Steinberg KM, Antonacci F, Sudmant PH, Kidd JM, Campbell CD, Vives L, Malig M, Scheinfeldt L, Beggs W, Ibrahim M, Lema G, Nyambo TB, Omar SA, Bodo JM, Froment A, Donnelly MP, Kidd KK, Tishkoff SA, Eichler EE.

Nat Genet. 2012 Jul 1;44(8):872-80. doi:10.1038/ng.2335

Structural diversity and African origin of the 17q21.31 inversion polymorphism.

“In conclusion, we propose that the ancestral H2′ haplotype arose in eastern or central Africa and spread to southern Africa before the emergence of anatomically modern humans (Fig. 6). Approximately 2.3 million years ago, the inversion rearranged to what we now refer as the direct orientation haplotype (H1′).”