It might be good not to think of M222 as the "boss man" but as the "lucky man". M222 was the lucky SNP to be discovered first. The whole idea of phylogenetic equivalence is that every M222+ tested so far is positive for all 20 some odd equivalents, and every many M222- person so far as been negative for all. We can't tell which SNP is oldest or youngest. We just stumbled upon M222 first. Actually, a side thought is that the true "lucky man" is the Most Recent Common Ancestors (MRCA) for M222 and its equivalents. Those 20 some equivalents mean there was a long line of generations where everyone died out, save one, the MRCA "lucky man". His lineage did something right to survive during that long bottleneck, before he became extremely prolific. Regards, Mike On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 11:49 AM, Alexander Paterson < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Mike, > > Thanks. That makes some sense, but I would re-phrase slightly. My guess is > that 'phylogenetically equivalent' means that they are part of the same > tree, but further downstream'. So the boss man is M222 and the rest are > also > M222, but with other mutations downstream of M222. > > Best, > > Sandy >