Leavitt, Marshall, and Crandall jointly argue that genetic evidence should be evaluated against explicit settlement models rather than a single undifferentiated Book of Mormon scenario. They find predominantly Middle Eastern ancestry models highly improbable, while a small contribution within a much larger Asian-derived population need not leave detectable Middle Eastern DNA; a larger local contribution faces greater difficulties.
- Dean H. Leavitt, Jonathon C. Marshall and Keith A. Crandall, “The Search for the Seed of Lehi: How Defining Alternative Models Helps in the Interpretation of Genetic Data,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 36, no. 4 (2003): 133-150.
Under this model, Middle Eastern DNA would not necessarily be found because of its limited nature.