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American Journal of Human Genetics logoLink to American Journal of Human Genetics
. 1998 May;62(5):1153–1170. doi: 10.1086/301838

mtDNA analysis of a prehistoric Oneota population: implications for the peopling of the New World.

A C Stone 1, M Stoneking 1
PMCID: PMC1377095  PMID: 9545408

Abstract

mtDNA was successfully extracted from 108 individuals from the Norris Farms Oneota, a prehistoric Native American population, to compare the mtDNA diversity from a pre-Columbian population with contemporary Native American and Asian mtDNA lineages and to examine hypotheses about the peopling of the New World. Haplogroup and hypervariable region I sequence data indicate that the lineages from haplogroups A, B, C, and D are the most common among Native Americans but that they were not the only lineages brought into the New World from Asia. The mtDNA evidence does not support the three-wave hypothesis of migration into the New World but rather suggests a single "wave" of people with considerable mtDNA diversity that exhibits a signature of expansion 23,000-37,000 years ago.

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Selected References

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