How do we know that all current life originated from LUCA? Could it be possible that some organisms right now might have originated from some other organism living in similar times as LUCA?
How do we know that all current life originated from LUCA? Could it be possible that some organisms right now might have originated from some other organism living in similar times as LUCA?
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We can be quite confident that all life that’s been discovered so far comes from LUCA. It all shares similarities in the details of the genetic code that indicate it’s all a part of the same unified whole. Some other form of life would differ in those details even if it used all the same molecules (which it probably wouldn’t).
There’s been speculation about the possibility of a shadow biosphere…non luca-descended microbes. But no one has ever found actual evidence of it.