Over the past 20 years numerous new trees of recent human populations are published extensively but little attention has been paid to formal phylogenetic synthesis. We utilized the “matrix representation with parsimony” (MRP) method to infer a composite phylogeny (supertree) of recent human populations, supported 257 genetic/genomic, also as linguistic, phylogenetic trees and 44 admixture plots from 200 published studies (1990–2014). The resulting supertree topology includes the foremost basal position of S African Khoisan followed by C African Pygmies and therefore the paraphyletic section of all other sub-Saharan peoples. The sub-Saharan African section is basal to the monophyletic clade consisting of the N African–W Eurasian assemblage and therefore the consistently monophyletic Eastern superclade (Sahul–Oceanian, E Asian and Beringian–American peoples). This topology, dominated by genetic data, is well-resolved and robust to parameter set changes, with a couple of unstable areas (e.g., West Eurasia, Sahul–Melanesia) reflecting the prevailing phylogenetic controversies. a couple of populations were identified as highly unstable “wildcard taxa” (e.g. Andamanese, Malagasy). The linguistic classification fits rather poorly on the supertreetopology, supporting a view that direct coevolution between genes and languages is way from universal.
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Journal of Phylogenetics & Evolutionary Biology received 911 citations as per Google Scholar report
