Haplogroup C · Coastal Aboriginal Lineage
Haplogroup C
One of the earliest lineages to leave Africa, carried along the southern coastal route to Arabia, South Asia, Australia and the Americas.
Approximate region of emergence
Northeast Africa or Southwest Asia, immediately after the main out-of-Africa dispersal
Estimated time depth
Roughly 45,000 to 60,000 years before present
Ancestral parent lineage
CF (CT derived)
Major descendant branches
C1a · C1b · C2 (C-M217) · C1b2b (C-M347, Australia) · C1b1a (C-M356, South Asia)
Overview
What this lineage represents
Haplogroup C (C-M130) descends from CF, one of the two branches of haplogroup F's parent line, and is one of the oldest surviving non-African paternal lineages.
It is closely associated with the earliest coastal dispersals out of Africa. Its descendant branches are documented among Aboriginal Australians, Papuans, Andamanese-adjacent populations of South Asia, Siberian and Mongolic peoples, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Because C is found among many of the world's Black Aboriginal populations outside Africa, it is central to any account of how early African-descended peoples settled Asia and Oceania.
Lineage tree
From parent lineage to modern descendants
Select any node to read its estimated age, parent lineage, regions and descendant branches.
Ancient distribution
Where early carriers are believed to have lived
C is not African in its modern distribution, but its origin lies at the exit corridor from Northeast Africa. Ancient genomes from Siberia and East Asia carry early C lineages, and the Australian branches indicate a presence on that continent for tens of thousands of years.
Migration
Origin → Expansion → Migration → Modern distribution
Origin
~60,000–50,000 ybp
Exit from Africa
The CF line leaves Northeast Africa via the Red Sea and Sinai corridors.
Expansion
~50,000–45,000 ybp
The southern coastal route
Carriers move rapidly along the Indian Ocean coastline through Arabia and South Asia.
Migration
~50,000–30,000 ybp
Sahul and the north
One set of branches reaches New Guinea and Australia; another expands north into Siberia.
Modern
Last 15,000 years
Steppe and the Americas
C2 spreads across Central and East Asia and appears at low frequency among Indigenous American populations.
Estimated pathways
Modern distribution
Where major branches are documented today
Australia
C-M347
Frequently observed in Aboriginal Australian populations.
Melanesia
C-M38
Common in New Guinea and neighbouring islands.
South Asia
C-M356
Low to moderate frequency in tribal populations.
East Asia and Siberia
C-M217
High frequency among Mongolic and Tungusic peoples.
The Americas
C-P39
Low frequency among some Indigenous North American groups.
Africa
—
Essentially absent; C diversified after the exit from the continent.
Major subclades
Downstream branches
| Branch | Marker | Regions | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| C1a1 | C-M8 | Japan | Rare Japanese branch. |
| C1b1a | C-M356 | India, Sri Lanka, Arabia | South Asian branch. |
| C1b2a | C-M38 | New Guinea, Melanesia | Melanesian branch. |
| C1b2b | C-M347 | Australia | Aboriginal Australian branch. |
| C2 | C-M217 | Mongolia, Siberia, the Americas | Steppe and Siberian branch. |
Populations
Frequently observed in
These are populations in which particular branches have been reported. Each of them carries several paternal lineages; the listed branches are not a definition of the group.
Aboriginal Australians
Australia
C-M347, K2b1
Papuans
Melanesia
C-M38, M, S
Mongols
East Asia
C-M217
Telugu and tribal South Asians
South Asia
C-M356, H, L
A haplogroup traces one unbroken father-to-son line. It says nothing about the rest of a person's ancestry, and it is not a marker of ethnicity or identity.
Research notes
Where the science is still unsettled
- C is often discussed alongside D as evidence of an early coastal dispersal, but the two are not sister lineages.
- Age estimates for the Australian branches vary widely depending on the calibration used.
Citations for this lineage
- Karafet, T. M. et al. (2008). New binary polymorphisms reshape and increase resolution of the human Y chromosomal haplogroup tree. Genome Research
- Poznik, G. D. et al. (2016). Punctuated bursts in human male demography inferred from 1,244 worldwide Y-chromosome sequences. Nature Genetics
- Underhill, P. A. et al. (2000). Y chromosome sequence variation and the history of human populations. Nature Genetics
Continue exploring
Ancient Lineage
Explore some of the deepest surviving branches of the human Y-chromosome tree.
BEarly African Lineage
Explore ancient paternal branches found among populations across Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.
DDeep Relative Of E
The sister branch of haplogroup E within DE, today found in Tibet, Japan and the Andaman Islands, with rare deep African branches.
EThe African Macro-Lineage
Originated in Africa, yet the oldest indigenous paternal lineage in the Levant and Arabia as well; the most frequently observed paternal lineage in Africa and its diaspora; parent of both E1a and E1b.
E1aAfrican Expansion
A deep paternal lineage that traces an African origin through the Green Sahara, the Mediterranean world, and into the Sahel and West African empires.
E1bAfrica & Beyond
Explore a highly diversified lineage with branches distributed throughout Africa and neighbouring regions.
FRoot Of Most Non-African Lineages
The lineage from which G through T descend, accounting for the overwhelming majority of men outside Africa.