Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve, the most recent common ancestor (maternal lineage) of modern day humans, lived in Africa, probably about 200,000 years ago. This theory supports the Out of Africa Theory. A team at the University of CA at Berkely studied mitochondrial DNA and realized that they could create a family tree based on the rate of mutations acquired in the mtDNA. Mitochondrial DNA is passed only from the mother to her children. Here are some pictures of people from different ethnic groups, representing different lineages that diverged from Eve:

Neur tribe / Malakal, Southern Sudan


Zulu tribe / Africa

Asian/ Korean


 Hispanic/ Ecuador

Greek


Irish

Australian


Spain

Genetic diversity results from independent assortment of chromosomes, random union of sperm and egg, mutations, and crossing over during meiosis.

In 1,000 years, I think we will see even more phenotypes and diversity since people are able to travel so much and genes are able to flow between populations.