August 18, 2010

'Mitochondrial Eve': Mother of All Humans Lived 200,000 Years Ago

ScienceDaily for August 17, 2010 reported on the age of "Mitochondrial Eve".

The most robust statistical examination to date of our species' genetic links to "mitochondrial Eve" -- the maternal ancestor of all living humans -- confirms that she lived about 200,000 years ago. The Rice University study was based on a side-by-side comparison of 10 human genetic models that each aim to determine when Eve lived using a very different set of assumptions about the way humans migrated, expanded and spread across Earth.