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In the final episode of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, the human-Cylon hybrid child Hera is revealed to be Mitochondrial Eve (the woman from whom all living humans today descend, on their mother's side).

Does this mean that she had one or more aboriginal partners (since the arrivals determined that their genetic compatibility with the local population was necessary for long term survival)? And that all human lineages--both aboriginal and colonial--that did not produce a female child who is a descendant of hers went extinct?

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    It doesn't mean that other lineages didn't produce, it just means that all the other lineages intermingled with Hera's.
    – Tango
    Feb 26, 2012 at 20:12
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    Ugh, that whole ending of the series is best left forgotten.
    – BBlake
    Feb 27, 2012 at 3:11
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    Am I the only one who misread this as midichlorian Eve? Darn, there's a word I'd like to forget.
    – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE
    Feb 27, 2012 at 14:10
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    @Wikis So Hera was the prophesied One, who was supposed to bring balance to the Force and free Zion?
    – HNL
    Feb 27, 2012 at 14:24
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    You mean aside from the fact that it was an idiotic ending, answered almost none of the major questions that were outstanding and those that did get answered made very little sense. Add to it that it created dozens, if not hundreds of new questions that will never be answered. The entire thing seemed to be a massive thrown together at the last second "Help, how do we end this show, I have no good ideas? finale? As finales go, it rates right at the bottom with Lost and Seinfeld.
    – BBlake
    Mar 2, 2012 at 2:06

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Does this mean that she had one or more aboriginal partners?

Either Hera did or a sufficient number of her female descendants did. For instance, if she had two human-cylon-hybrid daughters and both of them had aboriginal partners, she would still qualify as Mitocondrial Eve.

It doesn't mean that every other line went extinct. Since mitocondria are passed down from the mother, it's possible that most of our ancestors were natives. For instance, if my mother was Hera but my father was aboriginal, I'd have her mitocondria. If Hera was my mother's mother, but all of my other ancestors (including my mother's father) were native, I'd still have them. A hundred generations later, it's possible that my family tree has 2^100 members of aboriginal heritage, yet because my grand(x 100)-mother was Hera, she's responsible for generating my ATP.

So we could all be 99.999% of aboriginal heritage, except for mtDNA.

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