"Mitochondrial Eve" Is the Name Given to the Idea That

question 79

Short Answer

"Mitochondrial Eve" is the name given to the idea that all humans alive today can trace their mitochondrial ancestry to a single African female alive around 150,000 years ago. What feature of mitochondrial inheritance makes this a reasonable conjecture?

---

Definitions:

Conditioned Response

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus that has become conditioned through association.

Unconditioned Response

An automatic, natural response to a stimulus that occurs without any need for prior learning or conditioning.

Reflexive Response

A biological reaction to a stimulus that is instinctive and does not require conscious thought.

Conditioned Response

A learned reaction to a previously neutral stimulus that has become associated with an unconditioned stimulus through conditioning.