I'm persuaded that some of my cousins (and thus their father, my uncle-in-law) must have Mexican ancestry. Notably the elder cousin of my age is very unusually dark in skin tone and has extremely black ("bluish") straight hair (in contrast native European black hair is typically very dark brown in fact: different types of eumelanin acting here), her youngest brother also has some milder Native American look, looking much like a brunet version of Brad Pitt.
My uncle is from Madrid and comes from a military family (although he's a mathematician).
Nevertheless the presence of Native American ancestry should be apparent in mtDNA surveys and yet I'm unaware of any presence of haplogroups A, B, C or D in modern Spaniards. They should show up at least occasionally but nope.
Interestingly L(xM,N), which is necessarily African (although it can be from North Africa and it probably is in many cases) is more common: 2-3% in all the regions of Spain and up to 10% in Southern Portugal (5% in Central Portugal).
Haplogroup M is also intriguing with around 1% across the board (except North Portugal and with the Central Plateau reaching 2%) and not really being a European or African matrilineage (there's some M1 in East Africa but unlikely to be that). My guess is that it could from India or SE Asia in most cases, probably Philippines in the Spanish case.
Yes. It appears to be particularly more frequent in Huelva province (*). I've wondered if maybe part of that L hg did not come from Northern Africa, but directly from Sub-Saharan Africa. Maybe related to sugar cultivation in the Andalusian coast? (I intend to read more about this eventually)
In terms autosomal this West Iberian African anomaly is quite apparently from North Africa and also correlates with mtDNA U6 and Y-DNA E1b-M8. In the Candela Hernández paper you mention*, most L(xM,N) is specifically L1b, not a too common haplogroup, mostly present in West and NW Africa. This suggests a quite specific founder effect and not a generic migration with a distributed genetic pool.
The other major African lineage in Europe is L2a, more common in Africa but with a similar Northwestern distribution as L1b.
After a search, I stand corrected: Barral-Arca 2016 "Meta-Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Variation in the Iberian Peninsula" shows 1% "A, B, C or D" mtDNA in the Mediterranean region of Spain (only).
A FamilyTreeDNA hit also shows one Spaniard ("Pascual") carrying mtDNA A2z.
I'm persuaded that some of my cousins (and thus their father, my uncle-in-law) must have Mexican ancestry. Notably the elder cousin of my age is very unusually dark in skin tone and has extremely black ("bluish") straight hair (in contrast native European black hair is typically very dark brown in fact: different types of eumelanin acting here), her youngest brother also has some milder Native American look, looking much like a brunet version of Brad Pitt.
My uncle is from Madrid and comes from a military family (although he's a mathematician).
Nevertheless the presence of Native American ancestry should be apparent in mtDNA surveys and yet I'm unaware of any presence of haplogroups A, B, C or D in modern Spaniards. They should show up at least occasionally but nope.
Interestingly L(xM,N), which is necessarily African (although it can be from North Africa and it probably is in many cases) is more common: 2-3% in all the regions of Spain and up to 10% in Southern Portugal (5% in Central Portugal).
Haplogroup M is also intriguing with around 1% across the board (except North Portugal and with the Central Plateau reaching 2%) and not really being a European or African matrilineage (there's some M1 in East Africa but unlikely to be that). My guess is that it could from India or SE Asia in most cases, probably Philippines in the Spanish case.
Yes. It appears to be particularly more frequent in Huelva province (*). I've wondered if maybe part of that L hg did not come from Northern Africa, but directly from Sub-Saharan Africa. Maybe related to sugar cultivation in the Andalusian coast? (I intend to read more about this eventually)
(*) See "Human maternal heritage in Andalusia": https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259915486_Human_maternal_heritage_in_Andalusia_Spain_its_composition_reveals_high_internal_complexity_and_distinctive_influences_of_mtDNA_haplogroups_U6_and_L_in_the_western_and_eastern_side_of_region
But it seems part of a more general spread of African genetics in Western Iberia all the way to Galicia and Asturias. L(xM,N) in Spain and other parts of Europe is allegedly very old, Paleolithic even. Vide: https://forwhattheywereweare.blogspot.com/2012/03/claim-that-many-african-matrilineages.html
In terms autosomal this West Iberian African anomaly is quite apparently from North Africa and also correlates with mtDNA U6 and Y-DNA E1b-M8. In the Candela Hernández paper you mention*, most L(xM,N) is specifically L1b, not a too common haplogroup, mostly present in West and NW Africa. This suggests a quite specific founder effect and not a generic migration with a distributed genetic pool.
The other major African lineage in Europe is L2a, more common in Africa but with a similar Northwestern distribution as L1b.
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*I discussed the study back in the day: https://forwhattheywereweare.blogspot.com/2014/01/andalusian-mtdna-highlights-w-e.html
You are right, it doesn't seem to be Sub-Saharan. North Africa-mediated is more likely.
And thanks for the links! (I realized I wasn't aware of the importance of HVR/HVS).
After a search, I stand corrected: Barral-Arca 2016 "Meta-Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Variation in the Iberian Peninsula" shows 1% "A, B, C or D" mtDNA in the Mediterranean region of Spain (only).
A FamilyTreeDNA hit also shows one Spaniard ("Pascual") carrying mtDNA A2z.
It seems fairly rare anyhow.
If I had to bet, I would expect "old" A+B+C+D hg to likely show up in Seville, Cádiz or even Madrid.
It's probably there at very low frequencies, just too low to show up in these kinds of surveys as a matter of random chance.