It is amazing to think that every modern human alive today is descended from the same mother that lived 100,000 to 200,000 years ago in Africa. So what was her name? Well unless you have a time machine and can speak caveman we will never know but scientists have named her Mitochondrial Eve.
The Mitochondrial part of her name comes from the mitochondrial DNA that is passed from mother to offspring without recombination and the Eve part comes from the Bible.
Scientists have been able to trace back this DNA to every human alive today (& Dead ones from archaeological digs) and found that we all share the same base DNA and the only difference between you, me and the rest of the world is the mutations that, over generations have occurred since the conception of the original “Mitochondrial Eve”.
Mitochondrial Eve was not the only living human female of her time but she was the only female to produce a direct unbroken female line from her children’s birth until the present day.
Mitochondrial Eve is estimated to have hailed from East Africa, when Homo sapiens or anatomically modern humans, were developing as a population distinct from other human sub-species.
So when you think about it every war in our history has been a family squabble.
Stay Curious – C.Costigan
