The expansion of Homo erectus was followed by that of Homo sapiens. The matrilinear most recent common ancestor shared by all living human beings, dubbed Mitochondrial Eve, probably lived roughly 150-120 kya, the time of Homo sapiens idaltu, probably in the area of modern Ethiopia, Kenya or Tanzania. Around 100-80 kya, three main lines of Homo sapiens sapiens diverged, bearers of mitochondrial haplogroup L1 (mtDNA) / A (Y-DNA) colonizing Southern Africa (the ancestors of the Khoisan (Capoid) peoples), bearers of haplogroup L2 (mtDNA) / B (Y-DNA) settling Central and West Africa (the ancestors of Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan speaking peoples and of the Mbuti pygmies), while the bearers of haplogroup L3 remained in East Africa. Some 70 kya, a part of the L3 bearers migrated into the Near East, spreading east to southern Asia and Australasia some 60 kya, northwestwards into Europe and eastwards into Central Asia some 40 kya, and further east to the Americas from ca. 30 kya.
