Pleistocene Mitochondrial Genomes Suggest a Single Major Dispersal of Non-Africans and a Late Glacial Population Turnover in Europe (Current Biology)

Posth et al. recover 35 new mitochondrial genomes from Late Pleistocene and early Holocene European hunter-gatherers. Major human mtDNA haplogroup M, absent in contemporary Europeans, is discovered in several pre-Last Glacial Maximum individuals. Demographic modeling reveals a major population turnover during the Late Glacial ~14,500 years ago.