W5 is the only uniquely European W subgroup and emerged 11,000 years ago in the steppes north of the Aral Sea. W5, together with W3, W4, and W6 were descendants of a woman with a 194 mutation born in northwest India around 18,000 years ago. W5 is defined by two coding region mutations - 06528 and 15775.
W5a emerged in a lineage with the 10097 coding region and 16362 HVR1 mutation around 7,000 years ago. Due to the 16362 mutation W5a's can be identified by HVR1 results alone (with caution, since 16362 appears in other W subgroups, but in combination with other HVR1 results).
The W5a lineage spread from Russia to a broad but distinctive area of northern Europe. These dates and range correspond to the spread of the nomadic peoples that brought the horse to Europe.
W5a's are distinctively distributed in a corridor long the Baltic, up into Scandinavia, and then down Germany, back along the Danube to Romania, and overseas to the British Isles, and the Atlantic Coasts of Portugal and Spain. The west European distribution corresponds to that of the Germanic groups that spread through Europe beginning 3,000 years ago. However the emergence times of the subgroups date back long before that. If the modern distribution is Germanic, then these subgroups must represent horse culture lineages ancestral to the Germans.
W5a1, with a 10410 coding region mutation emerged 4,000 years ago. Lineages migrated into Scandinavia and from there via sea to Britain and Ireland in the west.
W5a1a, with a 4363 coding region mutation, emerged 3500 years ago, and spread from Germany into Poland and Britain and Ireland.
W5a1a1, with a 9275 coding region mutation, emerged 3000 years ago in Germany. This was perhaps the first W5 group to originate in Germany. It spread to Scandinavia, then by sea to Britain and Ireland.
An undesignated W5a1a1 subgroup, with 10742 and 16129 mutations, is the subgroup with the clearest possibility of expansion in historic times. It emerged 1300 years ago; and is found exclusively in Scandinavia and the British Isles, a likely signature of the Viking migrations.
W5a1a1a, with a 139 HVR2 mutation, emerged 1000 years ago and is found today in Britain, probably part of Norsemen migrations into the British Isles.
W5a2, with a 150 HVR1 mutation, emerged 6,000 years ago in Central Europe. It ranges from Lithuania and Hungary in the east, and then through Germany to Britain and Ireland, perhaps carried by Danish sea peoples.
- W5b, with the 11696 coding region mutation, emerged 7,000 years ago. Representatives are found today in the Netherlands and Ireland.
How to Read These Phylogenetic Trees
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