Understanding how life began and evolved on Earth is a question that has fascinated humans for a long time, and modern scientists have made great advances when it comes to finding some answers. Now, our recent study hopes to offer new insights into the origin of life on Earth.
Around 375 million years ago, our fish-like ancestors breathed through gills. Over 600 million years ago, the common ancestor of all animals emerged – the microscopic urmetazoan. Billions of years before all of that happened, however, the common ancestor of all living organisms, the last universal common ancestor (Luca), must have existed.
Scientists have worked on identifying Luca over the decades with different ideas about what Luca was like. Another point of contention is Luca’s age. The earliest fossil evidence we have for life is around 3.4 billion years old. Some studies push back Luca’s age close to the birth of Earth, 4.5 billion years ago. Others think this is impossible because of the time it would take to establish the genetic code and DNA replication machinery.
