Dr. Robert Carter
It is a highly interesting question how much of the mitochondrial genome can change, so we’re talking about mitochondrial Eve; we’re talking about the history of humanity.
I was thinking that there should be three branches on the mitochondrial tree, but I don’t believe that anymore because I realize that if Noah’s daughters-in-law were all sisters, there’d be only one branch on the modern mitochondrial family tree. If two of them were sisters and one wasn’t, we might get two branches on the modern family tree. Besides this, we don’t know anything about the mutation rate before the Flood. We don’t know how much diversification should have developed.
You actually can’t know from first principles, that is, by looking at Scripture, if there should be one, two, or three branches on the tree.
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