Our last common ancestor lived 4.2 billion years ago—hundred millions of years earlier than thought

[Grim Reaper 6]

The last ancestor shared by all living organisms was a microbe that lived 4.2 billion years ago, had a fairly large genome encoding some 2600 proteins, enjoyed a diet of hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide, and harbored a rudimentary immune system for fighting off viral invaders. That’s the conclusion of a new study that compared the genomes of a diverse range of 700 modern microbes and looked for commonalities to identify which features arose first. Although the analysis doesn’t reveal how life got its start, it suggests a complex cellular organism somewhat similar to modern microbes evolved only a few hundred million years after Earth’s formation..

https://www.science.org/content/article/our-last-common-ancestor-lived-4-2-billion-years-ago-perhaps-hundreds-millions-years.

The nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02461-1

[Abramelin]

6 hours ago, Grim Reaper 6 said:

and harbored a rudimentary immune system for fighting off viral invaders

One could wonder where those viruses came from.

[Grim Reaper 6]

1 minute ago, Abramelin said:

One could wonder where those viruses came from.

There are many theories and panspermia is one of them. It’s hypothetical possible that the building blocks or an intact viruse came to earth on a comet, asteroid or they sprung to life from the primordial soap. In reality we will never know for certain, but it’s actually fascinating that scientists have been able to trace life on our planet back to 4.2 billion years. It was previously thought that life started on earth approximately 3.7 billion years ago basked upon the oldest fossils found, now it appears based upon this new discovery that 3 million years after our galaxy’s formation that life started on earth. 

[Piney]

3 hours ago, Abramelin said:

One could wonder where those viruses came from.

Viruses evolved first. Then bacteria. 

 

3 hours ago, Grim Reaper 6 said:

There are many theories and panspermia is one of them. It’s hypothetical possible that the building blocks or an intact viruse came to earth on a comet, asteroid or they sprung to life from the primordial soap. In reality we will never know for certain, but it’s actually fascinating that scientists have been able to trace life on our planet back to 4.2 billion years. It was previously thought that life started on earth approximately 3.7 billion years ago basked upon the oldest fossils found, now it appears based upon this new discovery that 3 million years after our galaxy’s formation that life started on earth. 

See above.

[Abramelin]

5 hours ago, Piney said:

Viruses evolved first. Then bacteria. 

That's a possibility. But no one knows, not really:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus

and check "Origins".

[MrAnderson]

On 7/14/2024 at 1:36 AM, Grim Reaper 6 said:

The last ancestor shared by all living organisms was a microbe that lived 4.2 billion years ago, had a fairly large genome encoding some 2600 proteins, enjoyed a diet of hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide, and harbored a rudimentary immune system for fighting off viral invaders. That’s the conclusion of a new study that compared the genomes of a diverse range of 700 modern microbes and looked for commonalities to identify which features arose first. Although the analysis doesn’t reveal how life got its start, it suggests a complex cellular organism somewhat similar to modern microbes evolved only a few hundred million years after Earth’s formation..

https://www.science.org/content/article/our-last-common-ancestor-lived-4-2-billion-years-ago-perhaps-hundreds-millions-years.

The nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02461-1

 

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a61585473/single-ancestor-life-earth-luca-discovery/

So basically the article says that LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) was thought to have arrived at the scene around 4 billion years ago. The age of the planet is around 4.54 billion years and so the first ever organism was created 540 million years after the formation of earth. A new study pushes the moment of arrival of the first ever organism back to 4.2 billion years which is only 340 million years after the formation of earth. Very interesting!

The only question that hasn't been answered yet is what was the origin of this orgsnism. Was it created here on earth via the process of abiogenesis or has it come from somewhere else in the universe (still created by the same process but had to travel to get to us as part of an asteroid or comet).

I can only see abiogenesis as the only process that explains how life was formed in the first place. It doesn't matter if it happened here on Earth or elsewhere in the Universe or in multiple places. I strongly think it happened everywhere in the Universe and it could still be happening.

 

I have created a thread yesterday but didn't realise there was already one covering the topic. Anyway I thought it's a very interesting topic for discussion

Edited July 22 by MrAnderson

[Grim Reaper 6]

21 minutes ago, MrAnderson said:

 

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a61585473/single-ancestor-life-earth-luca-discovery/

So basically the article says that LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) was thought to have arrived at the scene around 4 billion years ago. The age of the planet is around 4.54 billion years and so the first ever organism was created 540 million years after the formation of earth. A new study pushes the moment of arrival of the first ever organism back to 4.2 billion years which is only 340 million years after the formation of earth. Very interesting!

The only question that hasn't been answered yet is what was the origin of this orgsnism. Was it created here on earth via the process of abiogenesis or has it come from somewhere else in the universe (still created by the same process but had to travel to get to us as part of an asteroid or comet).

I can only see abiogenesis as the only process that explains how life was formed in the first place. It doesn't matter if it happened here on Earth or elsewhere in the Universe or in multiple places. I strongly think it happened everywhere in the Universe and it could still be happening.

 

I have created a thread yesterday but didn't realise there was already one covering the topic. Anyway I thought it's a very interesting topic for discussion

I believe in the Panspermia hypothesis, I believe all the building blocks of life were brought to earth by asteroids and comets.