One of the commenters had this to say (part 2 of 2):
“Second part : The FLAW in this study is caused by :
A- Mutation rate is different in each and every bp (base pair) of the COI gene and this mutation rate is SAME in every animal species in other words number 325 bp (base pairs mutation rate ) in a given generation time period has only 4 choices ( A\T\C\G ) and this changes –REPEATEDLY - .
B- Conserved mutations preserved for ` optimum function of COI gene certain base pairs –has to be the same- and fixed- ( meaning no coding variability allowed because that variability is NOT COMPATIBLE WITH FUNCTION OF THAT GENE and life –meaning lethal- C- COI gene has total, 255 variable sites and 403 conserved sites .
So we have only 255 variable sites changing in between ( A\T\C\G ) REPEATEDLY IN ANY SPECIES OVER MILLIONS OF YEARS like a `Cycle of a clock` so you can `NOT` determine the beginning or end of any species as a life form – period .”
More briefly stated: mitochondrial mutations are highly constrained leading to very minute and repetitive patterns of change that cannot be distinguished from one another and that take place over periods of time that far exceed the time span of nuclear DNA species differentiation, making mitochondrial mutation rates useless for determining species differentiation.
Sound right?