Overview
Haplogroup B-M60 represents one of the two principal branches that emerge from the basal BT radiation in Africa. It forms a sister lineage to CT and therefore retains some of the earliest paternal signatures within Homo sapiens outside the deeply-rooted A clades. B-M60 is strongly associated with small-scale hunter-gatherer and forest-forager populations throughout Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. Studies consistently show that the lineage has persisted in demographic contexts characterized by geographic isolation and low effective population sizes. These settings allowed B-M60 to accumulate substantial internal diversity without undergoing the continent-wide expansions seen in later clades such as E-M2.
The lineage is especially notable for its prominence among Central African rainforest foragers, traditionally referred to as Pygmy populations, including Baka, Bakola, Biaka and Mbuti. Additional early branches are found among Khoisan-speaking communities in Southern Africa and among the Hadza and Sandawe in Tanzania. Despite later integrative processes involving agro-pastoralist and Bantu expansions, B-M60 remains a key marker of ancient African demographic structure and of long-term forager continuity extending well into the Late Pleistocene.
Geographic distribution
B-M60 displays its highest frequencies in Central Africa among rainforest foragers in Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic and northern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is also well represented in Tanzania among the Hadza and in Southern Africa among Khoisan-associated groups. In the Sahel and parts of Sudan and Ethiopia, B-M60 occurs at low frequencies as a remnant of ancient substrata in populations now dominated by haplogroups E and J.
Outside Africa, B-M60 is rare but documented at low levels in the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. These distributions match well with historic trans-Red Sea and Indian Ocean exchange networks rather than any deep non-African origin.
Ancient DNA
- Shum Laka individuals from Cameroon dated to approximately 8,000 and 3,000 years ago were assigned to haplogroup B2b, confirming deep continuity of B-M60 lineages in Central African foragers.
- Late Pleistocene and early Holocene remains carrying B2b-like signatures have been identified in eastern and southeastern Africa, including several ancient foragers from Malawi.
- Early Holocene samples from Sudan and Kenya include B2-derived lineages that reflect persistence of forager ancestry despite the rise of pastoralist and agropastoral populations.
- Comparisons with modern genomes show that B2b-M112 lineages among Mbuti and related groups descend from long-lasting local populations with minimal external paternal input.
Phylogeny & subclades
B-M60 divides into three principal branches: B1-M236, B2-M182 and the much rarer B3-L1387. B2-M182 is the dominant source of diversity within haplogroup B, containing two large internal radiations, B2a-M150 and B2b-M112. These clades represent distinct demographic histories: B2a-M150 is more strongly associated with later Holocene expansions and appears frequently in Bantu and Sahelian populations, while B2b-M112 is deeply tied to Central African forest foragers, some Khoisan-speaking populations and isolated forager-related groups in Eastern Africa.
The internal structure of B reflects the dual character of African male demographic history: ancient, ecologically persistent forager lineages and later Holocene expansions of food-producing groups. B-M60 therefore serves as a crucial reference point for aligning genetic, archaeological and linguistic evidence of African prehistory.
- B1-M236
- B2-M182
- B2a-M150
- B2b-M112
- B3-L1387
Notes & context
B-M60 is essential for reconstructing deep African male population histories. Its presence among geographically distant yet historically forager-associated groups supports long-term demic stability interrupted only by recent expansions. Because the lineage is extremely diverse and geographically structured, B-M60 provides strong evidence that African Pleistocene populations were neither uniform nor homogenized but instead formed a network of partially isolated communities persisting for tens of thousands of years.
References & external links