Living organisms share an ancestor called the last universal common ancestor, or LUCA. LUCA is estimated to have lived ...

Duplicated genes that appear in every branch of the tree of life can provide us with insight into the evolution that occurred ...

Researchers describe a rare type of gene family, known as “universal paralogs”, that provides insight into evolutionary history predating the last universal common ancestor of all life. Detailed ...

All life on Earth shares a common ancestor that lived roughly four billion years ago. This so-called "last universal common ancestor" represents the ...

Scientists now believe life began long before LUCA. Older organisms, now vanished, passed on vital genetic tools. These 'pre-LUCA' ancestors developed complex biological functions. LUCA inherited ...