Blog #7

Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve is thought (by scientists) to be the most recent woman that all humans are descended from. The reason she is referred to as Mitochondrial Eve s because each person receives 100% of their mitochondrial DNA from their maternal line (mother), unlike cellular DNA where half of the content comes from the maternal line and the other half from the fraternal line. It is believed that Mitochondrial Eve lived over 200,000 years old in the eastern portion of Africa.

Diversity of People

It is believed that Mitochondrial Eve lived in Eastern Africa. From that originating point, there were probably a number of cohorts of people that migrated to different areas which created human diversity. In different parts of the Earth certain biological traits are necessary for optimal living and some are not. As the people in the particular cohorts began reproducing, some traits were retained, some new traits were developed, and some were no longer passed along. 

Examples of Diversity

One would assume this person to be of Asian descent because of the "slanted" eye feature as well as the darker colored hair. 

One would assume this person to be of African descent because of the dark skin tone as well as the full lips feature.

One would assume this person to be of Indian descent (Asian, not Native American) because of the brown skin tone, large eyes dark hair color, and straight nose.

One would assume this person to be of Hispanic descent because of the thick eyebrows, browner skin tone, dark hair, and brown eyes.

One would assume this person is of Irish descent because of the "red" hair as well as the freckles.