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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2002-09 > 1031082064
From: "Gary Rea" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Two Paleolithic Y groups in Europe Before the Third/Neolithic
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 14:41:04 -0500
References: <5.1.0.14.2.20020903095814.01acaa10@philr.pobox.stanford.edu>
It's probably only genealogically useful to 60,000 years back, Phil. But,
hey, that's far enough back for my purposes. :)
Gary Rea
Project Administrator
Rea Surname DNA Project
----- Original Message -----
From: "Philip Ritter" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: [DNA] Two Paleolithic Y groups in Europe Before the
Third/Neolithic
> The following statement puzzled me. I understand that the Y chromosome is
> found in nearly all mammals so must be much older than 60,000 years. But
> since it is not found in birds and reptiles, it likely originated with
> mammals back in the days of the dinosaurs but long after mtDNA existed
(the
> latter is found in plants as well as animals and must go back much further
> than 170,000 years). Perhaps the reference to y chromosomes being only
60K
> years old is referring to some specific set of markers (or haplogroup) on
y
> chromosomes, or to the kinds of markers used in genealogy research.
>
> At 11:05 AM 9/2/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> >In any case, does anyone know why mtDNA is said to be older than Y
> >chromosomes? If mtDNA originated 170,000 years ago, and Y chromosomes
> >originated only 60,000 years ago, what about all those people 80,000
years
> >ago who left Africa for Yemen via the Southern route? (I believe the N.
> >route was closed as anything N. of Ethiopia was a desert during that Ice
> >Age then. So the only route was Yemen to India to Malaysia.)
>
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