Controversies in Science/Was there a mitochondrial Eve?/A Critque of The Evolution of the mitochondrial D-loop and the origin of Modern Man

(Review Paper) Cited in

Points Made
Often studies will slightly alter the time line of human evolution in order to make it fit several possible theories. Using the widely accepted theory that Humans diverged from chimpanzees 5 million years ago, scientists have found that the emergence of mDNA was during the time of the Homo Erectus. Using the same data with the theory that humans and chimpanzees diverged 7.4 million years ago, the results were still the same. Homo Sapiens of Africia and Neaderthals Of Eurasia's overlapping existence prove that interbredding was unnessacary in the creation of Modern Man

Methods
Using the Markov clock method, 16 sequences from 14 human and 2 chimpanzee test subjects were aligned and the entire D-loop of all samples was analyzed. Of the 1,135 sites examined 900 were identical and 203 carried nucleotide substitutions showing evolution of the D loop. Using the widely held belief that humans and chimpanzees diverged 5 million years ago, scientists were able to map out all the departures from 14 human mDNA sequences into a tree like model.

Results
Using the evolution and substitution of the D-loop in mDNA we are able to determine that the emergence of the mitrochondrian was 400,000- 600,000 years ago, during the Homo Erectus period. Organizing the same data in to a DNA family tree we see that African Americans are by themselves on one branch and because of low genetic diversity, the other 13 samples are clustered together on another.