MtDNA D1g an ancient variant only found in Patagonia

Back in 2014 I posted about a newly discovered D1g MtDNA haplogroup among Southern South American Natives. It was deemed very ancient, as old as the Monte Verde site in Chile which is some 17,000 years old.

de Saint Pierre paper published in 2017 which confirmed that "The age calculated for D1g, between 25,000 and 19,000 cal yr BP is extremely old for a South American mitochondrial subhaplogroup." de Saint Pierre goes on to argue that the date is 22 +/- 7 ky, which could make it as old as 29,000 years.

D1g is found most frequently in Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia especially among the canoe people of Tierra del Fuego, as well as in the Argentinian Pampas, among the Paleoindians that later originated the Tehuelche groups.

MtDNA D haplogroup (Top), and D1 (bottom). Source

These people with the D1g variant were members of the first wave that reached America, and the variant was replaced with later mtDNA haplogroups in the rest of the Americas. It only survived in remote Patagonia.

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