The finding that Naia carried haplogroup D1 was strong evidence against the hypothesis that the morphological differences between early and late American populations reflected separate founding events.

The results were published in the journal Science in 2014 — the same year as the Anzick-1 genome paper, making 2014 one of the most significant single years in the history of ancient American genomics.

What The Haplogroup Meant

Haplogroup D1 requires some explanation, because the specific information it provides is important and often gets lost in the translation from scientific finding to public account.

Mitochondrial DNA — the genetic material housed in the mitochondria rather than in the cell nucleus — is inherited exclusively through the maternal line.