences available through GenBank and published literature. We then analyzed the entire dataset with the reduced median network approach and
phylogeographic modeling. Our results suggest that Southern Siberia did play a
critical role in the spread of the D5 haplogroup. This focus on relatively unique
mtDNA lineages specific to certain populations allowed us to better understand
the processes of ancient settlement and subsequent population movements that helped shape the current genetic landscape of East Asia.

More than meets the eye: LB1, the transforming hominin.
R.B. Eckhard et al.

LB1 is not a microcephalic.
D. Falk1 et al.

Is there biological meaning to “Hispanic” in New Mexico?
H.J.H. Edgar, C.M. Willermet

Establishing the nature of the differences between skull samples from two populations.
S.P. Evans et al.
A sample of 1188 skulls from the Romano-British site at Poundbury shows differences from the 18th century sample of 822 skulls from Spitalfields. Both sites are in the south of England, but 1400 years apart in time. The differences between the sites could be due to immigrations over time and/or to adaptation to the environment. The aim of the study was to establish the nature of the differences, in particular the relative importance of genetic and acquired traits.
Frequencies of 22 selected non-metric traits in juvenile, female and male skulls were analysed. Initial logistic regression analyses established that there was a substantial difference between the two sites and between juveniles and adults, with some sexual dimorphism. The modified mean
measure of divergence, used to calculate overall distances between the groups, showed the juvenile groups to be closer to each other than to adults from their respective sites. Across sites, males were most distant from each other. The largest distance was between Spitalfields juveniles and males. Principal coordinate analysis, followed by a jackknife stability analysis, revealed a pattern indicating that this came about through growth and adaptation. Omitting traits in turn, procrustes methods were used to identify the most influential, all of which
were acquired through ageing or lifestyle. Without these traits there was no significant
difference between the two juvenile groups and no sexual dimorphism. These results show the importance of the behavioural environment in determining morphology, and the resilience of populations to genetic change.

Peopling of the Pacific: resolving the controversy.
J.S. Friedlaender et al.
"Our survey of mitochondrial DNA, Ychromosome, and over 600 short tandem repeat polymorphisms and 200 insertiondeletions from over 40 Pacific populations indicates Polynesians have their genetic
origins to both Melanesian and Taiwanese (Southeast Asian) populations in significant degrees. In Island Melanesia, there is a small but clear ancient genetic footprint in certain Oceanic-speaking populations (i.e., linguistically related to Polynesian). The survey results underscore the extraordinary diversity of Island Melanesian populations from one language group to another, and from island to island. This is the result of the small sizes of the populations and the very long extent of modern human settlement there (over 30,000 years)."

Multivariate studies of cranial form: the impact of Howells' research on defining Homo sapiens.
J.B. Gaines et al.

Demographic simulations of the admixture between foragers and farmers in central European Neolithic.
P. Galeta, J. Bruzek.

William White Howells: A physical anthropologist in the making.
E. Giles

The relationship of Nubians with their neighbors, the Egyptians.
By, K. Godde.

The Phylogeography of Haplogroup N1a
Gokcumen O et al.
Recent studies have revealed a complex geographic distribution of haplogroup N1a. This rare and distinctive lineage is widely distributed across Eurasia and Africa, but always found at very low frequencies. However, despite its rarity, the genetic diversity within N1a has remained relatively high (h=0.9605). The reduced median network of N1a haplotypes not only reflects
this level of diversity, but also exhibits several relatively well-defined branches. The
distribution of N1a is intriguing because of revealing previously unrecognized connections between populations. What makes N1a even more interesting is the prevalence of this lineage in ancient European populations. Haak et al. (2005) found that 25% of their European Neolithic
samples belonged to N1a and dated to ~5000 BCE, whereas the frequency of this lineage in contemporary Europeans is only ~0.2%. In addition, an Iron Age skeleton from Kazakhstan had an N1a haplotype, suggesting the existence of this lineage in the Altai Republic in ~500BCE (Ricaut et al. 2004). Indeed, we found several haplogroup N1a mtDNAs in indigenous Altaians and Altaian Kazakhs. To further elucidate the phylogeography of this lineage in Central Asia, we sequenced the whole mtDNA genomes of our N1a haplotypes, and analyzed the resulting data with several quantitative methods and simulation programs to estimate their expansion times and spatial
distribution in Eurasia. Our findings suggest that there are two well-defined sublineages
within N1a, and that the dispersal of this haplogroup could be associated with the Neolithic expansion and with prehistoric interactions between Central Asian and European populations.


Understanding human races: the retreat of neutralism.
Henry Harpending
Discussion and debate about human races has been dominated for decades by neutral theory and statistics. Since this literature never posed a real question, it has never produced an answer. Lewontin's 1972 paper with its claim that a value of 1/8 of a statistic like Fst is “small” and that this means that human race differences are insignificant is a staple of our textbooks. Recently geneticists have had a closer look and pointed out that Fst of 1/8 describes differences among sets of half sibs and few claim that half sibs are insignificantly related. Anthony Edwards has shown that the significance of differences is in the correlation structure of a large number of traits, again denying the Lewontin assertion that human differences are small. Alan Templeton in 1998 claimed that human races were less differentiated that races of some other large mammals, but he compared human nuclear DNA statistics with statistics from mtDNA in the other species. An appropriate comparison shows that human are more, not less, differentiated than other large mammal species. Since neutral differences are a passive
record of demographic history they are not very significant for issues of functional biology. Newly available data sources allow us to study the natural selection of race differences instead of their drift. It appears that there is a lot of ongoing evolution in our species and the loci under strong selection on different continents only partially overlap. Human race differences may be increasing rapidly.

Acceleration of adaptive evolution in modern humans.
J. Hawks and G. Cochran
Humans vastly increased in numbers during the past 40,000 years. Recent surveys of human genomic variation have suggested a large surplus of recent positive selection, indicated by excess linkage disequilibrium and skewed SNP frequency spectra. We applied estimates of prehistoric and historic population sizes to estimate the importance of population growth in explaining the number of recent adaptive mutations. Our estimates are consistent with genomic evidence in suggesting that the rate of generation of positively selected genes has increased as much as a hundredfold during the past 40,000 years.

Do skeletal features reflect this genomic evidence of selection? Under positive
selection, rapid appearance of new variants during the terminal Pleistocene and early
Holocene would cause maximal phenotypic change during the last 2000-4000 years. We compared original and published series of Holocene cranial data from Europe, Jordan, Nubia, South Africa, and China, in addition to Late Pleistocene samples from Europe and West Asia, to test the hypothesis that the genomic acceleration in positive selection correlates with phenotypic evolution during this time period. A constellation of features in the face and cranial vault, notably including endocranial volume, changed globally during this time period and documents common patterns of selection in different regions. Holocene changes were similar in pattern and chronologically faster than those at the archaic-modern transition, which themselves were rapid compared to earlier hominid evolution. In genomic and craniometric terms, the origin of modern humans was a minor event compared to more recent evolutionary changes.

Patterns of admixture in Mexican Americans assessed from 101,150 SNPs.
M.G. Hayes et al.
"No significant differences were observed between the 10 subsets, allowing us to average the admixture estimates across the subsets: 68% European, 27% Asian (as a proxy for Native American), and 6% African."

Gender, wealth, and status in Bronze Age Central Asia: a dental pathology investigation.
B.E. Hemphill.

Sahara passage: the post-glacial recolonisation of North Africa by mitochondrial L* haplotypes.
AD Holden. P Forster.

Secular trends of the European male facial skull from the Migration Period to the present.
E. Jonke et al.
We examined secular trends in the facial skull over three Central European samples spanning more than 13 centuries. Data are 43 conventional cephalometric landmark points for samples dating from 680–830 CE, from the mid-19th Century, and from living Austrian young adult males. Methods of geometric morphometrics demonstrate shape differences across the samples, and also
differences in allometry. There is a stronginteraction between these, so that group mean differences are different for small and large individuals (equivalently, allometry is
different from period to period). The oldest sample, from the Migration Period, exhibits
allometric features that may possibly be Turkic. There are implications for the
craniofacial biologist interested in growth trends or growth predictions in ethnically
mixed populations. There are also implications for the discussion concerning the morphology of the Avars (an ethnic group of probably Central Asian origin who conquered large parts of Central Europe during the Migration Period and who interbred with other incoming groups after their conquest by Charlemagne), and also the relation of these findings to current thinking on gnathic reduction trends.

Roman Gladiators - The Osseous Evidence.
F. Kanz, K. Grossschmidt

Paternal heritage for the Indonesian peoples.
T. M. Karafet et al.

Feeding the children: Isotopic evidence for weaning practices in the ancient Greek colony of Apollonia (5th-2nd centuries BC).
C. Kwok, A. Keenleyside.

Misconceptions about the postcranial skeleton of Homo floresiensis.
S.G. Larson et al.

A comparison of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA variation on Manus Island.
K.E. Latham et al.

Sub-Saharan African mtDNA admixture in several West Eurasian (Caucasoid) populations

The recent article on Etruscan mtDNA contains a useful overview table of mtDNA haplogroups in several West Eurasian (Caucasoid) populations, collected from both this study as well as the literature. Extracted from this table is the following table of mtDNA L (Sub-Saharan African) sequences in the listed populations. Scroll down because blogger added a lot of vertical space above the table.

POPULATION	Sample Size	% L sequences
Palestinians	117	13.68
Jordan	494	12.55
Portugal-South	203	10.84
Iraq	116	9.48
Syria	328	9.15
Portugal-Center	203	6.4
Spain-North-West	216	3.7
Portugal-North	188	3.19
Latium	138	2.9
Non-Europeans	4739	2.85
Lebanon	176	2.84
Volterra	114	2.63
Kurds	82	2.44
Sicily	105	1.9
Turks	340	1.76
Andalusia	114	1.75
Spain-North-East	179	1.68
Casentino	122	1.64
Murlo	86	1.16
Crete	202	0.99
Marche	813	0.98
Tuscans	322	0.93
Finland	121	0.83
Europe (w/o Tuscans)	10589	0.79
Bulgaria	141	0.71
Bosnia	144	0.69
Spain-Center	148	0.68
Basque	156	0.64
England	335	0.6
Sardinia	370	0.54
Switzerland	228	0.44
Campania	313	0.32
France	332	0.3
Germany	335	0.3
Iran	436	0.23
Poland	542	0.18
Caucasus-North-West	1179	0.17
Apulia-Calabria	226	0
Armenia	191	0
Austria	99	0
Azerbaijan	48	0
Bavaria	249	0
Caucasus-North-East	820	0
Czech-Republic	83	0
Estonia	558	0
Georgia	412	0
Greece	155	0
Ireland	300	0
Latvia	299	0
Lemnos	60	0
Lombardy	177	0
Norway	556	0
Piedmont	169	0
Rhodes	42	0
Romania	94	0
Russia	397	0
Scotland	1199	0
Slovakia	129	0
Slovenia	104	0
Sweden-Denmark	75	0
Wales	92	0