Interesting discovery in study of Human evolutiion

Mostly synonymous and apparently neutral variation in mitochondria within species
shows a similar quantitative pattern across the entire animal kingdom. The pattern
is that that most—over 90% in the best characterized groups—of the approximately five
million barcode sequences cluster into groups with between 0.0% and 0.5% variance as
measured by APD, with an average APD of 0.2%.

Modern humans are a low-average animal species in terms of the APD. The molecular
clock as a heuristic marks 1% sequence divergence per million years which is consistent
with evidence for a clonal stage of human mitochondria between 100,000- 200,000
years ago and the 0.1% APD found in the modern human population [34, 155, 156]. A
conjunction of factors could bring about the same result. However, one should not as a
first impulse seek a complex and multifaceted explanation for one of the clearest, most
data rich and general facts in all of evolution. The simple hypothesis is that the same
explanation offered for the sequence variation found among modern humans applies
equally to the modern populations of essentially all other animal species. Namely that
the extant population, no matter what its current size or similarity to fossils of any age,
has expanded from mitochondrial uniformity within the past 200,000 years.

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jmotivator said:

Original study here

And the interesting twist in the conclusion:



So, based on this study of mitochondria, 90% of species on the planet are between 100,000 and 500,000 years old, with an average species age of 200,000 years, regardless of similarities that exist between a modern species and similar species within the fossil record.

Does this indicate a major extinction event that we have not detected in the fossil record, a flaw in the methodology, or something else?

I am left thinking of the study that came out a few years ago (??) that claimed to have found a link between evolutionary and cosmological events. If I remember, one of the conclusion theories was that increased latent radiation from distant cosmological events could have spurred rapid evolutionary developments. Could that also be a possible explanation?

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