All Life on Earth Traces Back to One Ancestor — and It’s Older Than Expected

  • تاريخ النشر: الأربعاء، 20 مايو 2026 زمن القراءة: دقيقة قراءة

Tracing life back to 4.2 billion years ago, LUCA shapes the mystery of Earth's early biological history.

LUCA Was the Ancestor of All Life Alive Today

It Was Not the First Living Thing

It May Have Lived 4.2 Billion Years Ago

Earth Was Still a Violent Young Planet

LUCA Was Probably More Complex Than Expected

It Was Likely Similar to Simple Microbes

It May Have Had an Early Immune System

It Probably Lived in an Ecosystem

The Discovery Changes How Fast Life May Have Begun

The Mystery Is Not Fully Solved

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Every human, animal, plant, fungus, and microbe alive today carries a link to the same ancient beginning. Scientists call that ancestor LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor.

It was not the first life on Earth, but it is the point where the family tree of all known life can be traced back. New research suggests LUCA lived around 4.2 billion years ago, only a few hundred million years after Earth formed.

That makes it older than many scientists once expected, and it means life may have become established on our planet surprisingly quickly.

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