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Haplogroup Q-Y4300

Q1a-Y4300

Macro-haplogroup

Parent clade

Q-M3

Formed (estimate)

c. 13,000–16,000 years before present

TMRCA (estimate)

c. 5,000–7,000 years ago

Y4300

Overview

Q-Y4300 is a major northern interior lineage associated with Subarctic hunter-gatherer populations. It is found among several Athabaskan/Dene-related communities of interior North America and likely represents one of the ancient paternal components predating later language expansions. Its demographic patterns correspond to highly mobile societies relying on boreal forest subsistence, caribou hunting, and long-distance seasonal migrations.

Geographic distribution

Found among Athabaskan-speaking groups including Dene, Chipewyan, Dogrib, Carrier, and adjacent Subarctic First Nations. Detected at low frequency among Inuit-admixed northern populations, suggesting later historic gene flow.

Ancient DNA

Ancient Subarctic DNA shows ancestry consistent with early Y4300-related lineages.
Timing overlaps with the stabilization of boreal forest ecologies and the formation of mobile caribou-hunting traditions.
Patterns of diversification align with archaeological phases in interior Alaska and the Mackenzie Basin.

Phylogeny & subclades

Y4300 displays internal substructure reflecting separate expansions across the Yukon–Mackenzie corridor and the Canadian Shield.

Northern Subarctic cluster
Interior Dene cluster

Notes & context