"Extinct Tasmanian tiger gene brought back to life"

AFP:

Scientists said Tuesday they had "resurrected" a gene from the extinct Tasmanian tiger by implanting it in a mouse, raising the future possibility of bringing animals such as dinosaurs back to life.

In what they describe as a world first, researchers from Australian and US universities extracted a gene from a preserved specimen of the doglike marsupial -- formally known as a thylacine -- and revived it in a mouse embryo.

"This is the first time that DNA from an extinct species has been used to induce a functional response in another living organism," said research leader Andrew Pask of the University of Melbourne.

The announcement was hailed here as raising the possibility of recreating extinct animals.

Mike Archer, dean of science at the University of New South Wales who led an attempt to clone the thylacine when he was director of the Australian Museum, called it "one very significant step in that direction."

"I'm personally convinced this is going to happen," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "I've got another group working on another extinct Australian animal and we think this is highly probable."

[. . .]

But Renfree also cautioned that the recreation of extinct animals was not the aim of the research.

"Maybe one day this might be possible but it won't happen in my lifetime," she told AFP. "It might happen in my children's lifetime, but there's so many steps we need to achieve before you could actually make this work."

PLoS ONE 3(5): e2240. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002240

Resurrection of DNA Function In Vivo from an Extinct Genome

Andrew J. Pask et al.

Abstract

There is a burgeoning repository of information available from ancient DNA that can be used to understand how genomes have evolved and to determine the genetic features that defined a particular species. To assess the functional consequences of changes to a genome, a variety of methods are needed to examine extinct DNA function. We isolated a transcriptional enhancer element from the genome of an extinct marsupial, the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus or thylacine), obtained from 100 year-old ethanol-fixed tissues from museum collections. We then examined the function of the enhancer in vivo. Using a transgenic approach, it was possible to resurrect DNA function in transgenic mice. The results demonstrate that the thylacine Col2A1 enhancer directed chondrocyte-specific expression in this extinct mammalian species in the same way as its orthologue does in mice. While other studies have examined extinct coding DNA function in vitro, this is the first example of the restoration of extinct non-coding DNA and examination of its function in vivo. Our method using transgenesis can be used to explore the function of regulatory and protein-coding sequences obtained from any extinct species in an in vivo model system, providing important insights into gene evolution and diversity.

2008-05-20 links

Dienekes: ESHG 2008 abstracts

Human pigmentation genetics: Two genome-wide association studies identify new alleles associated with hair and skin color: SLC24A4 and IRF4; TPCN2 and ASIP

John Hawks: Were ancient Africans divided into small, isolated bands? (a different take on the Behar / Genographic project data)

Genetic Archaeology: Geneticists trace the evolution of St. Louis encephalitis

Democrat primary: Appalachia votes Hillary; Richard McCulloch, Greg Johnson and the editors at The Occidental Observer comment

Derbyshire: What’s So Scary About Evolution?

Racial differences in vaginal dimensions: strike one more against Rushton

J.P. Rushton in Race, Evolution, Behavior (pdf) claims black > white > Asian. What do we actually see?

Gynecol Obstet Invest 2000;50:54–59

Comparison of Vaginal Shapes in Afro-American, Caucasian and Hispanic Women as Seen with Vinyl Polysiloxane Casting

Paula B. Pendergrass Cornelia A. Reeves Meyer W. Belovicz Darron J. Molter Janet H. White

Abstract

Full vinyl polysiloxane casts of the vagina were obtained from 23 Afro-American, 39 Caucasian and 15 Hispanic women in lying, sitting and standing positions. A new shape, the pumpkin seed, was found in 40% of Afro-American women, but not in Caucasians or Hispanics. Analyses of cast and introital measurements revealed: (1) posterior cast length is significantly longer, anterior cast length is significantly shorter and cast width is significantly larger in Hispanics than in the other two groups and (2) the Caucasian introitus is significantly greater than that of the Afro-American subject.

[. . .]

In addition to the three molds, vaginal length and introital distensibility were obtained. With the subject in the supine position, length was taken by having the subject insert a 7-inch polished acrylic rod as far back into her vagina as possible without causing discomfort; introital distensibility was determined by having the subject insert a lubricated 125-ml polypropylene Erlenmeyer flask as far back as possible into her vagina without causing discomfort. The circumference at the point of entry was marked and measured, and a diameter was calculated.

[. . .]

Comparisons of the length of anterior and posterior cast walls as measured with calipers for all three study groups are given in table 2. For the posterior measurements, Hispanics showed a much narrower range than either Afro-Americans or Caucasians, and, importantly, they exhibited no posterior lengths less than 8 cm. Consequently the mean for Hispanic casts was significantly greater (p = 0.01). The mean anterior length for Hispanics was also significantly different (p = 0.01) but was shorter than those of the Afro-Americans and Caucasians. Consequently, the overall picture of the Hispanic cast is one that is relatively short along the anterior wall, but considerably longer along the posterior wall. The longer posterior measurements are reflected in deeper posterior fornices among the Hispanic subjects which, interestingly, all showed a full cervical imprint in the cast; this suggests that the cervix in Hispanics consistently lies in a deeper position within the vaginal vault.

Comparisons of the length of anterior and posterior cast walls as measured with strings for all three study groups are shown in table 3. These measurements directly reflect the caliper measurements. Hispanic casts are significantly longer posteriorly (p = 0.01) and shorter anteriorly (p = 0.01), with anterior lengths being shifted downward 1–1.5 cm.

Maximum widths (side-to-side) and depths (anteriorposterior) are given in table 4. Hispanic casts are significantly wider than either Afro-American or Caucasian casts (p = 0.01), with the mean being over 2 cm greater than Caucasians, and over 1 cm greater than Afro-Americans. Also, the range of widths is noticeably narrower among Hispanics indicating a more homogeneous group.

The mean depth is somewhat greater among Hispanics but is not significantly different from that of Afro-Americans and Caucasians. The variability among Hispanics is smaller with a narrower range and a smaller standard deviation.

Average rod lengths for Caucasians and Afro-Americans were 11.51 and 11.18 cm, respectively, and introital diameters were 4.66 and 3.14 cm, respectively. Both measurements were significantly different as measured by t test (table 5). Because rod and introital measurements were obtained from only 5 Hispanic subjects, no statistical comparisons can be made. Hispanic rod lengths ranged from 8.2 to 12.5 cm, and the introital measurements ranged from 1.9 to 3.2 cm.

A summary of t tests for comparison of Caucasian, Afro-American and Hispanic subjects is presented in table 5. These results show statistically significant differences among the three groups in the following areas: (1) the posterior cast length as measured with both calipers and strings is significantly longer for Hispanics than for Caucasians and Afro-Americans; (2) the anterior cast length as measured with both calipers and strings is significantly shorter for Hispanics than for Caucasians and Afro-Americans; (3) the width of casts in the lying position is significantly greater for Hispanics than for Caucasians and Afro-Americans; (4) the Caucasian introitus is significantly greater than that of the Afro-American. From this we conclude that there are differing distributions of shapes and much greater homogeneity among Hispanics than among Afro-Americans or Caucasians.

Trivial, perhaps, but these things add up. Racial differences exist, but--contrary to the impression one might get reading REB--they don't always neatly align with Rushton's "r-K" framework. Much of his work has value, but Rushton is far from infallible.

Previously, I've taken issue with some of Rushton's claims concerning testosterone (low in sub-Saharan Africans compared to Westerners; minimal black-white differences in America; hardly a good candidate to explain black social pathology), fundamental vocal frequency, penis size (what evidence exists suggests minimal black-white differences), and testis mass (greater in whites compared to Asians and blacks, according to the available autopsy studies).

Digit ratio doesn't follow Rushton's rule

Chris Brand reviews a new book:

BOOK REVIEW of Manning, J. ( 2008), The Finger Book: Sex, Behaviour and Disease Revealed in the Fingers. Pp. 170 + xiii. London : Faber & Faber.

Reviewed by CHRIS BRAND. Available at Amazon

This book, by a British evolutionary psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire (formerly Preston Polytechnic), argues that there are links between ring-finger length (RFL), testosteronization in the womb, masculinity, personality, polygamy and race. It gets off to a slow start, but there is drama enough by the finish.

The ring finger is hairier in males than other digits, perhaps reflecting its being more under the influence of the sex hormone testosterone and its being assigned for the wedding ring. In any case, RFL, relative to index-finger length (the normal ratio in Whites is approximately 1:1), is greater in males and also in top athletes and sportsmen, autists, attention-deficit children and butch lesbians; and it correlates negatively with psychologists’ measures of agreeability, gentleness and femininity. Thus goes the first 90% of Manning’s (rather repetitive) book.

Of course there are some problems. It is not obvious why RFL should be measured from the point of the finger’s lowest skin crease with the palm rather than from the knuckle. The inter-observer reliability for RFL is not stated or even considered. There seems no special reason why testosterone should especially affect the growth of the ring finger. All the associations with RFL mentioned above are pretty slight (Manning does not give correlations but his occasional scattergrams indicate effect sizes of around .25). And other efforts to argue for links to RFL don’t really work at all: the promised link to left-handedness doesn’t materialize (though Manning might have tried ‘mixed-handedness’, often associated with mild personality difficulties), and the proposed link to schizophrenia is a mess (with too many complications arising from ‘testosterone inhibitors’ and genes determining the uptake of said inhibitors). But Manning has had no difficulty finding academic collaborators to undertake empirical work with him over the 15 years since the RFL links were first advertised to psychologists by Hans Eysenck’s ‘first lieutenant,’ Glenn Wilson; and there clearly is a case to answer.

[. . .]

All but the most piously anti-racist readers who have got this far with the present review will know of the claims of Philippe Rushton, Richard Lynn and the London School that the main established psychological gradation between the human races is that running from East Asians through Caucasians to Negroes and characterized primarily as one of inherited general intelligence (cf. IQ) though also being linked to law-abidingness and sexual restraint. Well, Manning likewise has a broad dimensional claim to outline – set out finally in a graph on the penultimate page of his book.

Though not especially motivated to study race – and thus apparently never having read any London School work – the empirical studies which he has found or organized have yielded a clear and interesting picture, bringing together Blacks and East Asians (Zulus, Jamaicans, Chinese and Japanese) as high-RFL and distinguishing them from the typically low-RFL Europeans (Polish, Spanish, English and Hungarian – with Germans and Gypsies scoring a little higher, intermediate with Chinese levels). For just what this means (if it replicates), Manning’s readers are left to refer to the book’s earlier claims. But the finding of a marked and allegedly important similarity between Blacks and East Asians will amaze many – and not just Rushton and Lynn. This is particularly because, having started his book by tending to play up the advantages of early testosterone (good for the heart, supposedly), Manning ends by making the human shift to right-handedness (long called ‘the right-shift factor’ by the equally unmentioned Marian Annette) fundamental to language and civilization as we know it and attributing it to foetal oestrogen and thus linking it to short RFL.

I've previously demonstrated black-white differences in circulating testosterone are minimal in adult males.

It's certainly conceivable there are racial differences in pre-natal androgen exposure, though--considering the major races are known to vary in any number of anthropometic indices not putatively linked to androgen exposure--it's not clear to me how meaningful unadjusted cross-racial comparisons of digit ratio are. Regardless, digit ratio can't be dragged out by those trying to shore up "Rushton's rule" with respect to androgenization.

Visher on racial stock and achievement

Note: "Starred" scientists are those in American Men of Science voted by their peers as being the most highly distinguished, or having the greatest merit. So as late as 1946, almost a third of the top American scientists traced a substantial fraction of their ancestry back to 17th-century New England. In 1904, the number stood at more than half.

Scientists Starred, 1903-1943, in "American Men of Science" by Stephen Sargent Visher

[p. 520:]
some backgrounds and judgments, from questionnaire returns

This chapter presents an analysis of 905 returns received of a questionnaire sent November, 1946 to the living starred scientists seeking chiefly information as to their "backgrounds" and conclusions ("judgments") as to the significance of various influences.

[p. 540:]
In America where nearly all of the world's racial stocks are represented, there is a considerable interest in their comparative contribution. Cattell in his 1904 questionnaire to the scientists starred in 1903 (and to some additional persons who were almost starred, included to increase the number of returns to about 1000) found that "more than half of the scientists were at least of half Puritan stock." Since 1904, the Puritan stock in America has formed a declining percentage of the total population, partly because it was the first major American group to practice rigorous birth control. Also the millions of immigrants who have arrived in America since 1800 have contributed an increasing share of our population. These changes increase the desirability of obtaining information on the subject by the 1946 questionnaire. A total of 873 of the 905 scientists who replied reported on their "racial stock or blood." Tables 10-20 and 10-21 show the percentages which had various fractions of the chief "bloods." The Puritan stock led in each of the categories, full or nearly full bloods, 3/4 or more, half or more, quarter or more. However instead of the "more than half" found by Cattell, their contribution has declined to 31 percent which are half or more Puritan. Other English stock is second, German third and Scots and Scotch-Irish




[p. 426:]
Selection of another type is illustrated by immigrants of exceptional ability. These have come from numerous areas; for example, a very considerable number of eminent Americans are of German descent, especially of the liberals who came over following the revolution of 1848. Scotland, both directly and via north Ireland (the Scotch Irish), also has supplied many ancestors of eminent Americans. But according to much evidence, by far the largest group of American leaders are descendants of emigrants from East Anglia, England, the district which, according to Havelock Ellis ("British Genius"), yielded relatively many eminent British and most of the Puritans of New England, the Quakers and the Cavaliers of Virginia. (Cattell found that most of the scientific leaders of 1903 were at least half Puritan in descent). The westward spread of the descendants of the Puritans out from New England clearly helps explain the geographical contrasts in the yield of notables. Conversely, their partial submergence numerically by less valuable stocks largely produce the decline in the yield of notables in proportion to population in New England and various more western areas.

Finally, areas yield most notables which contain most mentally alert, ambitious, persistent, energetic people possessed of high ideals. Such people seek opportunities to use their abilities; they appreciate congenial associates and therefore congregate in desirable towns and in choice residential districts of suburbs of cities. Since Quakers, Scotch, Germans of 1848 and especially Yankees include many people of this type, many notables were born wherever such stocks formed a relatively large share of the population. (End of 1937 article.)

Proto-Indo-European audio

A 52 minute interview with archaeologist David Anthony on The Horse, the Wheel, and Language is available here (mp3). Anthony reads a bit of reconstructed PIE.

Off the Page
WSKG's bi-weekly interview & call-in program with local authors. Usually hosted by Bill Jaker.
The Horse, the Wheel and Language on OFF THE PAGE
15 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT
Author David Anthony with WSKG's Bill Jaker

Horse breeding

Eight Belles' breakdown: a predictable tragedy by William Nack

What Ellen Parker wanted to know, when I spoke to her following the Derby, was why no one was picketing Robert Clay's Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., one of the pillars of the Blue Grass breeding establishment and the place where Eight Belles was bred and from where she was sold as a yearling, at Keeneland in 2006, for $375,000.

"They're the ones who created this tragedy," Parker said. "Robert Clay is smart enough to know better. He bred her. That's where it starts. You don't blame the trainer, who does not have the reputation of breaking horses down, and you don't blame the poor little jockey. ... She was inbred three times to Raise a Native! [She broke down] right where Raise a Native was the weakest, right in the ankles, and everybody acts like they don't know what caused this filly to break down. It's written right there for everyone to see! Except they refuse to see it. To admit it is to address the fact that all these stallions that are bred like that, that all the yearlings that are bred like that, are potential accidents waiting to happen. And they've got so much money wrapped up in this crap!"

[. . .]

Through the first 60 years of the 20th century, most of the major stallions and many of the best mares were owned and controlled by some of the oldest families and richest sporting patrons in America, by the Whitneys and Woodwards, the Bradleys and Wideners, the Klebergs and Mellons. They bred horses to race them, not to sell them, and they did so in order to compete against one other -- to beat their fellow members of The Jockey Club, to see who had the fastest horse. A cardinal article of their faith was to "improve the breed," which meant to breed a horse with great speed, stamina and soundness. In fact, on the C.V. Whitney farm in Lexington, a foal born with a crooked leg was usually taken into the woods and shot, lest he or she pollute the Whitney bloodlines with this inherent deformity.

By the middle of the last century, this tight-knit racing world began to change. As these families died out and their blue-chip breeding stock was sold at dispersal auctions, the best stallions and mares fell into the hands of commercial breeders, whose central motivation was to breed, not so much a sound or durable horse, but rather an attractive horse, a "cosmetic horse," who showed well, who had a pedigree filled with fashionable names, preferably sire lines that glowed with speed, and who thus would draw the biggest price at the fanciest yearlings sales. Because they needed to look like show horses, these hothouse yearlings were often raised in small pens and not allowed to run free, or to kick, bite and roughhouse with their peers.

[. . .] This gradual softening and weakening of the breed has led to the use of more medications to keep these horses running sound, among them the corticosteroids injected into injured knees and ankles. [. . .] Drugs are only one way that the industry has been trying to make up for the weakening of the American thoroughbred. A number of racetracks have already replaced their dirt tracks with softer Polytrack surfaces, for the purpose of reducing breakdowns, but all we know about these tracks is that they often are the bane of true speed horses, favoring come-from-behind plodders. They have made the outcome of races so unpredictable that they have driven the high-rolling, sophisticated gamblers away from the betting parlors; and they may or may not save horses' lives. The jury remains sequestered.

All such expedients are aimed at forgiving commercial breeders for what they have done to the breed. At the core of the problem is the fact that the fastest and most popular sire lines in the world are the least durable and sound.

Alex Linder comments.

Madison Grant biography due out later this year

The University Press of New England website contains the following listing:

Defending the Master Race
Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant
Jonathan Spiro

Not in stock
Available: November 2008

University of Vermont Press
University Press of New England
512 pp. 32 illus. 6 1/8 x 9 1/4”
History / Nature

$39.95 Cloth, 978-1-58465-715-6

A historical rediscovery of one of the heroic founders of the conservation movement who was also one of the most infamous racists in American history

Scholars have labeled Madison Grant everything from the “nation’s most influential racist” to the “greatest conservationist that ever lived.” His life illuminates early twentieth-century America as it was heading toward the American Century, and his legacy is still very much with us today, from the speeches of immigrant-bashing politicians to the international efforts to arrest climate change. This insightful biography shows how Grant worked side-by-side with figures such as Theodore Roosevelt to found the Bronx Zoo, preserve the California redwoods, and save the American bison from extinction. But Grant was also the leader of the eugenics movement in the United States. He popularized the infamous notions that the blond-haired, blue-eyed Nordics were the “master race” and that the state should eliminate members of inferior races who were of no value to the community. Grant’s behind-the-scenes machinations convinced Congress to enact the immigration restriction legislation of the 1920s, and his influence led many states to ban interracial marriage and sterilize thousands of “unworthy” citizens. Although most of the relevant archival materials on Madison Grant have mysteriously disappeared over the decades, Jonathan Spiro has devoted many years to reconstructing the hitherto concealed events of Grant’s life. His astonishing feat of detective work reveals how the founder of the Bronx Zoo wound up writing the book that Adolf Hitler declared was his “bible.”

JONATHAN SPIRO is a professor of history at Castleton State College in Vermont.

Nelson Rosit reviewed Spiro's PhD thesis Patrician Racist: The Evolution of Madison Grant--which likely overlaps almost entirely with the forthcoming book--for The Occidental Quarterly last year.

Spiro teaches history at Castleton State College in Vermont. Patrician Racist is his doctoral dissertation, submitted as part of a PhD program in history at the University of California, Berkeley. It is available in a variety of formats from UMI Dissertation Service of Ann Arbor, Michigan. While readily accessible, such manuscripts have several drawbacks. They lack the production quality that a major book publisher would provide. In this case there is some bleed through in text, the photographs are of poor quality, and of course, there is no index. Another disadvantage is that this two-volume, 950 page dissertation never had the benefit of professional editing, which would have trimmed off some fat without losing any of the meat.1

The questions of form are less problematic than reservations about the author’s frame of reference. Spiro is a liberal and a Jew writing about a man he perceives to be an elitist and an anti-Semite. His ideology and ethnicity have prejudiced his account. Spiro is not out to do a hatchet job on Grant. As a scholar he is too sophisticated for that, and to Spiro’s credit he is upfront about his biases. His perspective, however, leaves him with a blind spot and he claims he cannot understand Grant’s motives. Because he is at variance with his subject, Spiro resorts annoyingly often to a sarcastic and facetious brand of humor that can wear on the reader.

Given these flaws, why bother considering Patrician Racist? Although not the ideal biographer for Madison Grant, there is no denying that Spiro is a first-class researcher. A true archival athlete, Spiro consulted no fewer than 112 archive collections, and his bibliography fills thirty-two closely spaced pages. He needed to cast a wide net because Grant is not an easy biographical subject. He wrote no memoirs and his family destroyed his personal papers after his death. Much of his correspondence to colleagues has also been destroyed or gone missing. In addition, though Grant was an activist, he was not a self-promoter, and usually worked out of the limelight. So Spiro “scoured the newspapers of Grant’s time and the memoirs of his peers to glean any and all mentions of Grant, and combed through the correspondence of hundreds of his colleagues attempting to decipher the occasional reference to him.”2 There are, of course, Grant’s published works, the records of his many organizations, and his achievements in environmental and racial preservation. It is largely through his work that we can get to know and appreciate Madison Grant.

[. . .]

Grant was a scholar, but his greatest achievements came as an activist. The Passing of the Great Race was criticized in some academic reviews for its lack of footnotes and sweeping generalizations. The format and style were intentional. Grant’s goal was to attract the widest possible readership so as to influence American public opinion. The most important policy change Grant and his colleagues (Spiro calls them Grantians) wanted was tighter restrictions on immigration. The First World War had restricted immigration from 1914 to 1919. Now millions from war-ravaged Europe were poised to immigrate to the United States.23 While the restrictions of the 1920s aimed at Southern and Eastern Europeans Spiro believes their main intent was to halt the influx of Jews into America. Jews were so closely identified with Bolshevism at the time that opposition to their immigration was based as much on ideological as racial grounds.

Not surprisingly, when immigration legislation was introduced to Congress in 1920 Jews were the most vocal opponents. Boas led the opposition in academia, while Representatives Isaac Siegel, Samuel Dickstein, Adolph Sabath, and freshman Emanuel Celler were the chief adversaries in Congress.24 Striking a contemporary note, Gedalia Bublick, editor of the Jewish Daily News, complained to the House Immigration Committee that the legislation was a product of “race hatred.”25 Spiro comments that some Jewish leaders resorted to the “if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em” strategy during the racially conscious 1920s. Jews would oppose immigration from Asia in the hope that “the old-stock Americans would permit them to join the Nordics in a coalition known as ‘the white race.’”26

Restrictive legislation was passed in 1921 and 1922, culminating in the Immigration Act of 1924, which limited the annual total of immigrants to 165,000, mostly from Northern and Western Europe. The act did not apply to the Western Hemisphere. Grant and his colleagues rejoiced, but did not rest on their laurels. There was still the issue of Latin American immigration, the millions of nonwhites already in the country, and the need for a eugenics program.27 Spiro dates America’s high-water mark for scientific racism to 1924. It is quite remarkable how quickly this movement collapsed during the next decade and a half. The author devoted an entire chapter “The Empire Crumbles,” to analyzing the decline of racial consciousness. As with the immigration fight, Spiro highlights the role of Jews, in this case academics, who successfully discredited the belief in hereditary racial differences. Boas, of course, was among this number. So was Jacques Loeb, another Jew from Germany, as well as Edward Sapir, Melville Herskovits, Alexander Weinstein—the list goes on and on.

[. . .]

Hardcore Grantians will want to read Spiro’s biography. This dissertation is an impressive research effort, and they will learn a lot about their champion. Others may want to wait to see if the text is released by a book publisher. [See above.] It is sadly indicative of our times that no European-American historian felt the need or had the courage to write the biography of America’s premier racialist. If Patrician Racist becomes the definitive biography of Madison Grant, then it will be part of the valedictory for white America. My hope is that in twenty or thirty years a more sympathetic scholar will write the definitive biography of Grant. By that time European-Americans should be able to fully appreciate the greatness of Grant. He was truly prescient, seeing clearly the dangers confronting both his race and the physical environment that sustains that race. More important, he accepted personal responsibility for saving both. The fact that his efforts met with mixed results was not the fault of his intelligence or energy, but was due to the shortsightedness of his fellow Americans and the strength of the forces arrayed against him.

Rosit's misgivings are probably warranted. But compared to the typical liberal or Jewish writer on "scientific racism", Spiro is the picture of objectivity. Unless something goes terribly wrong during editing, Defending the Master Race should be worth the read.

Caesar bust

A bust, "believed to be the oldest representation of [Julius Caesar]", was recently reported from France. David Meadows at rogueclassicism thinks it looks like George Bush. I don't think the resemblance is that close.


But I do agree with Carleton Coon that the "facial type [of the early Roman rulers] is not native to the Mediterranean basin, but is more at home in the north." According to Coon, the Roman patricians were predominantly "Keltic" Nordic:

movements from the north introduced Nordics of two varieties; the classic Hallstatt type, and the Keltic Iron Age type which was later to form the basic racial element among the Roman patricians.

The "Keltic Nordic" look, in turn, is largely synonymous today with northwestern Europe.

To an American, Englishman, or Belgian, the Keltic Nordic phenotype represents a "normal" or "average" appearance. Likewise, in the minds of those who are neither American, English, nor Belgian, nor belonging to any other predominantly Keltic population, the Keltic look will usually stand synonymous with the descriptive tags "American" or "English". This is the most numerous of the two Nordic types - a type which gains in variability with the constant infusion of non-Nordic blood, particularly in North America and Australia. Thanks to one of the most popular phenomena of the 20th Century, the Silver Screen, the Keltic Nordic is quite possibly the most recognized and familiar of all Nordish phenotypes throughout the world. [Above description from an older version of SNPA's race gallery.]

Some relevant words from John V. Day:

In a journal about the West and its future, it is fitting to end this article by briefly recounting the fate of the Roman upper class. Among Indo-European peoples, the Romans offer an especially useful example because they left masses of records, enabling later historians to determine what became of them. The evidence found in ancient texts implies that this class descended largely from Indo-Europeans who had a decidedly northern European physical type, although that isn't something one reads in modern books about Roman history. In Rome, though, the upper class was always a tiny minority. Instead of protecting its interests, it allowed itself to wither away. Consider a bleak statistic. We know of about fifty patrician clans in the fifth century B.C., but by the time of Caesar, in the later first century B.C., only fourteen of these had survived. The decay continued in imperial times. We know of the families of nearly four hundred Roman senators in A.D. sixty-five, but, just one generation later, all trace of half of these families had vanished.

If we in the West want to avoid a similar fate, we must learn from Indo-European history.

The descendants of Puritans ca. 1935

Two reviews of an interesting book. Nathaniel Weyl has looked at achievement in America more recently using the same basic methodology. More on that later.

The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 42, No. 3, (Nov., 1936), pp. 435-437

S. Colum Gilfillan

After Three Centuries: A Typical New England Family. By Ellsworth Huntington and Martha Ragsdale. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins Co., 1935. Pp. viii+274. $2.50.

From eighteen thousand Puritans who painfully emigrated in 1620-1642 sprang a race, by multiplication almost without addition, that has molded modern civilization and made the name of Yankee to be "loved and feared thruout the world." One such obscure emigrant of 1633, Simon Huntington, died on the voyage, but his widow landed with her five children; and from these are descended at least nine-tenths of all the Huntingtons living in America today, numbering 5,500 born with that name, beside 1,500,000 Americans of other surnames. The 5,500 with the name today are the subject of this book, taken as a true sample of the whole Puritan, i.e. New England stock, and written up as a very interesting, novel, and valuable study in sociology and genetics, based on a new method--that of surname group--which should have wide utility to sociologists.

They are a great race, these Huntingtons and other Puritans. One in twenty-five of all the male Huntingtons who reach forty-five years gets in Who's Who. The most illustrious of them all, aided by the family association, the National Research Council genetists, and the vast researches of a southern lady outside the clan, have produced this book. It has originality, suggestiveness, pioneer quality, and caution not to claim more than it has proved.

Something was learned about 3,717 of the 5,500 living American Huntingtons, and the 1,085 families replied to questionnaires. Data were also secured on the frequency in various occupations and in high and low ranks, not only of the name Huntington, but of the exclusively Puritan names Trumbull, Lyman, Hooker, and Coolidge, the old Dutch Van Dyke, the widespread English Adams, Brown, Edwards, Stone, and Williams, and the newer-come Wagner, Schwartz, Flood (Scotch-Irish), O'Brien, Larsen, Cohen, Levine, and Russo. The Puritan names were naturally found to rank about the same. Always in proportion to their present numbers, the Puritans and Van Dykes surpass the common English names, although these include many Puritans, too, in the ratios of .5 for frequency of criminality and dependency, business ownership 1.3, government officials 1.6, lawyers 3, corporation directors 3.5, American Men of Science 4.9, authors 7.8, Notable Americans 9.6, etc. The harder the test, the more the Puritans shine forth, especially in scientific, literary, and philanthropic directions. The stocks who came later, although they settled in the better regions, are left far behind..

As to why the Puritan stock is so outstanding, particularly in pleasant and altruistic fields, the authors make no claim. But they present five chapters of evidence tending to the support of the heredity thesis. Like the Parsis, Maoris, and Icelanders the Puritans were highly selected at the start by their far and most difficult migration. Two centuries of eugenic survival and mating selection further improved them; and their migrations today are proved to be sifting out merit. The more-blue-eyed Huntingtons, and those known to be of pure English ancestry, are doing better today;

[. . .]

Long a separate race, the Yankee stock is now found to be rapidly intermarrying with others. Its birth-rate fell precipitously from 1810 to 1880, and it shows the usual most perverse tendency for the more children to be born and reared in the poorer stock and homes. But here, as elsewhere, bright harbingers appear while the night deepens, in the practical stop to their birth decline since 1880 and a tendency appearing for the most worth-while to increase their offspring and exceed the class below.


The New England Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 4, (Dec., 1935), pp. 613-617

Clifford K. Shipton

After Three Centuries: A Typical New England Family. By Ellsworth Huntington and Martha Ragsdale. (Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins Company. 1935. Pp. viii, 274. $2.50.)

This is the most interesting and thought-provoking book which has come into the reviewer's hands for a long time. It contains a thorough study of the Huntington family, which financed it, and comparative studies of other selected families, made with a view to determine the position of the descendants of the Puritans in American society.

[. . .]

The thesis of the book is that any racial group which has undergone a certain process of selection and segregation will prove markedly superior to the ordinary run of mankind. Brief accounts of the Maoris, of New Zealand; the Parsees, of India; and the Norse, of Iceland, are included to show that the rules illustrated by the Huntingtons and their Puritan group are of general application. The only weak part of the book is its utopian speculation as to what the United States would have been like had it been spared the post-revolutionary immigration and thus enjoyed a larger percentage of the descendants of the Puritans in its present social composition. The editors believe that "it is doubtful whether an institution like Tammany Hall or the Republican machine of Philadelphia could have arisen in a community composed wholly of descendants of the old New Englanders."

[. . .]

Having established the fact that the Huntingtons are typical of the Puritan group in being superior to the ordinary run of the population, the editors go into a more detailed study of that family. It appears that those branches of the family which have produced the most successful individuals have, unlike the Burrs and Edwardses, produced relatively few undesirables. The near relatives of leaders seem to be hundreds of times more likely to be leaders themselves than are people in general. These successful branches of the Huntingtons are neither the least nor the most prolific of the family, in which the birth-rate began its plunge in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Data based on the Yale faculty and other groups indicates that the birth-rate in successful families is again rising. Within these selected groups the number of children to the family is directly proportionate to the value of the head of the family to society.

There is much other interesting but less important data on the Huntingtons. Among the religious sects represented, the Congregationalists have dropped to fifth place. Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and people without church affiliation are most numerous among professional men and business executives; while Methodists and Baptists are most numerous among the laborers. Professional people, business executives, and farmers tend to be blue-eyed, but the amount of pigmentation increases progressively through the ranks of skilled laborers, clerks, salesmen, to predominately brown-eyed unskilled laborers.

The editors conclude by asserting that the average ability of the American people is declining because of the dilution of the Puritan stock, and pointing out the possibilities of artificially creating another such strain by selection and segregation.

Some more "utopion" speculation, from Kevin MacDonald:

One wonders what might have happened if the British colonial authorities had allowed the colony complete sovereignty and if it had ultimately become a nation-state. Such a state, based on a clearly articulated exclusivist group strategy, might have been extremely successful. Composed of a highly intelligent, educated, and industrious citizenry, and with a proneness to high fertility and strong controls promoting high-investment parenting, it might have become a world power. One can imagine that as the 19th century wore on Puritan intellectuals would have begun to see themselves as an ethnic-racial group and that Darwinism would have replaced Christianity as the ideological basis of the state, at least among the well-educated. The demise of Puritanism is likely a major event in the history of European peoples.

Related: Two maps

Complete Neanderthal mtDNA genome reportedly sequenced

The Genetic Genealogist:

On Thursday May 9th, Svante Pääbo spoke at the Biology of Genomes meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Pääbo’s group, along with 454 Life Sciences, is currently engaged in a project to sequence the Neanderthal genome. The researchers have been able to sequence the complete Neanderthal mtDNA genome with 35-fold coverage. The genome is approximately 16 kilobases long and differs from the CRS at 133 positions. From what I’ve been able to find online, it doesn’t appear that the actual sequencing results have been released to the public. Given current estimates of mtDNA mutation rates, the number of differences between human and Neanderthal mtDNA suggests that the branches diverged approximately 600,000 years ago.

A bit more discussion here:

In late 2006, he was a co-author of a paper reporting that he and his team have sequenced 1 million bases of the Neandertal genome. The paper, “Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA,” was generally well received. But a PLoS Genetics paper titled, “Inconsistencies in Neanderthal Genomic DNA Sequences,” found a lot of problems with results and raised concerns that a lot of the issues are possibly due to modern human DNA contaminants and/or a high rate of sequencing errors. Pääbo has looked into this and in his talk,

mentioned that about 10 percent of the DNA library they initially sequenced consisted of modern human DNA. But over the last two years, they have been guarding against contamination by generating DNA libraries in a clean room and by barcoding the Neandertal DNA.

Regional variation in life expectancy of white Americans

From Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States:

The eight Americas classification reveals that within the white population there is a wide variation in health experience that cannot be explained by differences in average income: low-income white rural populations in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, Montana, and Nebraska (America 2), with a life expectancy of 76.2 and 81.8 y for males and females, respectively, have a substantial advantage over the rest of white America, despite a large income disadvantage. Low-income whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley (America 4), with an average income level similar to that of America 2, have a life expectancy equal to those of Mexico and Panama. The life expectancy gap between whites in America 2 and America 4 was 4.2 and 3.8 y in 2001 for males and females, respectively, comparable to the 6.4- and 4.6-y gaps between whites and blacks as a whole. The gap between whites in America 2 and America 4 has in fact increased since 1982, when it was 3.0 and 2.4 y for males and females respectively; between 1982 and 2001 life expectancy among females in America 4 declined from 78.2 y to 78.1 y.

This was in the press when it came out a couple years ago, but don't think I ever looked at the actual paper. Maps here.

(Via Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science)

mtDNA haplogroups and disease

Three recent studies:

Differences in mtDNA haplogroup distribution among 3 Jewish populations alter susceptibility to T2DM complications. BMC Genomics. 2008 Apr 29;9(1):198 [Epub ahead of print]

Our results identified population-specific susceptibility factors of which the best example is the Ashkenazi Jewish specific haplogroup N1b1, having an apparent protective effect against [type 2 diabetes mellitus] complications in Ash (p=0.006), being absent in the NAF population and under-represented in the Seph population. We have generated and analyzed whole mtDNA sequences from the disease associated haplogroups revealing mutations in highly conserved positions that are good candidates to explain the phenotypic effect of these genetic backgrounds.

New evidence of a mitochondrial genetic background paradox: impact of the J haplogroup on the A3243G mutation. BMC Med Genet. 2008 May 7;9(1):41 [Epub ahead of print]

BACKGROUND: The A3243G mutation in the tRNALeu gene (UUR), is one of the most common pathogenic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations in France, and is associated with highly variable and heterogeneous disease phenotypes. To define the relationships between the A3243G mutation and mtDNA backgrounds, we determined the haplogroup affiliation of 142 unrelated French patients a diagnosed as carriers of the A3243G mutation a by control-region sequencing and RFLP survey of their mtDNAs. RESULTS: The analysis revealed 111 different haplotypes encompassing all European haplogroups, indicating that the 3243 site might be a mutational hot spot. However, contrary to previous findings, we observed a statistically significant underepresentation of the A3243G mutation on haplogroup J in patients (p=0.01, OR= 0.26, C.I. 95%: 0.08-0.83), suggesting that might be due to a strong negative selection at the embryo or germ line stages. CONCLUSION: Thus, our study supports the existence of mutational hotspot on mtDNA and a "haplogroup J paradox", a haplogroup that may increase the expression of mtDNA pathogenic mutations, but also be beneficial in certain environmental contexts.

Mitochondrial Haplogroups. Ischemic Cardiovascular Disease, Other Diseases, Mortality, and Longevity in the General Population. Circulation. 2008 May 5 [Epub ahead of print]

BACKGROUND: -Rare mutations in the mitochondrial genome may cause disease. Mitochondrial haplogroups defined by common polymorphisms have been associated with risk of disease and longevity. We tested the hypothesis that common haplogroups predict risk of ischemic cardiovascular disease, morbidity from other causes, mortality, and longevity in a general population of European descent. Methods and Results-We followed 9254 individuals from the Danish general population, in the Copenhagen City Heart Study, prospectively for risk of ischemic cardiovascular disease, morbidity from other causes, and mortality during 25 and 11 years, respectively. Haplogroup frequencies were as follows: H (45.9%), U (15.9%), T (9.9%), J (9.1), K (6.2%), V (4.5%), W/I (3.8%), and Z (3.5%). Hazard ratios for hospitalization due to all cardiovascular disorders (haplogroup U: 1.0 [95% confidence interval{CI}, 0.9 to 1.1]; T: 0.9 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.0]; J: 1.0 [95% CI, 0.9 to 1.1]; K: 1.0 [95% CI, 0.9 to 1.2]; V: 1.0 [95% CI, 0.9 to 1.2]; W/I: 0.8 [95% CI, 0.7 to 1.0]; Z: 1.0 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.2]), ischemic heart disease (U: 0.9 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.1]; T: 0.9 [95% CI, 0.7 to 1.0]; J: 1.1 [95% CI, 0.9 to 1.2]; K: 1.1 [95% CI, 0.9 to 1.3]; V: 1.1 [95% CI, 0.9 to 1.4]; W/I: 1.1 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.4]; Z: 1.1 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.4]), and ischemic cerebrovascular disease (U: 1.1 [95% CI, 0.9 to 1.4]; T: 0.9 [95% CI, 0.7 to 1.2]; J: 1.1 [95% CI, 0.9 to 1.4]; K: 1.0 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.4]; V: 1.1 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.5]; W/I: 0.8 [95% CI, 0.5 to 1.3]; Z: 0.9 [95% CI, 0.6 to 1.4]) did not differ from 1.0 for any haplogroup versus the most common haplogroup H. Results were similar for hospitalization due to infectious and parasitic diseases, respiratory infections, respiratory disorders, malignant neoplasms, digestive disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders, and miscarriages. Likewise, hazard ratios for death from all causes were not different from 1.0 for any haplogroup versus haplogroup H (U: 1.0 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.1]; T: 0.9 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.1]; J: 0.9 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.1]; K: 1.0 [95% CI, 0.8 to 1.2]; V: 1.1 [95% CI, 0.9 to 1.3]; W/I: 0.8 [95% CI, 0.7 to 1.1]; Z: 0.9 [95% CI, 0.7 to 1.2]). Finally, after stratification by major causes of death, hazard ratios remained insignificant. Conclusions-Our results do not support an association of mitochondrial haplogroups with risk of ischemic cardiovascular disease, morbidity from other causes, mortality, or longevity in a large general population of European descent.

How 4.5 million Irish immigrants became 40 million Irish Americans

This paper tends to support my and others' belief that English ancestry is massively underreported in the US Census.

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, 1994 Feb;59(1):64-82.

How 4.5 million Irish immigrants became 40 million Irish Americans: demographic and subjective aspects of the ethnic composition of white Americans.

Hout M and Goldstein JR

How did 4.5 million Irish immigrants come to be 40 million Irish Americans? The growth of ethnic populations, including the Irish, has three components: natural increase, intermarriage, and preference. We combine a demographic analysis of natural increase with a sociological analysis of intermarriage. Preference is a subjective component; it remains a residual in our analysis. [p. 65]

Intermarriage and its complement, homogamy, are generally assumed to be critical factors in whether national origin groups grow or decline. Generations of "pure" Irish, Italians, Poles, and so on, have admonished their children to marry within the group to preserve it. However, recent findings by Alba (1990) and Waters (1990) imply that intermarriage hurts some groups but helps others, at least in the numerical sense. In the world of ethnic options, intermarriage provides an opportunity to exercise one's options. For some ethnic groups, intermarriage thins out the ethnic heritage because few offspring of mixed marriages remember ancestors from that group. For other groups, intermarriage is a recruitment opportunity because the offspring of mixed marriages often think of themselves as part of that group, simplifying their mixed heritage with a single mention or expressing the sense that they "feel closer" to one group than to the other.

Formally, we could show that if all groups have the same intermarriage rates and if the patterns of intermarriage between each pair of groups is symmetrical, then intermarriage will have no effect on the size of th population identifying with a group. However, there would be no point in such a formal exercise because neither premise is true. Intermarriage differs significantly among ethnic groups (Alba 1976; Lieberson and Waters 1988). The groups that started coming to North America first now have higher rates of intermarriage than groups that have come in large numbers more recently have had. This has led some observers of ethnicity to include intermarriage as a condition of assimilation (Gordon 1964). Geographically dispersed groups are also more likely to intermarry than are isolated or concentrated groups (Peach 1974; Lieberson and Waters 1988). [pp. 70-71]

CONCLUSION

Natural increase of a population is the interaction of demographic trends with the elapsed time between immigration and the present. Social increase stems from the joint effects of a high rate of intermarriage and the high probability that someone will express a particular ethnic attachment. For example, the social increase of the Irish and German populations in America has far outstripped their natural increase. This important subjective component of ethnic identity is beyond our data; we can only speculate on its sources and implications. Second- and third-generation Americans, especially those of mixed heritage, exercise a significant level of choice in defining their ethnicity (Alba 1990; Waters 1990; Farley 1991). This has led to a certain unreliability in responses to ethnicity questions (Waters 1987; Farley 1991) and an alleged shallowness in the ethnic attachments reported to the Census. Our analysis has shown how the numbers of people identify with two groups -- the Germans and the Irish -- have increased because of this process. We have also shown how religious homogamy and the religious diversity of the Germans and the Irish combine to produce an intermarriage pattern that abets German and Irish ethnic identification, and how intermarriage has hurt identification with another outmarrying group, the British. We have also shown how numbers identifying themselves as Italian have grown, despite religious homogeneity, because of ethnic homogamy. We will not be surprised if the various Hispanic groups follow the Italian pattern in years to come.

Ethnic intermarriage is limited by religious homogamy and social homogamy. Groups that are affiliated with the same religion, have similar socioeconomic status, and live in the same parts of the country have much higher intermarriage than groups that differ in religion, education, and region. A past history of intermarriage and American residence are also important; groups with many mixed attachments and few foreign-born members intermarry more. The nine-fold increase of the Irish population in the United States stems from the combination of favorable outcomes on each of these variables for the Irish. The Irish have been in the United States a long time; they are religiously diverse, highly educated, and dispersed throughout the country. In addition, an unexplained subjective "closeness" to Ireland contributed to the size of the Irish American population in 1980. [p. 79]

What's to explain? Identify as Irish and you get to be a colorful victim, diametrically opposed to the evil, dull WASP television and public schools have taught you to hate.

Aside from that effect, British-Irish and British-German mixes may simply be more aware of the origins of their more recent immigrant ancestors.

Mycenaean shaft grave mtDNA

Four distinct sequences (one matching the CRS, the others belonging to haplogroups U5a1 or U5a1a and UK) have apparently been published (I don't have a copy of the paper). This is a tiny sample, but the results immediately strike me as being consistent with intrusive Northern European origins for the Mycenaean elites tested (which would be in keeping with their skeletal morphology). U5a1 and U5a1a in particular are most often associated with Northern Europe. After I see the actual sequences, I may comment further.

Journal of Archaeological Science doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.04.010

Kinship between burials from Grave Circle B at Mycenae revealed by ancient DNA typing

Abigail S. Bouwmana, Keri A. Browna, N. W. Prag A.Johnb and Terence A. Brown

The richness of the burials in Grave Circle B at Mycenae, Greece, indicate that the 35 people interred there held elite status during their lifetimes 3500 years ago. It has been speculated that the groups of burials represent different dynasties or branches of the same family. To test this hypothesis, we carried out an exhaustive ancient DNA (aDNA) study of 22 of the skeletons. We were unable to identify nuclear aDNA in any specimen, but we obtained authentic mitochondrial aDNA sequences for four individuals. The results were compared with facial reconstructions and interpreted within the archaeological context represented by the organisation of the graves and the positions of the burials within the graves. We conclude that the contemporaneous male Γ55 and female Γ58 skeletons, which both possess the UK mitochondrial haplogroup, were brother and sister. The implication is that Γ58 was buried in Grave Circle B not because of a marital connection but because she held a position of authority by right of birth. The results illustrate the difficulty in using aDNA to study kinship relationships between archaeological specimens, but also show that aDNA can advance understanding of kinship when used to test hypotheses constructed from other evidence.

(Via Dienekes)

Moldbuggery

Please laugh with me at the following ridiculous comment posted by "Jeff Williams" at UR:

In my view the W force can be adequately explained by looking through the lens of tribal or ethnic history. The New England Calvinists are a triumphant, confident tribe. This was due to a good work ethic, a large free trade area, access to great natural resources, and a good legal/tax structure producing a favorable business climate. They knew how to set up business corporations. They were the first people to get the atomic bomb.

This tribe views itself as progressive. Historically they were the Whigs. Thus in any internal struggle for leadership, a leader will tend to be favored who fits in with that tradition (?) of progressiveness. A person who believes in stasis and order does not fit in with the folkways of this tribe. The tribe views Taft and Coolidge with contempt because of their lack of progressiveness. Every tribe needs a coherent explanation of what it’s all about: the tribe of the Northeast is all about progressiveness. In tribal lore, their model leader is FDR.

From the bit I could force myself to read, the trash being pushed by "Mencius Moldbug" himself is no less ridiculous, just wordier, slightly more subtle, and usually at least fact-checked with Wikipedia.

Never mind that Taft and Coolidge solidly won New England and FDR lost while carrying almost the entire rest of the country. Never mind William Howard Taft and (John) Calvin Coolidge had ancestors all of whom were actually born in New England. In UR-land, there's no need to let facts interfere with too-clever-by-orders-of-magnitude abstraction (or obfuscation, as the case may be--if I have this straight: libeling New England Puritans with elaborate, blatantly counterfactual theories = good; less-than-reverent, factual discussion of "Joos" = crazy Nazi talk).

2008 ISOGG Y-DNA Tree released

Release notes:

MAY 04, 2008 - The 2008 version of the ISOGG Y-DNA Haplogroup Tree is now available online:

http://www.isogg.org/tree/

New to the tree is a haplogroup conversion table which is downloadable in MS Word. If you do not have MS Word/MS Office, you can download openoffice.org for a compatible word processing program. Appreciation goes to Richard Kenyon and Charles Moore for their work on compiling this table.

Thanks to Alice Fairhurst and the entire ISOGG Tree Team for all of their hard work and dedication. Added thanks for consultation goes to Jim Wilson, Dennis Garvey, Ken Nordtvedt, and Natalie Myres on various haplogroups. Additional appreciation to Charles Moore (Hg D) and Vincent Vizachero (Hg R) for joining the Content Team Experts.

- The International Society of Genetic Genealogy - ISOGG

2008 YCC tree

The 2008 version of the Y Chromosome Consortium's NRY phylogenetic tree was officially published today (the accompanying paper has been available online for about a month).



Be aware that amateur researchers and commercial testing companies rendered parts of this tree out-of-date well before it was published. I suspect the next version of the ISOGG's Y-DNA tree will be superior, but this YCC version will likely be referenced in academic publications for some time to come.

2008-05-01 links

EGI: JWH on a new paper by Frank Salter.

Genetic Future: Low technical error rates for personal genomics companies

Yann Klimentidis: MAOA variant and delinquent behavior



More on Druid burial: Stanway: an elite cemetery at Camulodunum; Possible Druid Grave Enchants Archaeologists

Scottish Beakers: Was missing body a Dutchman in Scotland?

News has been released of some remarkable pots excavated in 2005 near Kilmartin, Argyll & Bute. They date from over 4,000 years ago, and suggest Scottish contact with Holland, Ireland and Yorkshire in the copper and early bronze ages. The pots, which had been buried in graves, are the latest finds in a large complex of burials and ritual structures excavated at Upper Largie in advance of gravel quarrying over the past 25 years.

The larger of two graves contained three Beakers, a type of ceramic found across much of north, west and central Europe. It is very rare to find more than one pot at once, but the style of these adds to their interest: they are of early, international type (known technically as epi-maritime, cordzoned-maritime and all-over-cord respectively), whose closest parallels are from the Netherlands; charcoal radiocarbon dated to 2570–2280BC confirms this early dating.

Latest Jewish mtDNA paper

The full text is open-access. The paper deals primarily with non-Ashkenazi groups.

PLoS ONE 3(4): e2062. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002062

Counting the Founders: The Matrilineal Genetic Ancestry of the Jewish Diaspora

Behar et al.

The history of the Jewish Diaspora dates back to the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests in the Levant, followed by complex demographic and migratory trajectories over the ensuing millennia which pose a serious challenge to unraveling population genetic patterns. Here we ask whether phylogenetic analysis, based on highly resolved mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) phylogenies can discern among maternal ancestries of the Diaspora. Accordingly, 1,142 samples from 14 different non-Ashkenazi Jewish communities were analyzed. A list of complete mtDNA sequences was established for all variants present at high frequency in the communities studied, along with high-resolution genotyping of all samples. Unlike the previously reported pattern observed among Ashkenazi Jews, the numerically major portion of the non-Ashkenazi Jews, currently estimated at 5 million people and comprised of the Moroccan, Iraqi, Iranian and Iberian Exile Jewish communities showed no evidence for a narrow founder effect, which did however characterize the smaller and more remote Belmonte, Indian and the two Caucasus communities. The Indian and Ethiopian Jewish sample sets suggested local female introgression, while mtDNAs in all other communities studied belong to a well-characterized West Eurasian pool of maternal lineages. Absence of sub-Saharan African mtDNA lineages among the North African Jewish communities suggests negligible or low level of admixture with females of the host populations among whom the African haplogroup (Hg) L0-L3 sub-clades variants are common. In contrast, the North African and Iberian Exile Jewish communities show influence of putative Iberian admixture as documented by mtDNA Hg HV0 variants. These findings highlight striking differences in the demographic history of the widespread Jewish Diaspora.