h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I liked the article, it was well written- there are just a few points made in it I'm not sure about:

[First a disclaimer... I'm not a biologist.. I've just read a few Richard Dawkins books.. any further clarification would be welcomed]

"There had been many more Eves before her, she is just our most recent common ancestor."

I read in 'River out of Eden' that M. Eve was not our most recent common ancestor, but the most recent common ancestor in the female-only line (a point made earlier in this article) and that the true most recent ancestor would be more likely to be male, but because the DNA in the main part of the cell get reshuffled every generation, he is harder to identify.

"There is no reason to suppose that she had more than one female child."

As Eve is the most recent ancestor down the all-female line.. wouldn't that mean she must have had more than one daughter? If she had only one daughter, then the mother couldn't be the most recent ancestor, because obviously the daughter would have been born more recently than the mother?

"But How Would the Population Become So Depleted?"

I'm not sure why the population would need to have been depleted at the time of Eve.. whether or not there was a small population at the time, there must have been one woman in prehistory who is the most recent ancestor of all modern humanity down the all female line; by calling her 'Mitochondrial Eve' all we are doing is giving her a name.. as bloodlines die out, or when families have only sons for one generation, the identity of Eve could change.. maybe a woman alive today will one day be the Eve of tomorrow- that doens't mean we have a bottleneck now, it has more to do with the way things will change in future generations.


Hope this has been helpful, hope it gets through PR!