Mosquitoes with a taste for human blood evolved first in Asia than in Africa, and did so 2.9 to 1.6 Ma

A research paper published in Nature on February 26, 2026, used some interesting genetic studies to support the idea that mosquitoes in Southeast Asia evolved a taste for human blood (anthropophily) at the time that the first hominins reached the area (Homo erectus). It is an interesting paper as it used data from the study of insects to confirm some ancient anthropological dates.

These are the details of this recent paper published in Nature on Feb. 26, 2026: Singh, U.S., Harbach, R.E., Hii, J. et al. Early hominin arrival in Southeast Asia triggered the evolution of major human malaria vectors. Sci Rep 16, 6973 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35456-y

An ancient relationship: homo and mosquitoes. Source

In the abstract, it mentions that some species belonging to a group called Leucosphyrus, part of the Anopheles mosquitoes that live in Southeast Asia not only transmit malaria, they are also fine tuned to drinking human blood. Other mosquitoes in the region occupy different niches, feeding off other monkeys (non-human primates or NHP) and transmit NHP malaria variants. This study analyzed the genes of mosquitoes from 11 species (including their mtDNA) and built dated phylogenetic trees for them.

The paper found that the original, basal species of mosquitoes in this region were monkey-feeding ones, living in what is now Malaysia, Borneo, and the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra, when this area was linked by a now submerged continental shelf, into Sundaland. During that time (Pliocene) the area was covered by a lush rainforest. The authors believe that "anthropophily most likely evolved once, involving adaptive introgression, in the early Pleistocene in Sundaland, giving rise to multiple descendent anthropophilic species. Such early origination of anthropophily must necessarily have been in response to the arrival of early hominins (Homo erectus) rather than anatomically modern humans, likely associated with loss and fragmentation of rainforests during the early Pleistocene. The early origination of anthropophily also provides independent non-archaeological evidence supporting the limited fossil record of early hominin colonization in Southeast Asia around 1.8 Mya." This date is roughly when Homo erectus reached the area.

The article reveals that mosquitoes are host-specific and that many genes are involved in this specificity. So "multiple genetic changes at these and other genes are required for the evolution of anthropophily, i.e. a strong, evolved preference for human blood. It is not surprising therefore that anthropophily is uncommon amongst the ~ 3500 known mosquito species. It is therefore more parsimonious to consider that anthropophily within a taxon has a single origin. Accordingly, it is improbable that there were multiple independent switches to anthropophily in the human-preferring species of the Dirus and Balabacensis Clades, which diverged around 1.3–0.5 Mya. Even taking into account some uncertainty in the molecular clock used for these divergence estimates these clades far predate the arrival of anatomically modern humans in SE Asia 76,000–63,000 years ago. We therefore reject with confidence the hypothesis that anthropophily in the Leucosphyrus Subgroup evolved in response to the arrival of modern humans in SE Asia."

Therefore it was an ancient event, long before human beings appeared in Africa.

The article adds that "Using the same molecular clock rate as applied in this study and a species tree, anthropophily would be inferred to have evolved ~ 509,000–61,000 years ago in the lineage leading to the major African malaria vectors, An. gambiae and An. coluzzii... Since An. gambiae originates in West African forests the switch to anthropophilly may instead have occurred in response to modern humans entering this forested region ~ 150,000 years ago. The emergence of anthropophily in the domestic form of Aedes aegypti and the molestus ecotype of Culex pipiens, both date to within the last 10,000 years, apparently in response to growing human populations and environmental change." So, the African human-feeding mosquitoes took place independently, and later than the SE Asian event(

Finally, the article "indicates that anthropophily in the Leucosphyrus Subgroup emerged much earlier than in other anthropophilic mosquito species. If a strictly bifurcating tree were assumed, anthropophily could have evolved either: by the time of node N1 [95% CI: 2.9–1.8 Mya] and subsequently been lost in the lineage leading to An. nemophilous and An. introlatus; or evolved twice along the lineages leading to the Dirus Clade (N3, 1.6 Mya [95% CI: 2.0–1.2 Mya]) and the Balabacensis Clade (N5, 0.5 Mya [95% CI: 0.7–0.4 Mya]).... We therefore consider the most parsimonious argument for the evolution of anthropophily in the Leucosphyrus Subgroup to be that it evolved once only through the process of adaptive introgression at nodes N1/N2 as this accommodates the multiplicity of genes underlying the trait and negates any need to invoke loss of this trait. According to this hypothesis, anthropophily would have evolved between the extremes of the N1 and N2 confidence intervals i.e. between 2.9 and 1.6 mya (Fig. 3) when all the lineages were in Sundaland, and prior to the divergence of the Dirus Clade (node N3, 1.6 Mya [95% CI: 2.0–1.2 Mya]) further north in Indochina. This hypothesis could be tested against the above alternatives by identifying the genes underlying anthropophily and characterizing their evolutionary history."

The interesting part in the preceding text is that dates, which on the "older" tip of the scale reach 2.9 and 2 million years back. This is in line with the recent findings in Eurasia about an early Homo erectus dispersal across Asia.

The authors continue (highlight is mine): "Dating of the evolution of anthropophily in the Leucosphyrus Group to 2.9–1.6 mya overlaps with the earliest proposed date for the arrival of early hominins (Homo erectus) into Sundaland at 1.8 Mya, but not with the more recent proposed date of 1.3 Mya. Our findings suggest that anthropophily in the Leucosphyrus Group emerged in Sundaland in the early Pleistocene in response to the arrival of early hominins who must have not only been present in this region by this time but must have been in substantial numbers to drive adaptation to human host preference. This supports the hypothesis of Husson et al. that early hominins were present and abundant in Sundaland ~ 1.8 Mya, prior to their dispersal via land bridges to Java. Middle Pleistocene fossils of Homo erectus indicate their prolonged occupation on the exposed Sundaland landmass, likely associated with extensive river systems. In the context of the very fragmentary nature of the fossil record in tropical SE Asia our findings contribute an important piece of evidence to the broader puzzle of the colonization of hominins in insular Southeast Asia".

Closing Comments

These findings add up to the other evidence mentioned in recent posts, suggesting a very early out of Africa (or even an Eurasian origin of hominins!). I have tried to learn more about American mosquitoes that feed on humans, but research seems to be scarce in this area other than focusing on the main vectors of malaria, dengue, yellow fever, Zika, and chikungunya (see this 2022 paper as an example). If there are anthropophilic mosiquitoes in America that could be dated, what dates would they provide? (several strains reached America after the European discovery, from Africa and Eurasia, the Aedes aegypti vector of yellow fever and Zika) originated in Africa and arrived with the slave trade, and Aedes albopictus, the "Asian tiger mosquito" arrived 40 years ago, from Asia, in used tires! Would other local strains shed light on the date of the peopling of America?

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Early discovery of Brazil and its relationship with St. Brendan (Brandaõ)

As mentioned in a previous post, Brazil, in South America, was officialy discovered by chance, by the Portuguese navigator Cabral in the year 1500 AD, eight years after Columbus discovered America. However, several authors in the 1800s and 1900s have suggested that the Portuguese knew about Brazil's existence from much earlier, and in an interesting twist it has a link with the story of St. Brendan mentioned in yesterday's post.

In the Historia de la Nación Argentina, Vol 2, p. 355, published in 1936, Max Fleiuss wrote about the discovery of Brazil and included the following comments a letter written by Master John (Maese Juan), to the King of Portugal informing him of the discovery of Brazil, he wrote it in Vera Cruz, an island, where Cabral landed in 1500:

"This letter, dated like that of the scribe of the Calcutta trading post, in Veracruz on May 1, 1500, was found by Varnhagen in the archives of the Torre do Tombo and published in the Revista del Instituto Histórica Brasileira in 1843. The following paragraph perfectly elucidates the question of the prior knowledge that the Portuguese discoverers had of Brazil: «As for the location of this land, Your Highness should order a world map to be drawn, which Pero Vaz Bisagudo has, and in this way Your Highness will be able to see the location of this land.»
That planisphere by Pero Vaz de Cunha, the Bisagudo, is one of the oldest, as Master Juan points out to the king; and it was traced on the "Portuguese Map of the Vatican Secret Archives" of 1343. Emperor Charles V of France ordered it to be reproduced in 1375 by one of the most skilled Spanish cartographers from Majorca and ordered it to be corrected and enlarged according to the explorations made from that year 1343 onwards. A copy of it is now in the National Library of Paris."

Maese Joao is telling the king to look at the map owned by Pero Vaz de Cunha known as The Bisagudo, one of his navigators and officers. Bisagudo as a nickname referred to Pero Vaz de Cunha's shap features, from the Portuguese words viso agudo, acute face. He had been sent by King John II of Portugal to build a fortress in Senegal, Africa, but the mission took a nasty turn involving Pero executing one of his comrades. The Crown never again required his services after this. (Source) another reference says his nickname was due to his cunning and sharp intelligence.

The letter of Maese Joao says that an ancient map from 1343, showed where Brazil was located.

Max Fleiuss then adds that the map was traced from the secret Vatican files, and also copied in 1375 by the French King, Charles V, and that a copy can be found in the French National Library in Paris!

Fleiuss continues (highlight is mine, because Sancho Brandão, is, as we will see further down, linked by his same-sounding name, to St. Brendan).

"On February 12, 1343, during the reign of Alfonso IV, the Valiant, son of King Dinis, in Portugal, he informed Pope Clement VI, in a letter written from Montemayor-el-Novo (Vatican Archives), that Captain Sancho Brandão had reached a land he believed to be an island and that he was taking wild animals, livestock, and brazilwood back to Lisbon, and that he had had it surveyed by several ships. On maps from the 15th and 16th centuries, the legend "Isla de Brandam" [Brandam's Island] is also applied to "Isla del Brasil." [Brazil Island] This island appeared in the Medici Atlas as early as 1351.
Capistrano de Abreu tells us that some medieval maps give the name to a single island, in the shape of a perfectly regular circle... or in the shape of a crescent moon; others give the name to two semicircular islands separated by a strait. In Pisigano's map of 1367, there are three Bracir islands. Nenrod Krestalimer, in his study of medieval maps, found the word Brazil written with the following variants: Brazí, Braciri, Brazil, Brasiel. Brasil, Brazile, Braziele, Braziel, Bracil, Bracill, Bcrsill, Braxil, Braxiili, Braxiel, Braxyiili and Brigilge.
On the map of Charles V [the one mentioned further up, from 1375] and on the world map of Banulph Hyggeden, designed in 1360 (British Museum, London), that island has more or less the same shape as it does on the map of Bisagudo; an island that is still found on the geographical charts of Nicoló Zeno (1380), of Becario (1435) and of André Bianco, original of 1436 and copy of 1448. In the latter, it includes the legend according to which its maritime distance from the Cape Verde archipelago is calculated at 1500 miles, or approximately the distance between Cape Verde and Cape St. Augustine.[more on Bianco's map further down]
In addition, this information appears in Paulo Toscanelli's letter. Furthermore, on Martin Behaim's globe, dated 1487, the "Island of Sancho Brandõo or Brazil" is marked. This astronomer and cartographer from Nuremberg resided for a long time in Lisbon and died there in 1507. Sancho Brandõo, captain of the 1343 expedition, would therefore be, chronologically, the original discoverer of Brazil.
Among the autographs that belonged to Lord Charles Stuart's archive, there was found the letter from Pedro Alvarez to Dom Manuel in which he announced, along with the scribe, the astronomer, and all the ship commanders, the discovery of the Brazilian land. These letters were sent by the vessel under the command of Gaspar de Lemos. Cabral addresses the king in the following passage: «Obeying Your Highness’s instructions, we sailed west, and took possession, with authentic title, of Your Highness’s land, which the ancients called Brandam or Brazil» (Torre do Tombo Archive, Lord Stuart Archive Register).
Renowned authors, such as Luciano Pereira, Faustino da Fonseca, Lopes de Mendonga, Brito Rebello, Jayme Cortezão, Capistrano de Abreu, João Ribeiro, Pandiá Calogeras, Rodolfo García, and the American Henry Vignaud, considered one of Columbus’s best biographers, acknowledge that Duarte Pacheco Pereira was Cabral’s predecessor."

Andrea Bianco's Map

Plenty has been written about Bianco's maps. See this excellent reproduction of the 1436 map (Zoomable), in it, Brazil Island can be seen west of Portugal, at the latitude of Cape St. Vincent in southern Portugal, half way across the ocean towards Antillia Island (the map has the text upside down, rotate it to read some of the names). Regarding the 1448 map you can see it here, also zoomable (requires free registration to view). Below is a copy of it, from Fleiuss' article. His original caption is included.

Land located in the Portolan chart of Andrea Bianco (1448), 1500 miles west of Cape Verde Islands.

The map shows Cape Verde (the two points on the right), two islands, Dos Ermanes Islands (Two Brothers? Islands, which probably depict the Cape Verde Islands), and on the lower left side, cut by the end of the parchment is a piece of land, possibly an island, or the coast of some continental area, with a rather illegible text written in ancient Venetian. This text has been interpreted in many different ways, as we will see below

Bianco's Text

Below is a detail of Bianco's 1448 map, showing the text written on the island Source. The upper line gives the name of the island, the bottom line its location.

Fleiuss says the inscriptian reads "Authenticated Island, 1,500 miles away to the west" and asserts that "Portuguese navigators apparently found a land located 1,500 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands—more or less where the South American coast is located—which they later named Authentic Island."

A very interesting online source written by Michael Ferrar reads this text as: "Ixola A(n)tarticha, Xe longo a ponente 1500 mia" and gives it the following interpretation (I summarize his text): While reading Gavin Menzies book ("1421, the year China discovered the world") he read on page 277 that the text «Andrea Bianco’s map of 1448 referred to, “Ixola Otinticha. Xe longa a ponente 1500 mia” with a translation reading “a genuine island is 1500 miles west of here (West Africa)”» Ferrar consulted an expert on ancient Venetian writing who read "Ixola A(n)tarticha. Xe longo a ponente 1500 mia”, that could be translated from Venecian to English as: “The Antarctic Island. It has 1500 miles long to the west”." This expert suggests that the island is a reference to the mythical Antarctic continent or Terra Incognita Australis, legendary like the dos ermanes islands.

An older version, from 1895 (A Pre-Columban Discovery of America, by H. Yule Oldham, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Mar., 1895), pp. 221-233, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1773930) shows this same map and refers to the mysterious text as follows: "at the lower edge of the map, south-west from Cape Verde-that is, in the direction of Brazil— there is to be seen a long stretch of coast-line with this singular inscription in the Venetian dialect: "isola otinticha," that is authentic or authenticated island. It is difficult to believe that this can refer to anything but Brazil... Owing to lack of room on the parchment on which the map is drawn, only a corner of this island is shown, on the very edge of the skin, but still much closer to Cape Verde than Brazil actually is. As if, however, to prevent any misconception, the cartographer has added under the words "ixola otinticha" the qualifying statemen, "xe longa a ponente 1500 mia.""

Oldham argues, with a lengthy explanation in the footnote, that "longa" in old Venetian means "distant" and that the text should be interpreted as: "authentic island is distant 1500 miles to the west."

Opposing View

A publication (Um suposto descobrimento do Brasil antes de 1448 —A supposed discovery of Brazil before 1448— by Tomás Oscar Marcondes de Souza in the Revista do Instituto Historico e Geografico de Sao Paulo, vol XLVI, p. 211, 1948, suggests that the idea of a pre-Cabral discovery is a fantasy. Among other things, it analyzes Bianco's map, and includes two images of the relevant text, that we show below, and adds the following comments about these texts.

"While studying the issue related to the discovery of the islands of the Cape Verde archipelago in 1944, we came across, between pages 98 and 99 of the book published by the Ministry of Colonies of the Portuguese Republic, entitled: - "Letters from the islands of Cape Verde, by Vindim Fernandes", by A. Fontoura da Costa, a photographic reproduction of a part of André Bianco's map from 1448, precisely where the much-discussed "Ixola Otinticha" is drawn.
Our surprise was enormous when we verified in this photographic reproduction the existence of another legend, already mentioned by us, on the island under study, with words, partly illegible, but perfectly distinguishable, these final words: "a ponente /500 / mia", which can be verified in the cliché that we publish here." [this is the upper text in the image further up]
As an example, we reproduce here the adulterated legend of "Isla Otinticha" published in volume 1, page XXXII, of "History of the Portuguese Colonization of Brazil". As is easily verified, the falsification consisted of altering the number of miles indicated in the legend of the island in question from 500 to 1500, considering that the real distance between Cape Verde and Cape São Roque in Brazil is approximately 1520 miles." [bottom text in image above]

"

The author concludes: "Thus, the infamous "Ixola Otinticha" from André Bianco's portolan chart of 1448 is perfectly identified with the current island of Santiago, one of the Cape Verde archipelago, and at the same time one of the great proofs that Brazil was discovered by the Portuguese before Columbus's feat and Cabral's voyage to Calicut is annulled."

I took a good look at the map that is shown further up, the original map, Source and it seems that it says 1500, and not 500. But my guess is as good as anyone else's unless the parchment is analyzed in depth (ink samples, etc.). It also seems to say ixola otinticha, which differs from what the expert told Ferrar (Ixola A(n)tarticha).

Saint Brendan and Sancho Brandão

An article published in 1927 (Did St. Brendan Discover Brazil? by Honor Walsh, Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Dec., 1927), pp. 377-384. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44208689.pdf) mentions, that "Brazil has two names; one, "Ilha de Brasil" (Isle of Brasil), the other, "Ilha de Brandao" (Isle of Brendan?) . Both of these names appear in a letter written under date of February 12, 1343, by King Alfonso IV of Portugal, addressed to the Sovereign Pontiff, although Brazil is supposed to have been terra incognita until its "accidental discovery " by Pedro Alvarez Cabral in the year 1500.". It cites its source as a Brazilian journal, Jorno de Brasil, of Rio de Janeiro, authored by Assis Cintra, who places this letter from the king to the Pope in the be in the secret archives of the Vatican, Book 138, folios 148 and 149.

The discoverer according to Cintra was a man called Sancho Brandaõ, which is very similar to the same-sounding San Brandaõ (St. Brendan)! who was "driven westward by a storm until he reached the shore of a magnificent land, rich in timber yielding a red ink or coloring" (now known as Brazil wood).

The text adds that "Annexed to the letter is a map of the land discovered, with the alternative titles, 'Insula de Brasil' and 'Insula de Brandao'. According to the same Brazilian historian, "In 1375, Charles V, King of France, sent to the Vatican a cartographer from Majorca to copy the Portugese map, with orders to correct and amplify the original in accordance with the explorations carried out from 1343 to 1375. This map is in the Iconographical Section of the National Library in Paris (III, 132, s. XVI) and Brasil Island is shown thereon with more or less the same conformation and position as South America." This is the same information provided by Max Fleiuss.

Walsh then explains that Cabral, after discovering what we now call Brazil, named it "Terra da Santa Cruz" (Holy Cross Land). The name then changed to Brazil due to the red-dye wood of that name. However Walsh repeats a theory put forward by Richard Gumfoleton Daunt, that says that the Portuguese believed they had found the country of Ui Breasail, of the Irish legend, discovered by St. Brendan, so "they were not changing the name from Terra da Santa Cruz to that of a kind of wood, but were reverting to the old name. In this way the Brasil wood would get its name from the country, and not the reverse, as is generally believed." The text adds that Ui Brasil or Ui Breasil, is sometimes written as Hy Brasil. In the Irish Celtic mythology it was an island that could be seen in the western ocean for one day every seven years. It was the Island of the Blessed, also known as the Enchanged Island. (Source)

Regarding the red-dye, known as Brazil, I have mentioned it in a post back in 2011 (Phoenicians, red dye, Ophir, the origin of the name Brazil, etc.)

Assis Cintra

The person mentioned by Walsh, Cintra, existed, and he did write about an early discovery of Brazil. He was Francisco Assis Cintra (1887-1937) was a Brazilian historian, journalist, essayist, and I did find the reference to the letter sent by King Alphonso IV to the Pope Clement VI in 1343 in his book Na Margem da Historia (p.123) —On the Margins of History published in 1930, and in his book O Nome Brasil (com “s” ou com “z”) —The name Brazil (with an “s” or a “z”) (p. 184), published in 1920. They are the source of the text that Walsh and Fleiuss mentioned in their works.

There is another source that mentions correspondence between Alfonso IV and the Pope (who at that time lived in Avignon, France, not in Rome), in this book, published in 1872, but it mentions it in the context of the Fortunate Islands (Canary Islands) and not Brazil, however (see p. xiii) it mentions that this expedition whose pilot was a Genoese, Nicoloso de Recco, brought back " red wood which dyed almost as well as the verzino (Brazil wood) although connoisseurs pronounced it not to be the same; the barks of trees to stain with a red colour...

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall © 

St. Brendan and his Islands... America?

Today's post will leave the realm of genetics and population statistics, which have been the subject of my last series of posts, and return to the Medieval voyages that plied the Atlantic, some by chance, others driven by storms, others to expand Christian faith; today I will write about Saint Brendan.

Saint Brendan

Brendan, who was later known as the Navigator, was born in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland c.484 AD. His biography and adventures were set down in paper roughly three centuries after his death in a text called Navigate Sancti Brendani Abbatis, (The Voyages of St. Brendan the Abbot).

Brendan was brought up to be a Catholic. Saint Patrick, who contributed to the erradication of the heathen in Eire had died 10 years before Brendan's birth. Brendan entered the cloister, founded a monastery in Clonfert, Ireland (click for map), where he served as abbot.

St. Brendan and the "Living" island. Source

He was eager to expand the faith, and after a monk named Berrind visited Clonfert, his missionary zeal increased. Berrind told Brendan and his monks that he had sailed west in the company of a hermit named Mernocatus in search of the Promised Land of the Saints. They reached "A spacious, grassy, and fertile land.. and resolved to explore it, which we did for about fifteen days, as it seemed to us, without being able to find its ends. We found no plant without flowers nor tree without fruit. The stones there are precious. After the fifteenth day, we came to a river that flowed from the east towards the west. We hesitated about what we should do and finally decided to cross it." But there they met a man who told them not to ford it, that it cut the island in two, and that they should return home. They sailed back to Ireland.

Brendan decided to visit this land, and he chose fourteen monks from his abbey, went west and built a ship. Just as they were going to set sail, they were approached by three strange monks, who asked to go with them. Brendan took them on board, but in a dark omen warned that only two would return home from the voyage. (Source)

The Ship

St. Brendan's men built their vessel as follows: "They then took their tools and built a small boat using wood from the nearby forest, as was the custom in those parts, and covered it with tanned cowhides. They caulked the hides with lard and loaded spare hides, rigging, provisions for forty days, grease, and other necessary utensils. They raised the mast and attached the sails and the necessary rigging for steering the vessel."

The vessel was a traditional Irish Celtic boat known as a curragh or currach. It was very different from a Viking longboat (a ship built with clinker boards (overlapping wood planks), with a sail and oars. The curragh was a wood-frame covered with oak-tanned ox-hides, waterproofed with fat or tar. They had a linnen sail.

Some curraghs had double or even triple hide layers and a wicker structure that was flexible and strong. Some had oars and decks. Counter to what one would expect, they were "Light, seaworthy and extremely manoeuverable they also had an astonishing load capacity." (Source)

The Voyage

The following is a translation from Navigatio fabulosa sancti Brendani ad terram repromissionis scripta est ab ignoto irlandico circa annum 900, it is written in Latin and Spanish.

Azores?

They sailed for 40 days and ran out of food and water, finally they reached an island with sheer cliffs along the coast (As they approached the shore, they noticed it was like a very high wall over which several streams plunged into the sea, flowing down from the highest part of the island. They could find no place to land.") Was it a volcanic island like those of the Azores or Canary Islands? they found an inlet ("They sighted a narrow harbor, large enough for a ship. Saint Brendanus immediately rose, blessing that entrance. It was carved in stone, very high on both sides, like a wall."), and a dog led them to an empty castle where God provided food and water. A monk who stole some silver, and after ejecting an Ethiopian demon that possessed him, died and was buried there. As they left, a young man (Native?) approached them and gave them bread and water for their voyage. The cliffs and inhabitants suggests it was one of the Azores Islands, volcanic, possibly peopled by Norsemen at that time.

Faroes? Shetland? Orkneys?

They then visited the island of white sheep which were larger than oxen (some have identified it with the Faroe Islands) where they met a man, and they celebrated Easter, then they went to a nearby Island, now known as Saint Brendan's Island, which "was rocky without any grass. The forest was rare there and there was no sand on its shore." they celebrated Mass and lit a fire to cook some fish and meat, suddenly, as "the water boiled, the island began to move, like a wave. The brothers ran to the ship.. and resumed their voyage as the island drifted across the ocean. From two miles away, they could still see the fire they had lit on the island burning. Saint Brendanus explained what had happened to them with these words: "Were you amazed at what the island did?... It is not an island where we were, but a fish, the greatest Of those who live in the ocean, always trying to join their head to their tail, something they cannot achieve due to their great size. Their name is 'Iasconius'." This event is depicted in the image further up.

Madeira?

They headed west to the Bird's Paradise Island (insula paradysus avium), where the same man they'd met before gave them supplies (he is later mentioned as the procurator or steward). There, Bendan learned that he and his companions would search seven years before reaching the Promised Land of the Saints. They sail for three months and reach an island (insula Albei) which in a biblical manner they can't land on for another 40 days. They meet a man who takes them to a abbey whose monks had arrived there 80 years ago, the island was named after Saint Ailbe of Emly (or ST. Elvis), an Irish saint and bishop.

Congealed sea? (Sargasso Sea?)

They sailed from there until Lent and reached an island, where they found water, but as they all felt very sleepy and slept for 2 or 3 days, Brendan urged them to leave. Then, "Now, having loaded the ship with all that the man of God had commanded, they set sail and began to sail out into the ocean toward the north. After three days and nights, the wind ceased and the sea began to be as if congealed because of the great calm. The holy father said: "Send the oarsmen into the ship and lower the sails. For wherever God wants to steer her, let him do it." So the ship was carried through various parts of the ocean for about twenty days. After this, God raised up a favorable wind for them from the west toward the east." Was this an encounter with the seaweeds of the Sargasso Sea?

They continued until they reached the same island where the previous year they had met the proucrator (This is the first time the name is mentioned in the text).

They sailed on, and after 40 days saw a gigantic beast that foamed at the mouth producing great waves and moving fast towards them. They prayed for help, and a second flame-throwing beast appeared and collided with the first one, saving them. Then they came to an island, and found the remains of the beast, and ate it. There was a spring too. They stayed there for 3 months as the sea was choppy. They sailed north and came across an island inhabited by three groups, children dressed in white, young adults dressed in violet, and old people in purple who chanted to the Lord. It had dark and white grapes, large, and sweet. They took them on board and sailed awway. On their journey, a gigantic bird flew over them and dropped large grapes, which they ate. Then they came to an island with grapes the size of apples and three springs. They stayed there for 40 days.

After they left, a griphon flew towards them to attack them, but it was intercepted and killed by the bird that had brought them grapes. Then, for Christmas they reached the Island of St. Albes.

Manatees?

They left in Lent, and repeated the cycle, only landing during the Christian festive days. Once, during St. Peter's celebrations, they came to a spot in the ocean where the water was so clear that they could see everything beneath the ship. When they peered over the edge, they saw various kinds of beasts resting on the sandy bottom. The water was so transparent that it seemed they could touch them. They looked like a flock in a meadow, moving in circles" (Were these manatees? If so, they are found in the Caribbean and Florida, USA.

Iceberg

"One day, when they had celebrated mass, a pillar appeared to them in the sea, and it seemed not far from them, but they could not approach it for three days. But when the man of God approached, he looked at its top, but he could not see it at all because of its height. For it was higher than the air. Moreover, it was covered with a rare canopy, which was so rare that a ship could pass through its openings. But they did not know from what creature the canopy itself was made. For it had the color of silver, but yet it seemed harder than marble. The pillar was indeed made of crystal, very clear." Was this an iceberg?

Volcano

They reached an island with forges, and where gigantic men threw chunks of red-hot iron and slag at the boat, this went on all day: "it seemed as if the whole island was burning like one oven, and the sea was boiling like a cauldron full of meat, boiling when it is served by fire, and they heard, for a whole day, a great howl from that island, and even when they could not see it, and the howl of those who lived there reached their ears, and a great stench reached their nostrils." It seems like they encountered a volcano, erupting, this could be in Iceland, or even the volcano on Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, or in the Caribbean, where there there are several active volcanoes: Soufrière Hills (Montserrat), La Soufrièère (St. Vincent), and Mount Pelée (Martinique).

They sailed and met another island, but left after losing a monk there "when they looked back from afar at the island, they saw a mountain covered with smoke, and a flame spewing from itself into the air, and then breathing the same flame back again, so that the whole mountain appeared to be one pyre." Perhaps another volcano.

After six years they reached an island where a hermit named Paul lived, he was an old man, and had arrived there 90 years ago, from a monastery in Ireland. He told them they'd sail and meet their steward*. Which they did, and in his company they reached the island-fish Jasconius and celebrated mass there. Then they reached the Birds' Island, and from there after Pentecost, the steward offered to accompany them and guide them to the land of the Promise of the Saints.

* Note. The Latin name used here is procurator, a noun that derives from the verb prōcūrō which means "to take care of", "manage", or "administer". It was used to nae a manager, agent, steward, overseer, someone who acts on behalf of another person, especially in legal matters (was he an agent of God?).

First they went to the "island of the steward, and he himself with them spent forty days there." Then they set sail again:

"Now their boat was sailing towards the east for forty days. Moreover, their procurator himself went ahead of them. But after forty days had passed, at the approach of evening, a great darkness overtook them, so that one could scarcely see the other. And the procurator said to Saint Brendan: “Do you know what this darkness is?” Saint Brendan said: “What is it?” Then he said, "That darkness has surrounded that island you are looking for for seven years." After the space of an hour, a great light shone around them again, and the ship stood on the shore. And when they came out of the ship, they saw a beautiful land, full of fruit trees, as in the autumn season. And when they had gone around that land, there was no night for them."

"They took only the fruits and drank from the springs. And so for forty days they explored the land and could not find (its end). One day, however, they found a large river flowing through the middle of the island. Then Saint Brendan turned to his brothers and said: "We cannot cross this river and we do not know the size of that land." When they had thought this over, the young man immediately came to meet them, kissing them with great joy and calling each one by name and saying: "Blessed are those who dwell in your house for ever and ever." When he had said this, he said to Saint Brendan: "Behold the land which you have sought for a long time. For this reason you could not find it at once because God wanted to show you his various secrets in the great ocean. Return therefore to the land of your birth, carrying with you as much of the fruits of this island and of the gems as your little boat can carry. For the days of your pilgrimage are approaching, that you may sleep with your fathers. But after many years this land will be declared to your successors when the persecution of Christians has come upon them. This river which you see divides this island."

They gathered fruit, some gems, bid farewell to the young man and the steward and returned home to Ireland. There, he wrote down his adventures and the omen of the young man, and prepared for his coming death. Once he had finished his preparations, he received the sacraments, and passed away c. 570 AD.

Comments

The story of Brendan's voyage is full of religious content, demons, beasts, messages from God, symbols, forty day-spans, seven-year-long voyage (symbolic numbers), and the celebration of Christian festivities. It is embelished and also included an encounter with Judas (I ommitted in the translation further up - it is mentioned in Chapter XXXII).

These events took place 1,500 years ago, they were written 1,100 years ago. We can only speculate where Saint Brendan went, and what he saw. However, the details, like the island of white sheep, volcanos, manatees, Sargasso, islands with rivers (which can only mean an continent, and that can only be America) suggest that there is some truth deeply hidden in this story. It may be based on historic facts. It could be possible that Brendan and his companions reached North America.

An expedition organized by Tim Severin, Irish author and explorer (1940-2020) navigated across the North Atlantic and reached Newfoundland in 1977 in a replica of St. Brendan's ship. Severin proved that the voyage was feasible using early Medieval technology. Below is a picture of this replica of a curragh used by Severin.

Aftermath

There were some attempts to locate these islands, starting in 1130 AD with Honorius of Autun (also known as Honorius Augustodunensis) who in his work Imago Mundi (Image of the World) specifically mentions it: "A certain island in the Ocean called Lost" and adds, "Brandamis is said to have come to this... Another island is that one cannot see how one goes, and never is seen: It is called the Lost Island; That island found Saint Brendan, Who saw many a marvel" (Source).

The Portuguese and Spanish sent several expeditions to find the Island of Sancti Brandani, which was also given similar names, such as: Brendán, Brandain, Barandán, Balandrán, Borondó,;n. The name can even be found in a bay in Argentina's Buenos Aires province, in the River Plate, Samborombón bay, with the Samborombón River flowing into it!

The Alcacovas Treaty signed in 1479 between the kings of Castille and Portugal established that if the island was found, it would become part of the Castillian Crown, as it belonged to the Canarian archipelago.

Some have affirmed that either Americo Vespuccio or Magellan's expedition named the bay in Argentina after San Borondó,n (deformed into Samborombón) because it appeared in maps, now lost, that showed it, or perhaps because they found evidence of the Irish monks on the coast there. (Source)

Among those who set out to find it were Fernando de Viseu, nephew of the Infante Don Enrique el Navegante, the Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), who sailed in the late 1400s. Hernando de Troya and Francisco Alvarez, in 1523, from the Canary Islands. In 1530 Hernán Pérez de Grado, Regent of the Royal Audience -highest Court of Law- of the Canary Islands says he visited the island of St. Brendan and lost part of his crew there. Pedro Vello, a Portuguese captain also said he landed on the mysterious island but had to leave it quickly after the wind changed. Fernando Villalobos, from La Palma, Alonso de Espinosa, governor of El Hierro, Gaspar Pérez de Acosta and Lorenzo de Pinedo, set out in 1604.

Dutch navigator, Van Linschoten, noted in 1589 that the people in the Canary Islands believed that St. Brendan's Island was 100 leagues west of their archipelago (500 km or 310 mi.)

None of them pinpointed its location.

I support the idea of an Irish transatlantic voyage c.550. My next post will look into the association between the supposed discovery of Brazil by Sancho Brandão in 1343 (157 years before its "official" discovery date) and St. Brendan.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Some Mormon insights on the peopling of America

I read many articles, papers and books, some of them are rigorous science, others are more informal, like blogs or news sites, and others are clearly religious, like the one I will mention today.

I am an atheist. A former Anglican, I turned agnostic and later became a full atheist, but I understand the deep religious need that human beings have, so, as long as religions don't try to impose their beliefs on me (or impose religion as facts -like creationists are trying to do in the U.S.), each and everyone can believe in whatever makes them feel better. Religon plays an important role in people's lives, it brings calm, peace, and soothes in the face of death and tragic events. I have visited many holy sites of different religions, past, and present, around the globe, from China, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Rome, Vatican, Western Europe, the Americas, and I have to admit that holy sites have a mystical aura about them. Having said this, It is clear that I don't support Mormon beliefs, but those who follow that faith, try to find scientific backing to prove some of its basic premises. In this context, the book Is Decrypting the Genetic Legacy of America’s Indigenous Populations Key to the Historicity of the Book of Mormon? by Ugo A. Perego and Jayne E. Ekinsipsum puts forward some interesting thoughts and hypothesis that are backed by science and stand outside of the "orthodox" viepoint on Amerindian genetics. Below is a short quote from this work (p. 276 and 278).

What would have happened to their DNA after their arrival? A well considered argument comes from Henry C. Harpending, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah. When asked, “If a group of, say, fifty Phoenicians (men and women) arrived in the Americas some 2,600 years ago and intermarried with indigenous people, and assuming their descendants fared as well as the larger population through the vicissitudes of disease, famine, and war, would you expect to find genetic evidence of their Phoenician ancestors in the current Native American population? In addition, would their descendants be presumed to have an equal or unequal number of Middle Eastern as Native American haplotypes?
Professor Harpending’s reply was, “I doubt that we would pick up [evidence of the Phoenicians] today at all, but it does depend on how they intermixed once they were here. If they intermixed freely and widely, and if there were several millions of people here in the New World, then the only trace would be an occasional strange stray haplotype. Even if we found such a haplotype we would probably assume it was the result of post-Columbian admixture.”⁴⁰
... From a numerical point of view, the arrival of Lehi and his group would be comparable to a drop of ink in a swimming pool. However, in the swimming pool, although nearly impossible to detect, the actual drop of ink is present. The difficulty in recognizing the drop of ink is determined by the availability of instruments sufficiently sensitive to detect its minuscule presence within the much larger body of water. This analogy does not extend perfectly to DNA and inheritance at the population level. Although the group of Old World migrants was small (a drop of ink), the DNA may have survived (or not) to the present time — due to the forces of genetic drift. If it disappeared, it would be as if someone removed the drop of ink from the swimming pool such that it seemed never to have been there in the first place. Of course, this would be heavily dependent on the level of isolation the Book of Mormon party experienced — something not clearly stated in the narrative."
⁴⁰ Signature Books, http://signaturebooks.com/2010/06/dna-and-thebook-of-mormon (accessed 5 January 2013).

So, small parties if they admixed, would be so diluted that nothing would remain to show they arrived. Perego and Ekinsipsum also mention the "Great Dying" and clearly describe how it contributed to wiping out lineages and leaving no trace of them. This is something I have mentioned many times in this blog (see p. 281, quoted below).

"The arrival of Europeans to the Americas in the fifteenth century was orders of magnitude worse than the combined effect of the Black Plague and the Spanish Influenza on Europeans. The consequences of rapidly reduced population and displacement has forever altered the demographic landscape of pre-Columbian America such that scientists from many disciplines are considerably limited in their ability to draw conclusions about the history, including the genetic history, of the New World. To model such an event, suppose that after an epidemic of smallpox, a hypothetical village of a thousand individuals experienced a ninety percent reduction; the one hundred surviving subjects may or may not include at least one representative of all the original group genetic lineages. Although survival of many diseases also involves a genetic component, Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA variance have little known or no influence at all on the immunity of an individual affected by one of the several diseases Europeans brought to the New World.
With selection playing little or no recognizable role on specific ancestral lines, the drastic population reduction in the hypothetical village inevitably would have affected the number of surviving genetic lineages. Of course, the initial impact with Europeans was so severe that entire tribal groups, particularly on the Atlantic side of the Americas, were completely decimated, leaving no genetic trace of their existence. Native Y chromosomes were quickly replaced by those from the Old World, and mitochondrial DNA variation was greatly reduced."

Interestingly it also addresses the issue of European-like or African-like genes in America, they are always attributed to Post-Columbian events: "If mtDNA lineages are observed in the Americas, even in tribal groups considered deeply indigenous who belong to mtDNA groups known to be African, European, or even Asian, the argument most readily given is that they have been introduced more recently, after the rediscovery of the New World by Europeans" (p.269) and "Perhaps the greatest challenge faced by scientists is to be able to assign clearly and unequivocally any European or African lineage found in the Americas to the pre-Columbian era. The generalized view among population geneticists is that after the initial arrival of Paleo-Indians toward the end of the Last Ice Age, no other migrations took place until the discovery of the double-continent by Europeans in 1492... the common consensus, whenever any DNA is found that does not fit with the classic Native America genetic types, is an automatic assignment of such DNA to the post-Columbian migration wave of European or African migrants." (p. 271-272)

About Lehi and America

Lehi and his people arrive in the promised land (America), painting by Arnold Friberg (See 1 Nephi 18, pages 41–43). Source

For the non-Mormons, the group mentioned in this work as accompanying Lehi were Jews, who were inspired and led by Lehi's father, Nephi, a Hebrew prophet who guided his family and friends from Jerusalem to the land that the Lord promised them in the west (America). This took place c.600 BC when the Babylonians struck Jerusalem. Lehi and his sons built a ship and sailed across the ocean to America, and settled there.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

mtDNA C1e haplogroup (2026 update) (and C1f & C1g too)

I first posted about a unique and rare mtDNA haplogroup C1e found only in Iceland, back in 2014, hinting at a Neanderthal origin. Recently, I mentioned mythical voyages of mythical King Arthur to Iceland. Today I will review publications that mention C1e, since 2015.

C1e in Central Asia

This rare haplogroup has been reported in a paper by Järve, Mari et al. (2019), Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance. Current Biology, Volume 29, Issue 14, 2430 - 2441.e10. The article mentions this lineage casually, and then includes data in its Supplementary file, as Table 2: "All of the 31 individuals were successfully haplotyped (Table S2). Despite the small sample size, the 31 samples of this study exhibit a remarkable heterogeneity of mtDNA haplogroups (hgs) (Table S2)... with a few representatives of the rare hgs X, W and C1e (5/31)". Only one sample of the 31, was C1e, it is sample MJ-43, identified as ScySar_Su (Scythians and Sarmatians from the Southern Urals).

This sample belongs to a woman from the Early Prokhorovka period (4th century BC) from Sibai-1 from the northern periphery of the Prokhorovka area in Russia (more details on MJ-43 here) this spot can be seen in this map. These people were nomads who bred sheep and cattle, and were great horse riders. They buried their dead in large mounds.

The article describes this group: "Scythians and Sarmatians of the Southern Urals (group ScySar_SU) Due to its geographic position, the Southern Urals region became a contact zone of different ethnic groups at the beginning of the Early Iron Age. The prominent natural feature of the region is the mountain range of the Urals that divides the Eurasian steppe zone into its European and Asian parts. The relative proximity to the nations of Central Asia and the Near East, the abundance of natural resources and the existence of large centers of metallurgy made the region attractive for nomads, which culminated in the formation of a large-scale union of nomads in the 5th–4th century BC." How did the C1e go to Iceland from here, or reach this area from Iceland?

C1e in Xinjiang, China

Then there is the paper by Wang W, et al. (2021) (Ancient Xinjiang mitogenomes reveal intense admixture with high genetic diversity. Sci Adv 7: eabd6690) who mention the C1e haplogroup in its Supplementary file Table S1 as follows "WTL_M3B, Wutulan (WTL), Nilka County", China. This place can be seen in this Google map. It is dated at 2425-1942 BP. This is far from Iceland, and roughly 1,250 miles or 2,000 km from the Russian site, and very far from America.

A paper published last year by Cabrera V. (2025) suggests a back-migration from America into Asia: "Hg C1 comprises four common and well spread sub lineages, three of them (C1b, C1c, C1d) practicably exclusive of the Americas and one (C1a) with a wide Asian range, and several rare clades/isolates, the most ancient of which is represented by two identical sequences from Brazil (Simão et al. 2021) and Paraguay (Avila et al. 2019) that carries twelve mutations in its basal stem (Supplementary_Fig_S3.xls). Curiously, the other isolates have been detected in northwestern Eurasia instead of East Asia: C1e in Iceland (Ebenesersdóttir et al. 2011), western Russia (Järve et al. 2019), and western China (Wang et al. 2021); C1f in Tajikistan (Peng et al. 2018) and C1g in Mesolithic remains from western Russia (Der Sarkissian et al. 2014). As the oldest clades are found in the New World, the most parsimonious conclusion is that all the C1 branches in Eurasia resulted from retro migrations from America."

Name Change C1f → C1g

Cabrera refers to a C1g haplotype reported in 2014, in Russia, by Der Sarkissian et al. I quote this paper below. But note that the nomenclature has changed between this 2014 paper and now. The former C1f of 2014 is now C1g (Source).

A paper by Clio Der Sarkissian, et al.(2014) reporting another rare variant, mtDNA C1f haplogroup, found in Yuzhnyy Oleni Ostrov (see map), in NW Russia, discusses the American origin of the C1f and C1e variants:

"The Americas also remain under-sampled for complete mtDNA genomes and could be suggested as a potential geographical origin for the C1f lineage, as it has been for the Iceland-restricted C1e sub-clade. For C1e, an American origin through mating of Viking explorers with Native American women sometime earlier than 300 years ago was proposed. Among other hypotheses including that of a European origin, an American origin was favoured on the basis that most of the hg C1 diversity is found on the American continent, despite the fact that no sequence belonging to hg C1e could be detected in the Americas (or anywhere else). This lack of match was explained by under-sampling of the American mtDNA genome diversity. In any case, if admixture between Native Americans and Vikings did occur, it must have been limited, as no other American-specific lineage (e.g. hg A2, B2, D1, C1b, C1c, C1d) was detected in Iceland.
As for Mesolithic Europe, the possibility of a direct prehistoric genetic influence from the Americas is highly unlikely. However, in the eventuality that further sampling of complete mtDNA genomes in the Americas reveals the presence of additional haplotypes belonging to C1f, it would suggest an evolutionary history similar to that of mtDNA hg X2. Like hg C1, hg X2 displays relatively low frequencies albeit with a global distribution in the Northern hemisphere. For example, clade X2a was observed in Europe in the West, in the Near East, Europe, Central Asia, Siberia as well as North America [43]. One model for the present-day distribution of hg X2 suggests that clade X2a split early from the rest of the X2 lineages in the Near East, and reached east Siberia before participating in the second wave of migration into the Americas through admixture with Beringian populations [44]. A similar scenario involving an early split of the different C1 clades in Asia followed by their spread and subsequently isolated evolution could be considered as an explanation for the wide geographical distribution of hg C1 in general. However, this scenario currently lacks substantial support."

But the authors favor an Eurasian origin: "we suggest that the Icelandic-specific C1e sub-clade could have had a recent origin in northern Europe rather than an American origin. This hypothesis is relevant with regard to the origins of the Icelandic population, as Iceland was discovered and first settled by Scandinavian Vikings around 1,130 years ago. Vikings raids extended as far from their homeland in Scandinavia as France, Spain and Sicily, but their main expansion range comprised western Russia, the Baltic region, Scandinavia, and the British Isles [16]. The study of the mtDNA diversity of present-day Icelanders identified that most of the Icelandic mtDNA lineages had Norse (from Scandinavia) or Gaelic origins (from the British Isles) and that the Icelandic gene pool had strongly been impacted by genetic drift... Considering the Scandinavian origins of Icelanders and the identification of the sister clade C1f in Mesolithic North East Europe, it can be proposed that the Icelandic-specific C1e and C1f sub-clades might have both split from the common ancestors of the C1 lineages somewhere in Eurasia and later reached northern Europe during independent or similar migrations (before the Mesolithic for C1f). Therefore, the rare occurrence of the C1e and C1f sub-clades in Europe could be the result of their dilution within the pre-existing European mtDNA diversity when these lineages reached Europe... C1e might have been brought in by the Vikings who first colonised Iceland... While the C1e sub-clade might have been preserved at detectable frequencies in the Icelandic population due to the effects of founder event, it most likely has gone extinct in the source population in northern Europe as a consequence of its low frequency."

More Recent Developments

With the surge in genetic analysis, there have been more reports of C1f (see this source) that reports: 4 individuals in Iceland, 2 Native American, 1 German, and 5 individuals in another two countries (Italy and Tajikistan). A blog post from 2023. C1g has been reported in one ancient male individual, from Karelia (close to the Yuzhnyy Oleni Ostrov location), dated to 8,800-7,950 BP (Source).

A 2017 paper by Ming-Sheng Peng et al. adds some more C1g individuals to the map. In its Supplementary Table S4 it mentions two individuals with C1g haplogroup, PT35 and HM804483 the second has a note that reads "Origin_locality: USA Family Tree". Table S1 identifies the origin of PT35 as Pamir Tajik, the other sample seems to be an older one, used as a reference. This source gives full details, it is a C1, and back in 2009 it was a C1f (Source), now reanamed C1g.

More information is provided by https://www.yfull.com/mtree/C/, with 2021 data showing:

• C1f1, two individuals from Tajikistan, Gorno Badakhshan which includes Pamir.
• C1f2, one individual from India, Marathi, the other (id: YF132247) unspecified.
• C1g, one individual from Bolivia, ancient sample c.826-1049 BP, the other (id:JQ705835.1) unspecified.

I must admit, however, that I am confused by the nomenclagure, the Tajiks and the Indian are classed as C1f, but we have seen above that they are C1g! (?) geneticists have this persistent issue with changing codes and causing confusion!. Anyway the point is that this ratifies the Tajiks as C1g -or f- variants, and mentions an Indian subject, and a new ancient C1g in Bolivia, pre-Hispanic by its age.

2021 data on C1f and C1g. Source

The ages of the C1f branches in Asia are 4700 years BP are much younger than the 16200 years assigned to C1g, however, I must point out that Postillone and Pérez (2017) says that the Bolivian sample mentioned further up -it has the same id code- is C1c and not C1g! "KU523335.1 245.C1c C1c Bolivia." It also appears as C1c in the National Center for Biotechnology​database. So I have my doubts about it being C1g.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Early Peopling of America ~40 kya

This will be a very short post. I came across a paper published in Nature in 2020, by V. M. Cabrera (Counterbalancing the time-dependent effect on the human mitochondrial DNA molecular clock. BMC Evol. Biol. 20, 1–9 , 2020) which, as you can see by its title is about the uneven rate at which mutations accumulate in mitochondrial genomes, it can run faster or slower and the research cited by Cabrera attributes it to "changes in the effective population size of the human populations." Another factor mentioned by Cabrera are " "transient polymorphisms... play a slowdown role in the evolutionary rate deduced from haplogroup intraspecific trees".

Transient polymorphisms

These are short-lived variants that through selection take over and displace another. Later, they are themselves replaced, hence their name (transient). An example is the classical moths of England, they came in two varieties, light colored and dark. Before the industrial revolution, the light ones prevailed, as the dark ones were very visible (easy preys) on the pale tree trunks. Then, when the industrial soot of coal furnaces darkened the bark, the situation changed, and the dark ones were less visible. Soon they displaced the ligher colored moths (dark allele replaced pale one). However, in the 1970s, with pollution abating measures in place, the bark of trees became pale once again, and the light colored moths now prevail over the dark ones.

Regarding variability as time passes, Cabrera mentions an interesting fact: "For example, an ancient mtDNA study has corroborated empirically the persistence of an ancestral M lineage unaltered along a period of more than 8000 years" and adds that "Consequently, a lineage could remain immutable for several generations while identical lineages in the same population suffer one or several mutational changes in the same time interval."

This situation is shown in the paper's Figure 2, shown below, which very clearly shows how mutations can be overlooked when building a tree, and its effect on the mutation rate that is inferred from it. Cabrera describes the figure as follows: "We represent such a scenario in Fig. 2A as a maternal genealogy. Notice that the ancestral lineage can give rise to offspring in different generations throughout its existence in the population. In this way, when the population is sampled after n generations, we can find, in addition to the ancestral lineage (e), lineages derived from it that have accumulated significant mutational differences in their branches (f, h). However, this fact is not reflected in the tree built from the same sample (Fig. 2B) because, irrespective of the generation in which they appeared, all derived lineages sprout at the same time from the ancestral node (e). This difference between genealogies and trees has notable consequences. On the one hand, it could explain the lack of mutation rate homogeneity between lineages found in intraspecific haplogroup.""

Comparison between a genealogy (A) and a tree (B) constructed from the same sample (a to h). White circles are individuals with the ancestral lineage, black circles are individuals with additional mutations. Inter-circle segments represent generations and crosses on the segments represent mutations.. Figure 2 in Cabrera.

Cabrera then calculates the ages of the different mtDNA haplogroups, and finds a relatively old age for the entry of humans into America:

"Finally, although we proposed a unique migration for the colonization of the Americas around 40,000 years ago (20) which is directly or indirectly supported by archaeological dates, it seems possible that this first migration, signaled by the ages of haplogroups A2 and B2 was followed afterwards by a second wave, also before the Last Glacial Maximum, marked by haplogroups C1, D1, D4h3a and X2a around 27,500 years ago (Table 3).

Note 1. The figures from Table 3 are these: C1: 30 ky, D1: 32 ky, D4h3a: 26 ky, and X2a: 22 ky.

Note 2. Cabrera in (20) is citing himself! (Cabrera, V. M., 2020, Counterbalancing the time-dependent effect on the human mitochondrial DNA molecular clock. BMC Evol. Biol. 20, 1–9.)

This second paper by Cabreera, cited above as (20), states that "Finally, the time of human expansion to the American Continent deduced from the haplogroup B2 phylogeny was approximately 37,000 ya (Table 1, and Table S11). This age supports a pre-Clovis occupation of the New World, well before the last glacial maximum."

I am happy to see someone who is pushing the boundaries towards an older date, 40-37 ky ago. This is positive. It will open the door for others to use this information to validate their findings of an even earlier date for the arrival of modern humans to America.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Molecular Clock (revisited Again)

Following my recent post on reversions, also known as back mutations, which shows that mutation rates are higher than expected due to back-mutations, I decided to update the information about the errors in "molecular clocks."

Behar DM, et al. A "Copernican" reassessment of the human mitochondrial DNA tree from its root, published in 2012 (Am J Hum Genet. 2012 Apr 6;90(4):675-84. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.03.002. Erratum in: Am J Hum Genet. 2012 May 4;90(5):936. PMID: 22482806; PMCID: PMC3322232), included a section titled "Indications for Violation of the Molecular Clock", which compared the number of mutations from the base (called RSRS or Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence) along haplogroup lineages. They noticed a wide variation, from 42 to 71 substitutions with a mean of just over 57. This is a wide spread of data, clearly the clock by which mutations ocurr is clicking at different rates for different haplogroups.

In line with my recent post (mutation rates are faster in Africa), Behar et al. noticed that there were 77 mutations in the L2b1a mtDNA variant (supposedly old, and ancient, and only found within Africa). But... M2b1b and M7b3a, found outside of Africa, and "daughters" of the African L clades, has 71 mutations. Below I quote this paper:

"The accepted notion of a molecular clock means that contemporary mtDNA haplotypes should show statistically insignificant differences in the number of accumulated mutations from the RSRS. Triggered by the suggested change in the reference sequence that facilitates substitution counts from the ancestral root, we further evaluated this hypothesis. The range of substitution counts separating contemporary mitogenomes belonging to major haplogroups from the RSRS is shown in Figure S2.
The mean distance is 57.1 substitutions, the median is 56 and the empirical standard deviation is 5.9. Widely different distances ranging from 41 substitutions in some L0d1a1 mitogenomes to 77 in some L2b1a mitogenomes are observed. Interestingly, the ranges of substitution counts within haplogroups M and N, which are hallmarks of the relatively recent out-of-Africa exodus of humans, are also very large. For example, within M there are two mitogenomes with 43 substitutions (in M30a and M44) and two mitogenomes with as many as 71 substitutions (in M2b1b and M7b3a). This is especially striking because the path from the RSRS to the root of M already contains 39 substitutions. Hence, the difference between the M root and its M44 descendant is only four substitutions (two in the coding region and two in the control region) as compared to 32 substitutions in the M2b1b and M7b3a mitogenomes.
These observations raise the possibility that the tree in general, and haplogroup M in particular, might not adhere uniformly to the assumed molecular clock, under which substitutions occur at a fixed rate on all branches of the tree over time. We evaluated this scenario by performing generalized likelihood ratio tests of the molecular clock by using PAML33 on subsets of samples from the entire tree, on haplogroup L2 (following past evidence of clock violations in this haplogroup40) and on the sister haplogroups M and N. Our results demonstrate violations of the molecular clock in M (0.00015 ≤ p value ≤ 0.0003 for χ2 GLR test in three different analyses) and give mixed results for the entire tree (p = 0.005 and p = 0.018 for two analyses, which might be sensitive to the parts of the tree randomly sampled) and L2 (GLR χ2 p value = 5 × 10−5 and p value = 0.033 for two analyses) and borderline results in N (GLR χ2 p value = 0.049 and p value = 0.054 in two analyses). We are currently unable to offer well-founded explanations for these findings, which remain the scope of future studies."

The researchers couldn't explain why!

Generation Times or Generation interval

One explanation for variability in mutation rates is a gradual decrease in the rate of germ-line mitoses per year in the human lineage caused by longer generation times. This is known as the "hominoid slowdown hypthesis", first proposed by Morris Goodman in the 1950s.

The "generation length" or interval, (time between birth and reproduction) vary from one species to another. The concept of the slowdown is that creatures with a short generation time, go through many more generations per unit time than animals with a long generation time (like humans). Humans have longer generations than chimps and other old and new world monkeys. The same can be noted for humans and mice.

The explanation is simple: take an animal, like a dog, which can produce a litter per year after the age of 1. If allowed to mate on a yearly basis, it will have produced 12 generations in 12 years (its lifespan). So if each for each generation there are n random mutations taking at take place in the germline (ova and sperm) dogs will have an accumulated mutation number of 10n mutations after ten years. Considering human generation times of 29 years, a human being will only have produced one generation, with only n mutations in 29 years (assuming both species undergo the same random number of mutations per generation), while dogs will have undergone 29n mutations.

Can we be certain that Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo erectus, or even H. sapiens who lived 200,000 years ago, had generation times shorter, equal, or longer than ours? Were they 25, 29, or 30 years long?

One 2006 paper states that "Using 15 years as the generation time for chimpanzees and ancient humans and 20 years for that of modern humans, the estimated time of the evolution of long generation time in the modern humans is approximately one million years."

Another paper using introgressed Neanderthal segments in Eurasians (the paper is very interesting!) calculated that East and West Eurasians had different generation times: "differences in the generation interval across Eurasia, by up 10–20%, over the past 40,000 years... we estimate that this difference corresponds to a 2.68 or 3.39 years shorter generation interval in West Eurasia if East Asian mean generation time was 28 or 32 years respectively."

Richard Wang et al., (2023) explored the subject in depth "Our analyses of whole-genome data reveal an average generation time of 26.9 years across the past 250,000 years, with fathers consistently older (30.7 years) than mothers (23.2 years). Shifts in sex-averaged generation times have been driven primarily by changes to the age of paternity, although we report a substantial increase in female generation times in the recent past. We also find a large difference in generation times among populations, reaching back to a time when all humans occupied Africa." The image below shows how generation time changes over time, and region. The image caption reads "Fig. 3. Change in generation interval across different human populations. Generation intervals were estimated in ancestors of four major continental human populations included in the 1000 Genomes Project; sex-averaged generation intervals are shown here as smoothed by loess (see fig. S6 for full results). Confidence intervals for each population were obtained by bootstrapping, as in Fig. 2. The inset shows results from including polymorphisms that date back to 78,000 generations ago; note that age estimates of mutations in the very distant past have decreased accuracy (15). AFR, Africa; EAS, East Asia; EUR, Europe; SAS, South Asia.

Genertion time evolution over time, by region. Fig. 3 in Wang et al. (2023)

Note: In case you wonder why the graph shows South Asians and Eurasians 10000 generations ago (roughly 300,000 years ago) a time when modern humans were just originating inside of Africa, the paper points out that "While the continental labels for each population are used across the span of the analysis, note that beyond roughly 2000 generations ago, all non-African populations were likely located in Africa and show little differentiation among themselves; coalescence among all ancestral populations living in Africa does not occur until more than 10,000 generations ago."

The paper quantifies the time and its impact on mutation rates: "The dominating pattern across the past 10,000 generations is a significantly shorter sex-averaged generation interval for East Asian, European, and South Asian populations— 20.1 ± 3.9, 20.6 ± 3.8, and 21.0 ± 3.7 years—compared to the African population, 26.9 ± 3.5 years. The estimated generation times do not converge between populations until we expand our analysis to include periods older than 10,000 generations ago (Fig. 3, inset)... The large difference in generation times between populations suggests that different time scales are needed to estimate events outside of Africa (20 to 21 years per generation) versus those in Africa (27 years per generation). These results are consistent with the prediction of a shorter generation time in non-Africans, based on the observation of a slightly elevated per-year mutation rate in these populations."

Environmental Factors and Mutations

In a recent post I discussed a hypothesis that suggested a climatic influence on mtDNA mutations. Today I will mention the effects of the Ultraviolet Radiation (UV) in sunlight on mutation rates.

Research by Kelley Harris (2015) looked at European mutation rates, and found "Europeans experience higher rates of a specific mutation type that has known associations with UV light exposure." It isn't recent either, it is very old: "rate acceleration seems to have occurred between 25,000 and 60,000 y ago, not long after Europeans diverged from Asians."

This is not trivial, Harris goes on to explain its significance: "Even if the overall European mutation rate increase was small, it adds to a growing body of evidence that molecular clock assumptions break down on a faster timescale than generally assumed during population genetic analysis. It was once assumed that the human lineage’s mutation rate had changed little since we shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees, but this assumption is losing credibility owing to the conflict between direct mutation rate estimates and molecular-clock-based estimates."

Harris then argues that "the results of this paper indicate that another force may have come into play: change in the mutation rate per mitosis." In the case of germline mutation rates, those passed on to the next generation because they take place in the germ cells, there are several drivers that can cause them:

Paternal Age: the older the father, more chances that mutations have accumulated in the spermatogonial stem cells due to repeated mitosis. Replication errors: mistakes in copying the DNA sequence (chunks are deleted, repeated, substituted). Methylation: DNA methylation (addition of a methyl —CH₃) influences mutations, etc.

Harris attributes it to the light skin of Europeans and UV radiation. Yet wonders about the mechanism: "
The question remains how UV could affect germ-line cells that are generally shielded from solar radiation" (there is an answer provided, folate deficienty due to UV depletion that causes mutations).

Closing Comments

We have seen that mutation rates are affected by climate, sunlight, generation times, and also natural selection. This means that we should be cautious when interpreting data using molecular clocks.

Soojin Yi, Darrell L. Ellsworth, and Wen-Hsiung Li (2002) express this very clearly "Therefore, application of a molecular clock to estimate divergence dates should be exercised with great caution even in relatively closely related taxa. That is, a molecular clock calibrated for some lineages may not be applicable to other lineages because the assumption of rate constancy among lineages may not hold, as shown in the case of higher primates. Furthermore, the rate estimated from one genomic region may not be applicable to another region because the mutation rate varies among genomic regions."

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Neanderthal males mated with Human females (says study published in Science)

An article published in the latest issue of Science (Alexander Platt et al., Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans was strongly sex biased. Science 391, 922-925 (2026). DOI:10.1126/science.aea6774) suggests that male Neanderthals had a soft spot for female Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH), or that AMH women chose male Neanderthals as mates, or both.

Thos of us who trace our ancestry to a non-Sub-Saharan African ancestor, carry snips of Neanderthal DNA in our chromosomes. These come from an admixture (mating) episode that took place some 45,000 to 49,000 years ago. A few thousand years later, the Neanderthals vanished and our human ancestors replaced them. But these Neanderthal genes are not uniformly distributed across our chromosomes. Why?

The Neander men mated with Human women!

The authors came to this conclusion (human women mating with Neanderhtal men) after looking at the distribution of Neanderthal alleles in our human genome. Although our ancestors mated with Neanderthals, and all humans living outside of Sub-Saharan Africa carry Neanderthal genes, there are vast swaths of autosomal genes in our 22 chromosomes that are devoid of Neanderthal alleles. An interesting anomaly is that the X chromosome us even more depleted of Neanderthal alleles (we carry another four chromosomes, either two "X" or an "X" and a "Y" if we are women or men, respectively). Why would the "X" chromosomes carry less alleles than the others? Well, this paper says that it reflects how Neanderthals contributed to our ancestry, the X chromosomes don't show Neanderthal ancestry because they are mainly human ones, mostly from human women and much less from Neanderthal women. Women contribute their X to all offspring, men do so only to their daughters, as their sons carry their Y chromosome. There could also be another factor that added to this distortion, natural selection that selected against the Neanderthal alleles.

The paper begins by stating in its Abstract that "By observing a 62% relative excess of AMH ancestry in Neanderthal X chromosomes, we characterized the interbreeding between the two groups as predominantly male Neanderthals with female AMHs" They suggest two explanations for this skew, to explain the "Neanderthal deserts across the modern human X chromosomes: (i) The lack of Neanderthal loci amongst the X chromosomes in the mode, or (ii) the contribution of Neanderthal X chromosomes was reduced from the very beginning and represents an original interbreeding that was biased toward male Neanderthals and female anatomically modern humans (AMHs)."

To validate which hypothesis is correct, they looked back, at the first admixture between AMH and Neanderthals, that took place 250 ky ago, and observed the fate of Neanderthal alleles in their offspring and applied these conclusions to the more recent admixture that ocurred 50 kya.

So they analyzed the genes of Neanderthals who lived after the AMH-Neanderthal admixture, including the Altai Neanderthal (122 kya), the two females from Chagyrskaya (80 kya) and and Vindija (52 kya). The authors concluded "that the lack of Neanderthal alleles in the modern human gene pool is not simply the result of excess incompatibility loci on the X chromosome". They also discarded genetic drift due to a small population size for the Neanderthals. Regarding the effects of Natural Selection, they found that "the Neanderthal X chromosomes did not suffer from sufficient mutational load to cause them to be generally deleterious compared with AMH X chromosomes." So evene if natural selection acted, it "was not likely sufficient to drive the broad lack of Neanderthal ancestry in the modern human X chromosome gene pool"

Caveman Courtship

Buster Keaton, Margaret Leahy and Wallace Beery in a scene from The Three Ages, 1923 . Source

Then they looked at dispersals and relocations between human and Neanderthal populations due to pair-coupling and mating (where female AMHs relocate into their Neanderthal partner's community) and modeled different scenarios. For instance, if all the AMH women of an exclusive all-female migration, mated with Neanderthal men, the excess ratio of AMH ancestry in the X chromosome of the hybrid offspring would be 1.33 (or +33%), but they observe a 1.62 excess ratio (+62%). One also has to consider the opposite effect of AMH males mating with Neanderthal women, which would lower the AMH presence in the X chromosomes of their hybrid offspring.

Since this can't raise the proportion of AMH presence in X chromosomes, they reasoned that the alternative was "mating preference" and describe it as follows: "the patterns that we observed in AMH-Neanderthal divergence and hybridization follow traditional processes of speciation and were likely colored by a persistent preference for pairings between males of predominantly Neanderthal ancestry and females of predominantly AMH ancestry over the reverse. The bias that we inferred seems to have remained consistent across admixture events separated by 200,000 years. Although we do not know what drove the biases in either event, the potential for preferences in mate choice to persist across time and space have been documented in both human and animal studies." So Neanderthal men liked AMH women more (or viceversa, or both!)

Simple one step mating Neanderthal man, and AMH woman. © 2026, Austin Whittall

The same issue of Science has a commentary on this paper (online here) and its title is suggestive: "Surprising partner preference found in matings between Neanderthals and modern humans. Male Neanderthals tended to pair up with female modern humans, but whether intercourse was consensual is unclear." It describes the article and interviews some scholars about it, concluding that "The mating bias Tishkoff and her co-authors have uncovered reflects something about the cultures and social behaviors of both species, she says. The team did not venture to guess whether the intercourse was consensual or coerced. But to Steven Churchill, a Duke University paleoanthropologist who was not involved with the research, the finding implies aggression. If males from one species monopolized females from the other, he says, “it’s hard to reconcile that with anything but a competitive, unfriendly interaction.”"

Closing Comments

I don't see why these interactions had to be violent, but given apes and humans tendency to be sexual, and aggressive it is an option, or perhaps wokism trying to explain ancient mating behavior.

Back in September 2011, I posted on the admixture of Neanderthal males and Human females and tried to answer the question of why there is no Neanderthal (NH) mtDNA in Homo sapiens (HS) (there should be if a matrilineal lineage had survived until now, with an original Neanderthal female passing her mtDNA across the generations until the present). I reasoned that: "Since nowadays there is no Neanderthal mtDNA in HS, we can conclude that mating between HS men and NH women (was as limited) or, if more frequent, it did not lead to a continuous lineage of hybrid N/HS women... if Neanderthal men got human women pregnant, they would not pass on any NH mtDNA (the children would have their human mom’s mtDNA). But, the Neander-Dad would pass on his nuclear DNA . So, Man (NH) and Woman (HS) would be a viable route to get Neanderthal DNA into our Homo sapiens cells. This explains why we have Neander DNA (autosome chromosomes)."

However, my reasoning did not lead to a higher prevalence of Human X chromosomes in the case of Neander-Human matings! I believe thtat this is so because I took into account Haldane's Law of sterile male offspring. As you can see in the image further up, if you eliminate the boys, who each carry an X in their XY sexual chromosomes, the two girls, would make it a 50-50 proportion as each carry a Neanderthal X and a Human X. In the same ratio! Maybe Haldane's Law does not apply?

Haldane's Law or Rule "JBS Haldane noted that when hybrid crosses affect one sex more significantly than the other, it is almost always the heterogametic sex that is so affected1. Thus, the risk is greatest for XY male hybrids in mammals... A century of observations has confirmed this rule." (Source).

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©