Fig. 5

A map for tracking the population migration history of the HM population. The black dots in the image are all publicly available ancient DNA samples. The red triangle denotes the Daxi site in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The red dot shows the eight ancient DNA samples that share the most genetic drift with the reconstructed aHM population. The numbers in parentheses represent the total number of samples in the relic and the number of samples associated with aHM. These ancient DNA samples came from people who mainly lived in southern East Asia for about 3000–4000 years, which is later than the time of the most recent common ancestor of present-day HM populations. These ancient DNA samples reflect the footprints of population diffusion after the divergence of HM populations. Ancient DNA samples showed that the ancestors of the HM population reached the China–Indochina Peninsula in the South and the Yellow River Basin in the North