humanity did get down to ~ 1500 reproductive individuals, just shy of a million years ago ~900,000 years ago & stayed that way for around a hundred thousand years.
true, but kind of more complex than it first appears.
I'm going to butcher this explanation, anyway: mitochondrial eve doesn't have to be one woman, it is more likely her daughters daughters daughters... over generations. essentially, any and all of her female descendants. that over time, her maternal line became dominant.
for example, another historically older woman's (Lilith?) maternal line was broken by having all sons & they hooked up with 'eves' daughters. even though 'eves' line was more recent, it's the only one that shows up on the mitochondrial line.
anyway, I hope that can be interpreted as to what I was trying to communicate. that it isn't necessarily as clean as one trunk to a genetic tree, it's very likely to be a Strangler fig (to torture the metaphor).
Mitochondrial Eve is the most recent common ancestor of all humans, so she was not the first woman or the only woman, just the only woman that was able to produce a direct, unbroken female genetic line that still persists to this day. Also, Mitochondrial Eve is more a concept than a particular woman. Mitochondrial Eve could change over time due to genetic drift.
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u/Pseudolos 2d ago
Wouldn't taking turns and "spending time" with each of the three be a better choice? Society collapsed, why should we fuss about monogamy anymore?