African Eve Hypothesis Lauren Waelder

1
African Eve HypothesisLauren Waelder
2
A rose by any other name

• Mitochondrial Eve Theory
• Out-of-Africa Theory
• Recent African Origin (RAO)
• Among other variations on Theory/Hypothesis/School
  of Thought

3
Who is Eve?

• Eve, quite simply, is the matrilineal MRCA for
  all currently living humans.
• This means that Eve is the matrilineal most
  common recent ancestor of humanity. Her
  mitochondrial DNA is found in all living humans,
  having been passed down from mother to offspring.

4
Where and what is a mitochondrion?

• Plural mitochondria
• Organelle found in eukaryotic cells
• Generate ATP as a source of chemical energy

5
Animal Cell
6
Why African?

• The fossil evidence which supports this theory
  was found in Africa.
• Climate in Africa (water, natural resources, warm
  temperature) yields to a favorable environment
  for the raising of human life.

7
Why Eve?
8
Popular Eve Misconceptions

• Eve was not the only living female at that time.
• This is a popular misconception, due to the Eve
  nickname. However, the human race would likely
  have died out if there had only been one female
  at the time.
• Eve is not the complete MRCA. Eve is the
  matrilineal MCRA through mitochondria. One can
  only find traces of Eve in ones own body through
  one parent, not two.

9
How do we know about Eve?

• Currently living humans bear mDNA similarities.
• Fossil evidence in support of the theory, such
  as the Omo remains and the Homo sapiens idaltu
  fossils, have been discovered in Ethiopia.

10
Eve versus what?

• The African Eve Hypothesis is as opposed to
  theories that humans have developed that state
  that humans developed more or less equally all
  over the earth at about the same time.
• The hypothesis claims that humans diffused in a
  diaspora of sorts over the globe, carrying with
  them their Eve-influenced mDNA.

11
Eve in the Scientific Community

• Cann et. al published a paper in 1987,
  Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution,
  hypothesizing about the Mitochondrial Eve.
• Ingman et. al later in 2000 published results in
  support of the Cann paper, in the paper
  Mitochondrial genome variation and the origin of
  modern humans.

12
Eve in Popular Science
Newsweek magazine featuring an article about the
real African Eve.
13
Eve in Popular Science II

• Discovery Channel filmed a documentary in 2002
  titled The Real Eve and narrated by Danny
  Glover
• Tim Radford in 2001 wrote an article in the
  science section of The Guardian about a dispute
  to the theory in Neanderthal Man Challenges
  African Eve

14
Bibliography

• http//www.raceandhistory.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs
  _config.pl/noframes/read/665, One African Eve
  for All Worlds People
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve,
  Mitochondrial Eve