The specific variant of haplogroup B carried by the Hourglass Cave man was characterized in the Stone and Stoneking analysis.

Later genetic reviews, incorporating the Hourglass Cave sequence into broader analyses of ancient and modern Native American mitochondrial diversity, described his sequence as representing a founder haplotype — a specific mitochondrial sequence that appears to be ancestral to, or closely related to, the lineages found in contemporary Native American populations.

This is a finding of considerable significance for understanding the population history of the Americas.

An individual who died in the Colorado Rockies approximately 8,800 years ago, carrying a mitochondrial sequence that places him in haplogroup B — one of the founding maternal lineages of all Native Americans — provides direct physical evidence of this lineage in the Rocky Mountain region at a very early period.