A lineage of New Guinea and Melanesia
Haplogroup M is a lineage concentrated in New Guinea and the surrounding islands of Melanesia, where it is one of the characteristic paternal lineages. It descends from the K node of the tree and represents part of the deep genetic history of the peoples of the western Pacific.
Haplogroup M is found predominantly in New Guinea and across Melanesia, reaching high frequencies in some populations there. It is largely restricted to this region and neighbouring parts of the western Pacific, making it a strong marker of Melanesian paternal ancestry.
Haplogroup M is understood to have developed within the New Guinea and Melanesian region following the early settlement of the area by modern humans, a settlement that is itself very ancient. Its long local presence makes it an important lineage in the study of the deep population history of the western Pacific.
M contains several branches distributed across New Guinea and the Melanesian islands, and their fine structure has been used to study relationships between populations of the region and the history of settlement across its many islands.
An M result strongly indicates Melanesian or New Guinean paternal ancestry. Because the haplogroup is regionally specific, downstream testing chiefly serves to identify which local branch you carry within that region.
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