From what I know, my family tree traces entirely to Estonia, back to the fog of countless invasions and occupations of my homeland. So it was with some curiosity that I explored my lineage back a few thousand generations and 60,000 years to Africa, and a long period in Iran. My recent ancestors were likely reindeer herders in Siberia, breeding Samoyed white fluffy dogs.
I submitted my DNA anonymously to IBM for a research project, and from the mutations in my Y-chromosome alone, they identified me as haplotype N LLY22G, which pegs the Uralic language of my family and the locale of northern Scandinavia / Eastern Europe. With only my DNA, they identified my family origin on the map above to within a few miles, and traced it back to the veritable “Adam” in Africa, from whom we are all descendants.
And, unaware of any of this, it is odd that, so far in my life, I have adopted two animals from shelters, both Samoyed dogs.
Here is a portion of my Genographic Project report, a fascinating peek into genetic archaeology:
Your Y-chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup N.
The genetic markers that define your ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow your lineage to present day, ending with LLY22(G), the defining marker of haplogroup N.
If you look at the map highlighting your ancestors’ route, you will see that members of haplogroup N carry the following Y-chromosome markers:
M168 > M89 > M9 > LLY22(G)
Today, your ancestors are found in northern parts of Scandinavia particularly northern Finland as well as Siberia east of the Altai Mountains, and in northeastern Europe. Many Russians are members of haplogroup N, as are the reindeer-herding Saami people of northern Scandinavia and Russia.
What’s a haplogroup, and why do geneticists concentrate on the Y-chromosome in their search for markers? For that matter, what’s a marker?
Each of us carries DNA that is a combination of genes passed from both our mother and father, giving us traits that range from eye color and height to athleticism and disease susceptibility. One exception is the Y-chromosome, which is passed directly from father to son, unchanged, from generation to generation.
Unchanged, that is unless a mutation—a random, naturally occurring, usually harmless change—occurs. The mutation, known as a marker, acts as a beacon; it can be mapped through generations because it will be passed down from the man in whom it occurred to his sons, their sons, and every male in his family for thousands of years.
Your Ancestral Journey: What We Know Now
M168: Your Earliest Ancestor
Time of Emergence: Roughly 50,000 years ago
Place of Origin: Africa
Climate: Temporary retreat of Ice Age; Africa moves from drought to warmer temperatures and moister conditions
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Approximately 10,000
Tools and Skills: Stone tools; earliest evidence of art and advanced conceptual skills
The man who gave rise to the first genetic marker in your lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley. Scientists put the most likely date for when he lived at around 50,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.
But why would man have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? It is likely that a fluctuation in climate may have provided the impetus for your ancestors’ exodus out of Africa.
The African ice age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. It was around 50,000 years ago that the ice sheets of northern Europe began to melt, introducing a period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to a savanna, the animals hunted by your ancestors expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands.
M89: Moving Through the Middle East
Time of Emergence: 45,000 years ago
Place: Middle East
Climate: Semi-arid grass plains
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands
Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools
The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to M89, a marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. This man was born around 45,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East.
The first people to leave Africa likely followed a coastal route that eventually ended in Australia. Your ancestors followed the expanding grasslands and plentiful game to the Middle East and beyond, and were part of the second great wave of migration out of Africa.
Beginning about 40,000 years ago, the climate shifted once again and became colder and more arid. Drought hit Africa and the grasslands reverted to desert, and for the next 20,000 years, the Saharan Gateway was effectively closed. With the desert impassable, your ancestors had two options: remain in the Middle East, or move on. Retreat back to the home continent was not an option.
While many of the descendants of M89 remained in the Middle East, others continued to follow the great herds of buffalo, antelope, woolly mammoths, and other game through what is now modern-day Iran to the vast steppes of Central Asia.
These semi-arid grass-covered plains formed an ancient “superhighway” stretching from eastern France to Korea. Your ancestors, having migrated north out of Africa into the Middle East, then traveled both east and west along this Central Asian superhighway. A smaller group continued moving north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country.
M9: The Eurasian Clan Spreads Wide and Far
Time of Emergence: 40,000 years ago
Place: Iran or southern Central Asia
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of thousands
Tools and Skills: Upper Paleolithic
Your next ancestor, a man born around 40,000 years ago in Iran or southern Central Asia, gave rise to a genetic marker known as M9, which marked a new lineage diverging from the M89 Middle Eastern Clan. His descendants, of which you are one, spent the next 30,000 years populating much of the planet.
This large lineage, known as the Eurasian Clan, dispersed gradually over thousands of years. Seasoned hunters followed the herds ever eastward, along the vast super highway of Eurasian steppe. Eventually their path was blocked by the massive mountain ranges of south Central Asia—the Hindu Kush, the Tian Shan, and the Himalayas.
The three mountain ranges meet in a region known as the “Pamir Knot,” located in present-day Tajikistan. Here the tribes of hunters split into two groups. Some moved north into Central Asia, others moved south into what is now Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent.
LLY22G: Siberian Marker
Time of Emergence: Within the last 10,000 years
Place of Origin: Siberia
Climate: Present Day
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens: Tens of millions
Tools/Skills: Some hunter-fishers, some farmers
Language: Chiefly found in Uralic-speaking populations
One of the men in a group of Eurasian Clan peoples who traveled north through the Pamir Knot region gave rise to the LLY22G marker, which defines your lineage, haplogroup N.
Today his descendants effectively trace a migration of Uralic-speaking peoples during the last several thousand years. This lineage has dispersed throughout the generations, and is now found in southern parts of Scandinavia as well as northeastern Eurasia. The Saami, an indigenous people of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia, traditionally supported themselves with hunting and fishing, their movement dictated by the reindeer herds.
This is where your genetic trail, as we know it today, ends. However, be sure to revisit these pages. As additional data are collected and analyzed, more will be learned about your place in the history of the men and women who first populated the Earth. We will be updating these stories throughout the life of the Genographic Project.
Update: you can get your own test here
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