branches (splitting around 26,000 years ago): one found in the Russian of Syrian descent and the African American, and one found in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. The samples found in the Syrian descendant and in the African American are to date the most basal samples of D2. Distribution The subclades of DE continue to confound investigators trying to reconstruct the migration of humans because, while they are common in Africa and East Asia, they are also largely absent between these two regions. As the paragroup DE(xD,E), including DE*, is extremely rare, the majority of DE male lines fall into subclades of either D-CTS3946 or E-M96. D-CTS3946 is suggested to have originated in Africa, though its most widespread subclade, D-M174, likely originated in Asia – the only place where D-M174 is now found. E-M96 is more likely to have originated in East Africa. However, a West Asian origin for E-M96 is considered possible by some scholars. All subclades of DE, including D and E, appear to be exceptionally rare – almost non-existent – in mainland South Asia and South East Asia. Given that D-M174 is dominant in Japan, the Andaman Islands, and Tibet, whereas E-M96 is relatively common in Africa and the Middle East, some researchers have suggested that the rarity of DE lineages in India – a region considered important in the dispersal of modern humans – may be meaningful. By comparison, subclades of CF – the only "sibling" haplogroup of DE – are found in India at significant proportions. Possible DE* Basal DE* is extremely unusual in that it is found, at very low frequencies, among males from three widely separated regions: West Africa, the Caribbean, and East Asia. A 2003 study by Weale et al., of the DNA of over 8,000 males worldwide, found that five out of 1,247 Nigerian males belonged to DE*. The DE* found possessed by these five Nigerians, according to the study's authors, was "the least derived of all YAP chromosomes according to currently known binary markers" – to such an extent that it suggested that DE had originated in West Africa and expanded from there. However, Weale et al., cautioned that such inferences may well be incorrect. In addition, the seemingly "paraphyletic" (basal) status of the Nigerian examples of DE-YAP may be "illusory" because the "branching order, and hence the origin, of YAP-derived haplogroups remains uncertain". It was "easy to misinterpret apparently paraphyletic