Haplogroup K2a (Y-DNA)

Basal, undivergent K2a* (K-M2308*) has been found only in the remains of two Upper Paleolithic individuals, known as "Ust'-Ishim man and "Oase-1",[3] who lived in Siberia and the Banat region of south-central Europe, respectively, about 37–45 ky BP.

According to geneticist Spencer Wells, haplogroup K probably originated in the Middle East or Central Asia, possibly in the vicinity of Iran or Pakistan.

[5] However, Karafet et al. (2014) proposed that "rapid diversification ... of K-M526", also known as K2, likely occurred in Southeast Asia and later expanded to mainland Asia, although they could not rule out that it might have arisen in Eurasia and later went extinct there, and that either of these scenarios are "equally parsimonius".

[3] Poznik et al. 2016 therefore identified K2a (M2308), K-M2313 and NO (M214) as "parent", "child" and "grandchild" clades respectively.

(While Poznik used the name "K2a1" for K-M2313, this has not been widely adopted – possibly because K2a1 has sometimes been used as an alternate name for other, less closely related haplogroups.)

[10] As of 2018, authorities like the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) have not integrated the discoveries of Poznik et al.