Phil Hotlen wrote,
Reading about DNA discoveries and the drastic realignments in avian (and human) phylogenetic ordering is disconcerting, but amazing ( e.g. in "Birding", Jan/Feb 2007). But I am wondering: Do some of the Tweeters membership ever wonder about their own phylogenetic order? Yesterday I was informed that my mtDNA has two rather close matches in Sardinia! But I'm sure I don't have any maternal ancestors hailing from Sardinia in recent centuries. Who knows what DNA testing might turn up (for a price!).

Take a look at Bryan Sykes's book The Seven Daughters of Eve (Norton, 2001). He traces human mitochondrial DNA types to seven ancestral centers -- "daughters of Eve," since mitochondria are only inherited maternally. Most of his centers are around the Mediterranean, and at least a couple of them could have easily supplied DNA to people in Sardinia. We're talking tens of thousands of years ago, but except for an occasional mutation these mtDNA seqences would be maintained in essentially the same form for all these years.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503