Editing Mitochondrial Eve (section)

===Not the only woman===

One common misconception surrounding Mitochondrial Eve is that since all women alive today descended in a [[matrilineal|direct unbroken female line]] from her, she must have been the only woman alive at the time.<ref name="Dawkins04"/> However, [[nuclear DNA]] studies indicate that the [[effective population size]] of ancient humans never dropped below tens of thousands.<ref name="Takahata93">{{cite journal |vauthors=Takahata N |title=Allelic genealogy and human evolution |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=2–22 |date=January 1993 |pmid=8450756 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a039995 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Other women living during Eve's time may have descendants alive today but not in a direct female line.<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 January 2008 |title=Are we all descended from a common female ancestor? |url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/female-ancestor.htm |access-date=17 May 2022 |website=HowStuffWorks |language=en}}</ref>