I remember noting that one group of contemporary typefaces seem to have a strong resemblance to Stone Sans or Lucida Sans. And then there was another group, this time with heavy serifs, that also seemed to have a lot in common, but I couldn't pin them down to a source.

Well, I think that I've run across the inspiration for this larger group of typefaces, whether from Mexico or Armenia or Russia... Arno, by Robert Slimbach, from Adobe.