Phylogeography

Phylogeography uses the geographical nesting of lineages within the phylogenetic tree of a nonrecombining genetic locus to infer the timing and direction of migrations. In the case of modern humans, the distributions of variation in the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA and the paternally inherited Y-chromosome have been used to infer important aspects of the settlement of the world. These inferences have been tested and refined in recent years by the increasing inclusion of ancient DNA in the analyses, and will very likely soon make use of the untapped potential of nonrecombining blocks in the rest of the genome.