[OC] Affinity maps of paternal (Y-DNA) and maternal (mtDNA) lineages from Portugal to Europe and the Mediterranean

It is not "percentage of total DNA" (autosomal): We are not measuring immediate physical similarity. The uniparental genome studies direct, uninterrupted lineages that go back thousands of years:

Y-DNA (Paternal Lineage): Passed only from father to male child. It exposes the great warrior migrations, male expansions and demographic and social foundations.

mtDNA (Maternal Lineage): Passed from the mother to all her children (men and women). It is much more stable over time and reflects ancestral population settlement and Paleolithic refuges.

3 Curiosities and Data Highlights:

The overwhelming majority of Portuguese men carry the R1b haplogroup (especially the DF27 branch, among others). This lineage was brought by migrations from the Indo-European Yamnaya Steppes in the Bronze Age (about 4,000–4,500 years ago), replacing almost 100% of the diverse pre-existing male lineages. This is why we share greater patrilineal proximity with the European Atlantic (British Isles, Spain and France) than with parts of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

The Maternal Line is much more diverse and ancient, while men were homogenized by R1b, the maternal lineages (mtDNA) show enormous continuity since the end of the last Ice Age (with hunter-gatherer branches and expansions of the Iberian Glacier Refuge, such as H1 and H3). Studies suggest that historical migrations and human social dynamics have allowed greater mobility and/or assimilation of women between different groups.

Unlike Y-DNA, mtDNA is shared uniformly across Europe with a clear dominance of the H family, the presence of Macro-Haplogroup L in Portugal and southern Spain present the highest frequencies in Europe of maternal L lineages, albeit low (2% to 7%). This presence results from a continuous temporal overlap: prehistoric contacts in the early Holocene, Phoenician/Roman trade flows, the Islamic presence, and, more recently, the transatlantic slave trade in the 15th century.

Methodology and Source: Compilations of peer-reviewed academic studies via Eupedia population tables (YHRD and EMPOP databases). Calculation: Renkonen Overlap Index adapted to a 3-level hierarchical model (50% specific subclades, 35% phylogenetic families, 15% ancestral macro-stems).