Two Gravettian-period skeletons from Sunghir (200 km east of Moscow) were tested for mtDNA.
The only mutation found to differ from the CRS was 16129A. The adolescent boy and girl shared the same mutation, and were therefore probably siblings.
According to the current PhyloTree, this mutation would correspond to haplogroup pre-H17. This is much more far-reaching and significant than one might think. It means that haplogroup H already existed 25,000 years ago, and not just anywhere, but in the middle of European Russia. If it did exist there, as the chances of it arising in Russia and spreading back to all Iberia and Morocco during the Mesolithic are close to nil, it means that H is older than previously thought. If a subclade had already developed in Russia 25,000 years ago, then haplogroup H* itslef might be 35,000 to 40,000 years old. It might well precede the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe (from the Middle East).
The only mutation found to differ from the CRS was 16129A. The adolescent boy and girl shared the same mutation, and were therefore probably siblings.
According to the current PhyloTree, this mutation would correspond to haplogroup pre-H17. This is much more far-reaching and significant than one might think. It means that haplogroup H already existed 25,000 years ago, and not just anywhere, but in the middle of European Russia. If it did exist there, as the chances of it arising in Russia and spreading back to all Iberia and Morocco during the Mesolithic are close to nil, it means that H is older than previously thought. If a subclade had already developed in Russia 25,000 years ago, then haplogroup H* itslef might be 35,000 to 40,000 years old. It might well precede the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe (from the Middle East).