The clearest picture yet of LUCA suggests it was a relatively complex organism living 4.2 billion years ago, a time long considered too harsh for life to flourish.
This review article examines the current understanding of the origin and early evolution of eukaryotic cells, highlighting key events and players involved in this process, particularly focusing on the symbiotic relationship between an archaeal host and a bacterial endosymbiont.
Explore the relationships between 2,235,473 species and discover images on a zoomable page.
- Life's evolution on Earth began with single-celled organisms and evolved into complex life forms through environmental factors and extinction events, culminating in the emergence of mammals and ultimately our own species.
- The article highlights the significance of our species, Homo sapiens, within the grand scheme of things, occurring within the last 300,000 years.
- Despite the limited time our species exists compared to the vastness of cosmic time, it encourages us to consider the potential for future life forms
, Extavour wants to understand how single-celled entities blossomed into multicellular organisms during evolution, and how the intricate bodies of such organisms can develop from cells that all have the same genetic blueprint.