Ayla (Earth's Children)

Ayla is the main character of Jean Auel's Earth's Children novels, a series which started in 1980. She is a woman of unknown origins, simply referred to as one of 'the Others', though possibly a Cro-Magnon woman who was raised by Neanderthals. Her blonde hair and light blue-grey eyes, which would be a much later evolution in the homo-sapien species, suggests that she comes from a hitherto unknown species, and that her son was possibly the first Homo-Sapien (and thus Cro-Magnon). Ayla was played by Daryl Hannah as the older version and by Nicole Eggert as the younger version in the 1986 film The Clan of the Cave Bear. Ayla's character has been described as an example of the "rebellious primordial" that conquers adversity with wit and will.