Inferred Split Times between Pairs of High-Coverage Genomes
MSMC-inferred genetic split times of a set of five Ethiopian, three Egyptian, one Maasai, one European (CEU), and one West African (YRI) randomly chosen genome from Europeans, West Africans, and East Africans (Gumuz). One Egyptian (Egypt1) and one Ethiopian (Wolayta) genome were analyzed also after their non-African component was masked out. The split time between two genomes is defined as the time when the cross-coalescence rate dropped to 50%. Cross-coalescence rates of 75% and 25% are shown by the top and bottom bars, respectively, providing references for the putative beginning and end, respectively, of the population split event. The space covered by each vertical line is therefore intended to provide a “time range” when the population split might have occurred, thus showing the split between populations as a slow rather than an instantaneous phenomenon.