Defined by the SNP A5580.2, "D0" haplogroup is outside M174, but belongs to the D lineage, shares 7 SNPs with it D-M174 that E lacks, and was determined to have diverged early from the D branch (near the D/E split).

They also argue that phylogeographic analyses of ancient and present-day non-African Y chromosomes, all point to East/Southeast Asia as the origin 55,000–50,000 years ago of all known surviving non-African male lineages (apart from recent migrants) soon after an initial 70–55,000 year ago migration from Africa of basal haplogroup D and other basal y-lineages.

They argue that these lineages then rapidly expanded across Eurasia, later diversified in southeast Asia and then expanded westwards around 55–50,000 years ago, replacing other local lineages within Eurasia, and conclude that haplogroup D (as D-M174) then underwent rapid expansions within Eastern-Eurasian populations and consists of 5 different branches which formed about 45,000 years ago.

[4] Three other samples of D2 were also found (also in 2019) by FTDNA: two in Al Wajh on the west coast of Saudi Arabia[5][6] and another one in a Syrian (he is D2b-FT51782).

[7][5] A D2b-FT51782 sample was also found in al-Qirbi from Bayda[8] in Yemen that turned out to be several thousands of years related to that of the Syrian.

[10] The recent evidence (as also proposed by Haber et al.) suggests that D2 is a highly divergent haplogroup close to the DE split but on the D branch and lacking the M174 mutation possessed by the other known D lineages (belonging to its sibling D-M174).