Overview
Haplogroup R-M478 is the sister branch of R-M73 within the early R-P297 complex and represents a second major early Asian lineage of R1b. Like M73, R-M478 is associated with Upper Paleolithic and early Holocene populations of the steppe and forest steppe zones of Central Asia and southern Siberia. These lineages predate the dramatic westward expansions of R1b-M269 and preserve an older demographic layer within Eurasia that was shaped by hunter gatherer mobility rather than large scale agricultural or pastoralist expansions. R-M478 has been identified among several Central Asian populations, including certain Turkic and Iranian speaking groups. Its time depth and distribution imply that it was present among early steppe forager groups that later contributed ancestry to Bronze Age cultures, although its demographic footprint remained modest. R-M478 is also significant because it shows that early R1b dispersal into Asia involved multiple independent branches rather than a single migratory wave. While R-M478 does not appear in large numbers in ancient DNA, its modern distribution suggests that it persisted among various highland and steppe communities for millennia, maintaining a low but stable presence across Central Asia.