English: Ancient North Eurasians in context of West and East Eurasian Core populations; Vallini et al. 2022/2024

The above map displays the location and suggested distribution of West and East Eurasian Core populations, Basal Eurasians, and Ancient North Eurasians, which are inferred to be a "hybrid population" harboring both West and East Eurasian Core ancestries (c. 50% Kostenki14-like and 50% Tianyuan-like). The basic map is taken from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Topographic90deg_N0E0.png and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Topographic90deg_N0E90.png (eg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Koba-chan/Topographic_map from DEMIS Mapserver, which are public domain).

The below graphs are taken from Vallini et al. 2024 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Relationship_and_legacy_of_the_West_and_East_Eurasian_Core_populations.webp). Specifically graph C displays a PCA on the genetic affinities of ancient and modern populations: East Asians in red, Oceanians in orange, Native Americans in pink, South Asians in yellow, Northern South Asians in green, West Eurasians in blue, Levantines in cornflowerblue, ancient samples in black (N stands for Neolithic, WHG for Western Hunter Gatherers).

Star symbols display ancient human remains; the ANE/ANS lineage is inferred to have formed by the merger of Kostenki-like (West Eurasian Core) and Tianyuan-like (East Eurasian Core) lineages, with each contributing around 50% ancestry respectively: "Similarly, Mal’ta and Yana fall in an intermediate position between the two axes, the result of a palaeolithic admixture between EEC and WEC groups18."

This type of ancestry was distributed in parts of Ancient Central Asia and Siberia prior to the expansion of proper East Asian and European ancestries. It is one of the ancestral components for modern West Eurasian populations, next to WHG-like, Anatolia_N, Iran_N and Levant_N components; and Amerindian populations, next to an Ancient East Asian component.

"The central portion of the top right quadrant of Fig. 1C is occupied, as expected, by groups resulting from the admixture between the EEC and the WEC waves anytime after they expanded from the Hub location. South Asians follow a cline connecting Andamanese and West Eurasians; this is expected given the reported interaction between Ancestral South Indian (ASI) and Ancestral North Indian (ANI) populations41,42. The position of Native Americans suggests a primarily East Asian ancestry, with a smaller contribution from palaeolithic West Eurasian populations43,44. Similarly, Mal’ta and Yana fall in an intermediate position between the two axes, the result of a palaeolithic admixture between EEC and WEC groups18. The 45 ky old individual from Ust’ Ishim26 falls close to the intersection of the red and blue axes, where we expect the 45 kya Hub population to be positioned. This location is anticipated as the lineage of this individual forms almost a trifurcation with Tianyuan and Kostenki14. Zlatý kůň lies further behind, in accordance with its lineage being unequivocally basal to the split between EEC and WEC populations18,21. West Eurasians, North Western South Asians, and Levantines occupy the area below the bisector, compatible with an admixture between EEC and WEC, or below the blue axis, further complicated by the presence of Basal Eurasian or African components in these populations. Since interaction with Sub-Saharan genetic components38 will have an effect similar to the interaction with Basal Eurasians, we excluded populations showing evidence of gene flow from Africa (Methods, Supplementary Fig. 2, Supplementary Data 4, 5)."