Most recent common ancestor Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) is an individual which is the ancestor of all of any set of beings. The term is most frequently used of humans; Joseph T. Chang's "Recent Common Ancestors of All Present-Day Individuals" suggests that the MRCA of all humans now living was a human within historical times (3000 B.C. - A.D. 1000), while other studies suggest the MRCA of those living in Western civilizations is as recent as 1000 A.D.The "most recent common ancestor" accounts for lines of descent including both sexes; comparable notions such as Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam account for either a purely matrilineal line or a purely patrilineal line, traceable through only uniparental inheritance (mitochondrial DNA for matrilineal inheritance or Y-chromosome-DNA for patrilineal inheritance), and so yield common ancestors that are more ancient. (Hartwell 2004:539)
It is possible to use established mutation rates as a basis for calculating an estimate of the time since the most recent common paternal ancestor of any two individuals for which Y-chromosomal haplotyping has been performed, or for the time elapsed since the most recent common maternal ancestor of any two individuals for which mt-DNA typing information is available. It is not possible as of 2004 to similarly estimate the time-frame for an actual most recent common ancestor, largely because of the many variables introduced by recombination.
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