RPM and Kambiz comment on a paper which argues for the utility of mtDNA in phylogeography. Remember,
there is lots of mtDNA that is easy to extract because there are so many mitochondria within eukaryotic cells
it mutates fast, building up a lot of genetic variation, in a neutral matter (i.e., perfect "clock")
it is uniparental, passed from mother to daughter, making the coalescent model congenially tractable