Editing Mitochondrial Eve (section)

===Reception and later research===

Shortly after the 1987 publication, its methodology and secondary conclusions were criticised.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Darlu P, Tassy P |title=Disputed African origin of human populations |journal=Nature |volume=329 |issue=6135 |pages=111–112 |year=1987 |pmid=3114640 |doi=10.1038/329111b0 |s2cid=4313392 |bibcode=1987Natur.329..111D |doi-access=free }}</ref> Both the dating of mt-Eve and the relevance of the age of the purely matrilineal descent for population replacement were subjects of controversy during the 1990s;<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Maddison DR |title=African Origin of human mitochondrial DNA reexamined |journal=Systematic Zoology |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=355–63 |year=1991 |doi=10.2307/2992327 |jstor=2992327 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Nei M |title=Age of the common ancestor of human mitochondrial DNA |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=9 |issue=6 |pages=1176–1178 |date=November 1992 |pmid=1435241 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040785 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Ayala FJ |title=The myth of Eve: molecular biology and human origins |journal=Science |volume=270 |issue=5244 |pages=1930–1936 |date=December 1995 |pmid=8533083 |doi=10.1126/science.270.5244.1930 |s2cid=42801341 |doi-access=free |bibcode=1995Sci...270.1930A }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Templeton A |title=Out of Africa again and again |journal=Nature |volume=416 |issue=6876 |pages=45–51 |date=March 2002 |pmid=11882887 |doi=10.1038/416045a |s2cid=4397398 |bibcode=2002Natur.416...45T }}</ref> [[Alan Templeton]] (1997) asserted that the study did "not support the hypothesis of a recent African origin for all of humanity following a split between Africans and non-Africans 100,000 years ago" and also did "not support the hypothesis of a recent global replacement of humans coming out of Africa."<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Templeton AR |title=Out of Africa? What do genes tell us? |journal=Current Opinion in Genetics & Development |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=841–847 |date=December 1997 |pmid=9468796 |doi=10.1016/S0959-437X(97)80049-4 }}</ref>

The placement by {{Harvtxt|Cann|Stoneking|Wilson|1987}} of a relatively small population of humans in sub-Saharan Africa was consistent with the hypothesis of Cann (1982) and lent considerable support for the "recent out-of-Africa" scenario.

In 1999, Krings et al. eliminated problems in molecular clocking postulated by Nei (1992)<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Nei M |year=1992 |title=Age of the common ancestor of human mitochondrial DNA |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/21720959 |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=9 |issue=6 |pages=1176–1178|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040785 |pmid=1435241 |doi-access=free }}</ref> when it was found that the mtDNA sequence for the same region was substantially different from the MRCA relative to any human sequence.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Krings M, Salem AE, Bauer K, Geisert H, Malek AK, Chaix L, Simon C, Welsby D, Di Rienzo A, Utermann G, Sajantila A, Pääbo S, Stoneking M |display-authors=6 |title=mtDNA analysis of Nile River Valley populations: A genetic corridor or a barrier to migration? |language=English |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=1166–1176 |date=April 1999 |pmid=10090902 |pmc=1377841 |doi=10.1086/302314 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Krings M, Stone A, Schmitz RW, Krainitzki H, Stoneking M, Pääbo S |title=Neandertal DNA sequences and the origin of modern humans |language=English |journal=Cell |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=19–30 |date=July 1997 |pmid=9230299 |doi=10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80310-4 |s2cid=13581775 |doi-access=free |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0025-0960-8 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

In 1997, {{Harvtxt|Parsons|Muniec|Sullivan|Woodyatt|1997}} published a study of mtDNA mutation rates in a single, well-documented family (the [[Romanov]] family of Russian royalty). In this study, they calculated a mutation rate upwards of twenty times higher than previous results.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Parsons | first1 = Thomas J. |last2 = Muniec | first2 = David S. | last3 = Sullivan | first3= Kevin | last4 = Woodyatt | first4 = Nicola | last5= Alliston-Greiner | first5=Rosemary |last6 =  Wilson | first6 = Mark R. |last7= Berry | first7= Dianna L. | last8 =  Holland | first8 = Koren A. |last9 = Weedn | first9 = Viktor W. | last10 = Gill | first10 = Peter| last11= Holland | first11 = Mitchell M. |title=A high observed substitution rate in the human mitochondrial DNA control region |journal=Nature Genetics |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=363–368 |date=April 1997 |pmid=9090380 |doi=10.1038/ng0497-363 |s2cid=32812244 }}</ref>

Although the original research did have analytical limitations, the estimate on the age of the mt-MRCA has proven robust.<ref>{{cite web|vauthors=Holsinger K|url=http://darwin.eeb.uconn.edu/eeb348/lecturenotes/coalescent/node5.html |title=(Mathematics of the coalescent) An example: Mitochondrial Eve |work=Holsinger Lab |date=29 September 2012 |access-date=16 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Cyran KA, Kimmel M |title=Alternatives to the Wright-Fisher model: the robustness of mitochondrial Eve dating |journal=Theoretical Population Biology |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=165–172 |date=November 2010 |pmid=20600209 |doi=10.1016/j.tpb.2010.06.001 }}</ref> More recent age estimates have remained consistent with the 140–200 [[Year#Abbreviations yr and ya|kya]] estimate published in 1987: A 2013 estimate dated Mitochondrial Eve to about 160 kya (within the reserved estimate of the original research) and [[Out of Africa II]] to about 95 kya.<ref name=Fu2013>{{cite journal |vauthors=Fu Q, Mittnik A, Johnson PL, Bos K, Lari M, Bollongino R, Sun C, Giemsch L, Schmitz R, Burger J, Ronchitelli AM, Martini F, Cremonesi RG, Svoboda J, Bauer P, Caramelli D, Castellano S, Reich D, Pääbo S, Krause J |display-authors=6 |title=A revised timescale for human evolution based on ancient mitochondrial genomes |journal=Current Biology |volume=23 |issue=7 |pages=553–559 |date=April 2013 |pmid=23523248 |pmc=5036973 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2013.02.044 }}</ref> Another 2013 study (based on [[genome sequencing]] of 69 people from 9 different populations) reported the age of Mitochondrial Eve between 99 and 148 kya and that of the [[Y-MRCA]] between 120 and 156 kya.<ref name=poz/>