Molecular anthropology
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![Illustration of the human mitochondrial DNA with the control region (CR, in grey) containing hypervariable sequences I and II.](/Images/godic/202412/21/Map_of_the_human_mitochondrial_genome.svg1931.png")
![A population bottleneck, as illustrated was detected by intrahuman mtDNA phylogenetic studies; the length of the bottleneck itself is indeterminate per mtDNA.](/Images/godic/202412/21/Retrospective_population_bottleneck1931.PNG")
![Schematic of typical animal cell, showing subcellular components. Organelles: (1) nucleolus (2) nucleus (9) mitochondria](/Images/godic/202412/21/Biological_cell.svg1931.png")
Molecular anthropology is a field of anthropology in which molecular analysis is used to determine evolutionary links between ancient and modern human populations, as well as between contemporary species. Generally, comparisons are made between sequence, either DNA or protein sequence, however early studies used comparative serology.