L3 is common in
Mozambique,
Cameroon,
Bioko Island,
Northeast Africa, and some other parts of
East Africa, L3 is rare in
West Africa, but its sublineages are also frequent in the
Arabian Peninsula. According to Maca-Meyer et al. (2001), "L3 is more related to
Eurasian haplogroups than to the most divergent
African clusters
L1 and
L2". L3 is the haplogroup from which all modern humans outside Africa derive. However, there is a greater
diversity of major L3 branches within Africa than outside of it, the two major non-African branches being the L3 offshoots M and N.
Subclade distribution L3 has seven equidistant descendants: L3a, L3b'f, L3c'd, L3e'i'k'x, L3h, M, N. Five are African, while two are associated with the
Out of Africa event. •
N –
Eurasia possibly due to migration from Africa, and North Africa possibly due to back-migration from Eurasia. •
L3a1 – Found across Eastern Africa. Estimated age of 35.8–39.3 ka. • '''L3b'f''' •
L3b – Spread from East Africa in the
Upper Paleolithic to West-Central Africa. Some subclades spread from Central Africa to East Africa with the Bantu migration.
Beja • '''L3c'd''' •
L3c – Extremely rare lineage with only two samples found so far in Eastern Africa and the
Near East.
Mozambique,
Yemeni, •
L3d3a1 – Primarily found in Southern Africa. • '''L3e'i'k'x''' •
L3e – Suggested to have originated in the
Sudan region,
Central Africa or Mozambique about 45,000 years ago during the
Upper Paleolithic period. It is the most common L3 sub-clade in
Bantu-speaking populations. L3e is also the most common L3 subclade amongst
Black Americans and
Afro-Brazilians. •
L3e1 – Particular common in
Mozambique, the
Tikar of
Cameroon, as well as
Burkina Faso,
Nigeria, South
Tunisia, South
Morocco and
Egypt •
L3i Almost exclusively found in East Africa. •
L3h – Almost exclusively found in East Africa. L3x2a was observed in a 4,500 year old hunter-gather excavated in
Mota, Ethiopia, with the ancient fossil found to be most closely related to modern
Southwest Ethiopian populations. Haplogroup L3 has also been found among
ancient Egyptian mummies (1/90; 1%) excavated at the
Abusir el-Meleq archaeological site in Middle Egypt, with the rest deriving from Eurasian subclades, which date from the Pre-
Ptolemaic/late
New Kingdom and Ptolemaic periods. The Ancient Egyptian mummies bore Near eastern genomic component most closely related to modern near easterners. Additionally, haplogroup L3 has been observed in ancient
Guanche fossils excavated in
Gran Canaria and
Tenerife on the
Canary Islands, which have been
radiocarbon-dated to between the 7th and 11th centuries CE. All of the clade-bearing individuals were inhumed at the Gran Canaria site, with most of these specimens found to belong to the L3b1a subclade (3/4; 75%) with the rest from both islands (8/11; 72%) deriving from Eurasian subclades. The Guanche skeletons also bore an autochthonous Maghrebi genomic component that peaks among modern
Berbers, which suggests that they originated from ancestral Berber populations inhabiting northwestern Africa. A variety of L3 have been uncovered in ancient remains associated with the Pastoral Neolithic and Pastoral Iron Age of East Africa. == Tree ==