Comment on "Late Pleistocene human skeleton and mtDNA link Paleoamericans and modern Native Americans"

Abstract

Chatters et al. (Reports, 16 May 2014, p. 750) reported the retrieval of DNA sequences from a 12,000- to 13,000-year-old human tooth discovered in an underwater cave in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. They propose that this ancient human individual's mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) belongs to haplogroup D1. However, our analysis of postmortem damage patterns finds no evidence for an ancient origin of these sequences.