What does mitochondrial Eve mean?

Mitochondrial Eve is the term used to designate the oldest known common female ancestor. This is the beginning of the maternal lineage inside your ancestry DNA test, which has undergone various modifications giving rise to the haplogroups present in the current human population.

The mitochondrial Eve would have been a woman from East Africa, approximately 200,000 years ago. All current human mitochondrial DNA would have come from this common ancestor, as this DNA is only transmitted by mothers.

This does not mean that there were no other women at that time, but it does suggest that in the others their maternal lineage ended at a point where all their descendants were males. She should also not be confused with the common ancestor of the human species, as this refers only to mitochondrial DNA.