Male line information: Y-group Q

All members of Y-group Q can trace their Y-chromosomes back to one man who is thought to have lived about 15 to 20 thousand years ago. This man belonged to a group of hunter-gatherers, who were descendants of the first modern humans to migrate from Africa to Eurasia and may initially have made their home in Western Asia and later migrated to Western Siberia. Soon after, about 14 thousand years ago, the male-line descendants of the Y-group Q ancestor took part in the colonization of the Americas from Siberia, across the Bering land bridge and into Alaska.

Today, the highest concentration of Y-group Q members is found among Native Americans (including Eskimos and the Inuit), where about 60 to 90 percent of males belong to this Y-group. However, members of Y-group Q are also found in East and Central Asia at a frequency of 1 to 10 percent, and they are present, but very rare, in European populations.