abstract:In the field of human genetics, the name Mitochondrial Eve refers to the matrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all currently living anatomically modern humans, who is estimated to have lived approximately 140,000–200,000 years ago. This is the most recent woman from whom all living humans today descend, on their mother’s side, and through the mothers of those mothers, and so on, back until all lines converge on one person.
Classical, deterministicmodels, includingseveralthat have previouslybeenapplied to the datingofmitochondrialeve, do notfullyaccount for theserandomprocesses.