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mtDNA shows ancestry passed from mother to daughter from a single common ancestor or founder. Every human owes his or her ancestry to the ultimate Mitochondrial Eve the first woman to walk out of Africa and head towards Yemen around 154,000 years ago, give or take a few thousand years. If we study mitochondrial Eve then we have to study Y-chromosome Adam. We have to ask whether mtDNA diversity is higher than Y-chromosome diversity because mtDNA developed and mutated at a different rate than Y chromosomes if we look to prehistoric ancestry lines. Usually, studies of mtDNA show either women had a more diverse genetic history or some communities were founded by very few female founders. For example, H haplogroup of mtDNA found in a large percentage of Europeans may have begun in the Dordogne valley of what is now France and/or in northern Spain about 21,000 years ago, but before that, H haplogroup may have had an ancestor somewhere else. That common ancestor was one woman who had at least two daughters who survived to have more daughters and who lived somewhere in the Middle East. At some point back in time, H haplogroup arose from a still more ancient common ancestor, another woman, who lived outside of Europe. What we see now are the mutations that occurred over thousands of years since haplogroup H mtDNA reached Europe and expanded to cover today all of Europe from Iceland to the Urals. H haplogroup mtDNA today is found in places as far apart as Bashkortostan in the Urals and Iceland, Scotland, Spain, Norway, Austria, Turkey, Crete, Ukraine, Italy, and Bulgaria. mtDNA haplogroups are classified as A, B, C, D, E, F, G H through J, K, M, N, O, P, R, and T through Z. Then some are given little sub classifications such as U1, U2, U3, U4, U5, U6, U7, and various types of U found in mostly in India. New mtDNA haplogroups are still be uncovered. M is a super haplogroup divided into various groups of M such as M1 and M11. As ancient burials are uncovered, different mtDNA haplogroups turn up that are not here today because they are very ancient and did not survive because some women had only sons and some daughters didn't survive to reproduce. |
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Special thanks to Anne L.T.A. for the original web graphics!
Last updated 10 Aug 2003.
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