Ancestor of All Living Things More Sophisticated than Thought
The last universal common ancestor, rather than a primitive blob
of chemicals, likely was more complex, even having so-called
organelles or miniature organs. CREDIT: David Huntley |
Shutterstock The mysterious common ancestor of all life on Earth
may have been more complex than before thought — a sophisticated
organism with an intricate structure, scientists now suggest.
The last universal common ancestor, or LUCA, is what researchers
call the forerunner of all living things. Much about LUCA
remains enigmatic — many think it was little more than a
primitive assemblage of molecular parts, a chemical soup from
which evolution gradually built more complex forms. Some even
debate whether it was even a cell. [Theories on Earth's First
Life] Now, after years of research into a once-neglected feature
of microbes, scientists suggest the last universal common
ancestor was indeed complex, and recognizable as a cell. The
researchers focused on a region of cel