Figure 3. Divergence time estimates among European, Maghrebi, and Near Eastern ancestral populations.

We use population-based F_st to estimate divergence time between each of the North African populations and the Qatari (green dots) and Tuscans (purple dots), respectively. We assume point estimates of effective population sizes based on autosomal haplotype heterozygosity estimates from Li et al. [17] (Material and Methods). We further estimate ancestral population clusters assigned at k = 5–8 with ADMIXTURE. Assuming that the ancestral clustering procedure has removed, or at least mitigated, the effect of recent migrations into Mediterranean populations, we then use F_st to estimate divergence times between these ancestral clusters. The range of k-based estimates for Maghrebi versus Near Eastern ancestry is indicated with light green polygon. The range of k-based estimates for Magrebi versus European ancestry is indicated with light purple polygon.