K2b1 is strongly associated with the indigenous peoples of
Melanesia (especially the island of
New Guinea) and
Micronesia, and to a lesser extent
Polynesia, where it is generally found only among 5–10% of males. It is found in 83% of males in
Papua New Guinea. Studies of
indigenous Australian Y-DNA published in 2014 and 2015, suggest that, before contact with Europeans, about 29% of Australian Aboriginal or
Torres Strait Islander males belonged to downstream subclades of K2b1. That is, up to 27% indigenous Australian males carry haplogroup
S1a1a1 (S-P308; previously known as K2b1a1 or K-P308), and one study found that approximately 2.0% – i.e. 0.9% (11 individuals) of the sample in a study in which 45% of the total was deemed to be non-indigenous – belonged to haplogroup
M1 (M-M4; also known as M-M186 and known previously as haplogroup K2b1d1). All of these males carrying M1 were
Torres Strait Islanders. (The other Y-DNA haplogroups found were: basal K2* [K-M526], C1b2b [M347; previously Haplogroup C4], and basal C* [M130].) ==References==