Haplogroup E-P2 (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup E-P2
Possible time of origin	30,000 - 38,200 years BP
Possible place of origin	East Africa
Ancestor	E-P177
Descendants	E-V38, E-M215
Defining mutations	DYS391p, L337, L339, L342, L487, L492, L613, P2/PN2, P179, P180, P181

In human population genetics, haplogroups define the major lineages of direct paternal (male) lines back to a shared common ancestor in Africa. E-P2 is the most dominant Y-Chromosome lineage in Africa and exists at lower frequencies in the Middle East and Europe. The lineage is thought to have originated in or near modern day Ethiopia or Somalia.

E-P2 is likely to have originated in the highlands of East Africa's Ethiopia, as this is the place with the high frequency of ancestral subclades of this haplogroup. E-P2 is the ancestor of the majority of E subclade lineages existing today. It has diverged into two subclades: E-V38 and E-M215 approximately 24-27,000 years ago.

Trombetta et al. 2011, further confirmed the previously suggested place of origin of this haplogroup by stating:

The new topology here reported has important implications as to the origins of the haplogroup E-P2. Using the principle of the phylogeographic parsimony, the resolution of the E-M215 trifurcation in favor of a common ancestor of E-M2 and E-M329 strongly supports the hypothesis that haplogroup E-P2 originated in eastern Africa, as previously suggested, and that chromosomes E-M2, so frequently observed in sub-Saharan Africa, trace their descent to a common ancestor present in eastern Africa.

This haplogroup is found mostly in Africa, mainly in the forms of its predominant sub-clades, E-V38 and E-M215, with E-V38 being more common in North Africa, Western Africa, Central Africa, southern Eastern Africa, and Southern Africa and E-M215 being more common in Northern Africa and Horn of Africa as well as being found in lower frequencies also in Southern Africa and Western Eurasia.

...
Wikipedia