Every modern ancestor’s origins can be traced back to Africa, with Homo sapiens found in Africa’s Great Rift Valley about 200,000 years ago. All humans share a common direct maternal ancestor known as Mitochondrial Eve. She is believed to be a part of a small group of humans who lived in Africa around the time of Idaltu skull. Mitochondrial DNA found in our cells is the genetic signature that has been passed from from mother to child. Mitochondrial Eve was a woman who lived 200,000 years ago who had enough daughters in a continuous chain that her Mitochondrial DNA survived.