Basal Eurasian
Basal Eurasian is a proposed lineage of
Description
A study by Lazaridis et al. in 2014 demonstrated that modern Europeans can be modelled as an admixture of three ancestral populations; Ancient North Eurasians (ANE), Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG), and Early European Farmers (EEF).[2] This same study also showed that EEFs harbour ancestry from a hypothetical non-African 'ghost' population which the authors name 'Basal Eurasians'. This group, who have not yet been sampled from ancient remains, are thought to have diverged from all non-African populations c. 60,000 to 100,000 years ago, before non-Africans admixed with Neanderthals (c. 50,000 to 60,000 years ago) and diversified from each other. A second study by Lazaridis et al. in 2016 found that populations with higher levels of Basal Eurasian ancestry have lower levels of Neanderthal ancestry, which suggests that Basal Eurasians had lower levels of Neanderthal ancestry compared with other non-Africans. Another study by Ferreira et al. in 2021 suggested that Basal Eurasians diverged from other Eurasians between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, and lived somewhere in the Arabian peninsula, specifically the Persian Gulf region, shortly before proper Eurasians admixed with a Neanderthal population in a region stretching from the Levant to northern Iran.[3][4][5][6][7] Vallini et al. 2024 argues that the Basal Eurasian lineage diverged from other Eurasians soon after the Out-of-Africa migration, and subsequently became isolated, until it started to mix with other populations in the Middle East since around 25,000 years ago. These different Middle Eastern populations would later spread Basal Eurasian ancestry via the Neolithic Revolution to all of Western Eurasia.[8]
In modern populations, Neanderthal ancestry is around 10% to 20% lower in West Eurasians than East Eurasians, with intermediate levels found in South and Central Asian populations. Although a scenario involving multiple admixture events between modern humans and Neanderthals is an alternative possibility, the most likely explanation for this is that Neanderthal ancestry in West Eurasians and South and Central Asians was diluted by admixture with Basal Eurasian groups.[4]
Possible geographic origins
Basal Eurasians may have originated in a region stretching from North Africa to the Middle East, before admixing with West-Eurasian populations.[3][4][5][6][7] North Africa has been described as a strong candidate for the location of the emergence of Basal Eurasians by Loosdrecht et al. in 2018.[9] Ferreira et al. in 2021 argued for a point of origin for Basal Eurasians into the Middle East, specifically in the Persian Gulf region on the Arab peninsula. As Basal Eurasians had low levels of Neanderthal ancestry, genetic and archaeological evidence for interactions between modern humans and Neanderthals may allow certain areas, such as the Levant, to be ruled out as possible sources for Basal Eurasians. In other areas, such as southern Southwest Asia, there is currently no evidence for an overlap between modern human and Neanderthal populations.[6] Vallini et al. 2024 suggests a homeland for Basal Eurasians in the Arabian Peninsula, with a 'Common Eurasian Hub' in the Iranian Plateau, where they diverged into 'Ancient West Eurasians' and 'Ancient East Eurasians'.[8]
Estimated Basal Eurasian ancestry in ancient and modern populations
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Admixture_graph_of_deep_Eurasian_lineages.png/220px-Admixture_graph_of_deep_Eurasian_lineages.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Relationship_and_legacy_of_the_West_and_East_Eurasian_Core_populations.webp/220px-Relationship_and_legacy_of_the_West_and_East_Eurasian_Core_populations.webp.png)
An estimation for
The Ancient North African Iberomaurusian (Taforalt) individuals were found to have harbored ~65% West Eurasian-like ancestry and considered likely direct descendants of such "Basal Eurasian" population. However they were shown to be genetically closer to Holocene-era Iranians and Levantine populations, which already harbored increased archaic (Neanderthal) admixture.[9]
Among modern populations, Basal-like ancestry peaks among
References
- PMID 37851812.
- ^ a b Lazaridis et al. 2014.
- ^ a b Kamm et al. 2020.
- ^ a b c Bergström et al. 2021.
- ^ a b Vallini & Pagani 2022.
- ^ a b c d Ferreira et al. 2021.
- ^ a b Lazaridis et al. 2016.
- ^ PMID 38528002.
The outlined scenario is complicated by the need to account for the Basal Eurasian population (Fig. 1A, green), a group30 that split from other Eurasians soon after the main Out of Africa expansion, hence also before the split between East and West Eurasians. This population was isolated from other Eurasians and later on, starting from at least ~25 kya31,32, admixed with populations from the Middle East. Their ancestry was subsequently carried by the population expansions associated with the Neolithic revolution to all of West Eurasia.
- ^ a b c van de Loosdrecht et al. 2018.
- PMID 27459054.
Neolithic Iran and Natufians could be derived from the same Basal Eurasian population but are genetically closer to EHG and WHG respectively. We take the model of Fig. S4.9 and attempt to fit Natufians as a mixture of the same Basal Eurasian population that contributes to Iran_N and any other population of the tree. Several solutions are feasible, and we show the best one (lowest ADMIXTUREGRAPH score) in Fig. S4.10. We can add both EHG and MA1 as simple branches to the model structure of Fig. S4.10 and show the results in Fig. S4.11. An interesting aspect of this model is that it derives both Natufians and Iran_N from Basal Eurasians but Natufians have ancestry from a population related to WHG, while Iran_N has ancestry related to EHG. Natufians and Iran_N may themselves reside on clines of WHG-related/EHG-related admixture.
- PMID 34480555.
It has been previously speculated that isolated basal Eurasian lineage descendants in the central Zagros Mountains of Iran, who were the first goatherds, spread afterwards into the Eurasian steppe (Broushaki et al. 2016; Lazaridis et al. 2016). Also the ancient Iberomaurusian specimens could be in part descendants of basal Eurasians (van de Loosdrecht et al. 2018)
- PMID 34352227.
- ^ PMID 38200295.
- PMID 38528002.
Our results showed that the genetic component closest to the Hub population is represented in ancient and modern populations in the Persian Plateau. Such a component, after mixing with Basal and East Eurasian ancestries, resurfaced in the palaeogenetic record, previously referred to as the Iranian Neolithic, the Iranian Hunter Gatherer' or the East Meta49.
- PMID 37057893.
According to this model, East Mediterranean dogs are modeled as a mixture of a basal branch (splitting deeper than the divergence of the Asian and European dogs) and West European dogs, again in agreement with current models of genetic history of West Asian human populations who are modeled as a mixture of 'basal Eurasians' and West European hunter–gatherers (Lazaridis et al., 2016; Lipson et al., 2017).
- PMID 29144465.
- PMID 26728717.
Given that the Q1 (Bedouin) have the greatest proportion of Arab genetic ancestry measured in contemporary populations (Hodgson et al. 2014; Shriner et al. 2014) and are among the best genetic representatives of the autochthonous population on the Arabian Peninsula, these two conclusions therefore point to the Bedouins being direct descendants of the earliest split after the out-of-Africa migration events that established a basal Eurasian population (Lazaridis et al. 2014). This is also consistent with the majority of Q1 (Bedouin) being able to trace a significant portion of their autosomal ancestry through lineages that never left the peninsula after the out-of-Africa migration events since such deep ancestry would not be expected if the entire Arabian Peninsula population had been reestablished from Africa or a non-African population at a later point.
Sources
- Bergström, Anders; Stringer, Chris; Hajdinjak, Mateja; Scerri, Eleanor M. L.; Skoglund, Pontus (11 February 2021). "Origins of modern human ancestry". Nature. 590 (7845): 229–237. S2CID 231883210.
- Ferreira, Joana C.; Alshamali, Farida; Montinaro, Francesco; Cavadas, Bruno; Torroni, Antonio; Pereira, Luisa; Raveane, Alessandro; Fernandes, Veronica (1 September 2021). "Projecting Ancient Ancestry in Modern-Day Arabians and Iranians: A Key Role of the Past Exposed Arabo-Persian Gulf on Human Migrations". Genome Biology and Evolution. 13 (9): evab194. PMID 34480555.
- Fu, Qiaomei; et al. (2016). "The genetic history of Ice Age Europe". Nature. 534 (7606): 200–205. PMID 27135931.
- Kamm, Jack; Terhorst, Jonathan; Durbin, Richard; Song, Yun S. (2 July 2020). "Efficiently Inferring the Demographic History of Many Populations With Allele Count Data". Journal of the American Statistical Association. 115 (531): 1472–1487. PMID 33012903.
- Lazaridis, Iosif; Patterson, Nick; Mittnik, Alissa; Renaud, Gabriel; Mallick, Swapan; Kirsanow, Karola; Sudmant, Peter H.; Schraiber, Joshua G.; Castellano, Sergi; Lipson, Mark; Berger, Bonnie; Economou, Christos; Bollongino, Ruth; Fu, Qiaomei; Bos, Kirsten I. (2014). "Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans". Nature. 513 (7518): 409–413. PMID 25230663.
- Lazaridis, Iosif; et al. (2016). "Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East" (PDF). Nature. 536 (7617): 419–424. PMID 27459054.
- Lazaridis, Iosif (2018). "The evolutionary history of human populations in Europe". Current Opinion in Genetics & Development. 53: 21–27. S2CID 19158377.
- Vallini, Leonardo; Pagani, Luca (2022). "The future of the Eurasian past: highlighting plotholes and pillars of human population movements in the Late Pleistocene". Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 100 (100): 231–241. PMID 36565457.
- van de Loosdrecht, Marieke; Bouzouggar, Abdeljalil; Humphrey, Louise; Posth, Cosimo; Barton, Nick; Aximu-Petri, Ayinuer; Nickel, Birgit; Nagel, Sarah; Talbi, El Hassan; El Hajraoui, Mohammed Abdeljalil; Amzazi, Saaïd; Hublin, Jean-Jacques; Pääbo, Svante; Schiffels, Stephan; Meyer, Matthias (2018). "Pleistocene North African genomes link Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African human populations". Science. 360 (6388): 548–552. S2CID 206666517.
- Wang CC, Reinhold S, Kalmykov A, et al. (4 February 2019). "Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions". Nat Commun. 10 (1): 590. PMID 30713341.