MTDNA ANALYSIS OF A PREHISTORIC ONEOTA POPULATION - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PEOPLING OF THE NEW-WORLD

mtDNA was successfully extracted from 108 individuals from the Norris Farms Oneota, a prehistoric Native American population, to compare the mtDNA diversity from a pre-Columbian population with contemporary Nat ive American and Asian mtDNA lineages and to examine hypotheses about the peopling of the New World. Haplogroup and hypervariable region I s equence data indicate that the lineages from haplogroups A, B, C, and D are the most common among Native Americans but that they were not th e only lineages brought into the New World from Asia. The mtDNA eviden ce does not support the three-wave hypothesis of migration into the Ne w World but rather suggests a single ''wave'' of people with considera ble mtDNA diversity that exhibits a signature of expansion 23,000-37,0 00 years ago.