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The geneticists have worked up a pedigree of the mitochondrial-DNA haplogroups, showing how they are all related and go back to an ancestral "Eve" in Africa. It all sounds very settled. I wonder if the latest report will make much difference.

Will what people have been told by the DNA testing companies (like FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe) still be valid? Lots of people have been tested and told that they belong to a certain haplogroup, like H (45% of Europeans, I believe). If the latest report is correct, does that mean they are all in the group they were told they belong to, but that in a few cases the mtDNA was inherited from a paternal ancestor? Or could there be a case of someone inheriting mtDNA from both parents?

Gregor Mendel, what a fine mess you have gotten us into!