last universal common ancestor
Sign in to saveAlso known as universal most recent common ancestor, UMRCA, LUCA
most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- most recent common ancestor
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- Commons category
- Last universal ancestor
- time period
- Archean
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via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Phylogenetic tree linking all major groups of living organisms, namely the bacteria, archaea, and eukaryota, with the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) shown at the root
The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the hypothesized latest common ancestral cell population from which all subsequent life forms descend under the three-domain system of Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Most studies suggest that the LUCA existed by 3.5 billion years ago, and possibly as early as 4.3 billion years ago or earlier. The nature of this point or stage of divergence remains a topic of research.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “last universal common ancestor” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.