Rebecca L. Cann

Rebecca L. Cann
Born1951
Burlington, Iowa, United States
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Known forMitochondrial Eve
Out of Africa theory
Scientific career
FieldsAnthropology, genetics, ornithology
InstitutionsUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Doctoral advisorAllan Wilson

Rebecca L. Cann (born 1951) is a geneticist who made a scientific breakthrough on mitochondrial DNA variation and evolution in humans, popularly called Mitochondrial Eve. Her discovery that all living humans are genetically descended from a single African mother who lived <200,000 years ago became the foundation of the Out of Africa theory, the most widely accepted explanation of the origin of all modern humans. She is currently Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.[1]

  1. ^ Wood B (2011). Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution (2 ed.). New Jersey, US: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 9781444342475.