[6] K2a* has been found only in Upper Paleolithic remains from western Siberia and the Balkans, known respectively as "Ust'-Ishim man" and "Oase-1".

Basal paragroup K2b* has not been identified among living males but was found in Upper Paleolithic Tianyuan man from China.

[2] Population geneticist Tatiana Karafet and other researchers (2014) point out that both K2b1 and P* are virtually restricted geographically to South East Asia and Oceania.

According to Karafet et al., the estimated dates for the branching of K, K2, K2b and P point to a "rapid diversification" within K2 "that likely occurred in Southeast Asia", with subsequent "westward expansions" of P*, P1, Q and R.[3] However, these authors also stipulated that haplogroup K might have arisen in Eurasia and later went extinct there, and that either origin hypothesis is "equally parsimonious".

As of 2017, the phylogeny of haplogroup K2 is as follows: K-M526 (K2) M526 – formerly known as K(xLT) and MNOPS At the level of highly derived subclades, K2 is almost universal in some modern Eurasian, Australasian and Native American populations.

Studies published in 2014 and 2015 found that up to 27% of Aboriginal Australian males carry K-M526*, which could not be classified into a known subclade at the time, and another 27% probably have K2b1a1 (P60, P304, P308; also known as "S-P308") and perhaps 2.0% have Haplogroup M1 – also known as M-M4 (or "M-M186") and K2b1d1.