Mysterious Ancestor Connecting All Life on Earth Is 200 Million Years Older Than We Thought

Mysterious Ancestor Connecting All Life on Earth Is 200 Million Years Older Than We Thought

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The fact that we are all alive and on Earth is nothing short of a miracle, though we may take that for granted. Seemingly random moments and combinations of conditions have occurred in such a way to lead us to here and now. Knowing this leads to the big questions. Where do we come from? Are there other worlds in the universe that also contain life? A new study about LUCA, or the Last Universal Common Ancestor, gives us new insight into these questions.

LUCA is believed to be the ancestor to all living organisms on Earth. Hypotheses about the elusive subject classify LUCA as a single-celled, prokaryotic organism, likely a bacterium. It is believed to have lived in the depths of the ocean near underwater hot springs called hydrothermal vents, and its “diet” consisted of oxygen and carbon dioxide. While it’s not considered a living organism in and of itself, theorists propose that it paved the way for the development of life as we know it.

In a study published last year in the Nature Ecology & Evolution journal, scientists posit that the Last Universal Common Ancestor lived approximately 4.2 billion years ago. It's a significant change from popularly accepted dating for the organism, which usually puts it nearly 200 million years after. This new development means that the first signs of true “life” began to emerge on Earth only 300 million years after LUCA’s existence and that the preconditions for it were around for much longer than originally thought.

Another finding in the study adds more complexity to ideas about life’s early beginnings on Earth. The researchers believe that LUCA “possessed an early immune system,” leading them to “infer LUCA to have been part of an established ecological system.” In other words, the organism required some kind of defense system from external actors, perhaps viruses. In other words, the Last Universal Common Ancestor might not have been alone.

As more information is discovered and hypothesized about life’s mysterious origins, these developments may also be applied in working towards our future. Not only does this research change our perspectives on dating the emergence of life on Earth, but it also brings up the possibility that the conditions needed for such an emergence may exist in other places across the universe. The mystery of LUCA invites us to keep asking questions, to keep exploring, and to push our imagination and understanding of the universe beyond what we know.

A recent study gives us new insight into LUCA, a single-celled prokaryotic early organism dubbed the Last Universal Common Ancestor that connects all living things on Earth.

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The findings suggest that LUCA existed approximately 4.2 billion years ago, 200 million years earlier than previously thought.

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Researchers also believe LUCA possessed an early immune system, suggesting “an established ecological system.” This news raises new questions about life's origins and the possibility of finding life beyond Earth.

Photo: SergeyNivens /Depositphotos

Sources: Luca is the progenitor of all life on Earth. But its genesis has implications far beyond our planet; The nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system

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