Re: [tied] The indo european "race"

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "John" <jdcroft@...> wrote:

> Piotr wrote
>
> > In evolutionary biology, the method works rather well
> > in establishing phylogenies above the level of the species, but

not

> > within species, where in the absence of reproductive barriers
> > reticulation does away with family-tree structures.
>
> It also works on the mother's mother's mother's ....-> lineage for
> mitochondrial DNA and for father's father's father's ....-> lineage
> for the Y Chromosome. Since everyone is the creation of 2 parents,

4

> grandparents, 8..., 16... the MtDNA and the Y DNA forms the extreme
> sides of the fan of lineages that make up an individual.
>

True, but rather than establishing the validity of intraspecies
family tree structures, doesn't this fact really serve to demonstrate
the limitations of MtDNA and Y DNA analysis in determining a
populations' ancestry? The further back you go, the smaller the
percentage of the ancestry revealed by the method.

Ned Smith