Fig. 1

Geographic location of the 24 metapopulations analyzed (a) and geographical models of African dispersal (b, c, d). Metapopulations, each derived from the merging of genomic data from several geographically or linguistically related populations, are South, East, and West Africa; Europe; Caucasus; South, East, West, and Central Asia; and North and South India, plus three Negrito (Onge, Jehai, and Mamanwa) and ten Oceanian populations; the final dataset comprised 1130 individuals. Under model 1, a SD model (b), all non-African populations are descended from ancestors who left Africa through the same northern route [3]. Model 2 (c) and model 3 (d) are MD models assuming, prior to dispersal across Palestine, another exit through the Arab Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent; under model 2, all Asian and Western Oceanian populations derive from this earlier expansion [12], whereas under model 3 only the populations of Southeast Asia and Western Oceania derive from the earlier expansion [16]