The last ice age peaked at 20,000 years ago. The people who survived in pockets of survivable territory started to repopulate Europe in the period from 14,000 to 7,000 years ago, called the Mesolithic era. Several ancient genomes are now available from that era. They suggest that the effective male population size prior to the repopulation of Europe was just 30 men.
Thus, modern humans only barely hung on through the Ice Age in Europe, and ultimately, their ancestry makes up a fairly modest share of modern European ancestry.
2 comments:
"Thus, modern humans only barely hung on through the Ice Age in Europe, and ultimately, their ancestry makes up a fairly modest share of modern European ancestry."
This was not in the article. Their small population size has nothing to do with modern Euros not being 100% descended from them. Migrations from the Middle East is why.
Balts are over 50% WHG and possibly as much as 75% of Mesolithic origin, and if you include SHG and EHG many other Euros can fit as 50% or more of Mesolithic origin.
I agree that the share of ancestry of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in modern populations is not in the article. That was an observation from other sources.
I don't agree with your conclusions on percentage Mesolithic in most modern populations, because WHG includes post-LGM ancestry.
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