last universal common ancestor: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	LUCA

Photos

Diagram of the tree of life tracing the evolutionary relationships among archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes, with the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) marked near 4.5 billion years ago and branching timelines showing key ancestral nodes and estimated divergence dates.

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Topics

evolution life living things extraterrestrial life cell Metabolism heredity plant fungus death Bacteria Animal virus