Subclade R1b1a2a1a2b (S28/U152)

Each nucleated human somatic cell (i.e., all cells except sex and stem cells) contains 23 pairs of linear chromosomes, as well as numerous copies of mitochondrial DNA.

A chromosome is a structurally functional element of the cell nucleus containing genes. The name "chromosome" comes from Greek words (chrōma - color, color and sōma - body), and is due to the fact that during cell division they are intensively stained in the presence of basic dyes (for example, aniline).

Haplogroups on the time scale

According to the 2016^[1], the primary chronology of haplogroup development on the time scale is as follows:

• 70,000 years ago - the first wave of Homo Sapiens migration from Africa (to South Asia) during the Ice Age.
• 50,000 years ago - the second wave of Homo Sapiens migration from Africa (to the Middle East).
• 35,000 years ago - Homo Sapiens (Cro-Magnons or EEMH) arrive in Europe.
• 32,000 years ago - the first known examples of rock painting in France.
• 27,000 years ago - the first known examples of ceramics.
• 23,000 years ago - the disappearance of Neanderthals.
• 18,000 years ago - the last glacial maximum.
• 12,000 years ago - the end of the ice age.
• 10,000 years ago - the beginning of the Neolithic in the Middle East.
• 7,000 years ago - Northern Europe is moving to the Neolithic.
• 4,000 years ago - the beginning of the Bronze Age in Europe.
• 2,000 years ago - the Roman Empire.

R: Mammoth Hunters

Haplogroup R appears in North Asia right before the last glacial maximum (25-19 thousand years ago). It was this haplogroup that was determined from the remains of a one-year-old boy found in Altai, whose age is 24 thousand years. The child belonged to a tribe of mammoth hunters who probably moved around Siberia and parts of Europe in the Paleolithic^[2]

Reconstruction of the boy's burial in the Malta parking lot. Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Source: Nature.com

These individuals contributed most to the formation of modern Europeans and southern Asians, inhabitants of two regions in which haplogroup R dominates today: R1a in Eastern Europe, R1b in Western Europe, and R2 in South Asia^[2]

Haplogroup R1b

R1b is the most common haplogroup in Western Europe, recorded in more than 80% of men in Ireland, the North Scottish Highlands, West Wales, the Atlantic coast of France, the Basque country and Catalonia.

The R1b-V88 subclade, characteristic of sub-Saharan Africa, was recorded in 60-95% of men in Cameroon.

R1b is also widespread in Northern Italy (more than 70%), among the Bashkirs in Russia (50%), in Turkmetistan, Armenia and the Khazar people in Afghanistan (35% each), as well as among the Uighurs in Northwest China (20%).

Subclades R1b

Major subclades of haplogroup R1b^[3]

In an individual from burial in the site of Lebyazhinka IV, possibly belonging to the Elshan culture, the Y-chromosomal haplogroup R1b1 * (xR1b1a1, R1b1a2) was discovered.

Subclade R1b-S28/U152

The phylogenetic tree of the subclade R1b-S28/U152:

Notes