I remember someone talking about "last universal common ancestor" at some point, the single "origin of the cells" or something. Is that the same as the "archaeal ancestor" they're referring to here? And is the "archaeal ancestor" the same as the "Primitive archael cell" mentioned in the last image in the article? (https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/20251219_9539_03.png)
The article discusses the (highly speculative) hypothesis that eukaryotes arose from a virus merging with an archaeal ancestor to form a nucleus. If the hypothesis is false (it is widely believed that eukaryotes arose from a joining of archaea and bacteria, not archaea and virii) then "an archaeal ancestor" doesn't even have a referent.
The LUCA is the common ancestor of bacteria and archaea. That would have existed far earlier, as neither of those are eukaryotes.
Lends a whole other colour to that scene from The Matrix... Agent Smith monologuing at Morpheus bound to the chair.
> Agent Smith: I’d like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 30.2 ms ] threadIt’s one quarter of an image flipped horizontally and then vertically, you can see the patterns.
It’s a bit odd to do that? Shouldn’t it just be the original EM image?
The LUCA is the common ancestor of bacteria and archaea. That would have existed far earlier, as neither of those are eukaryotes.
https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf
> Agent Smith: I’d like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus.
ref: "Smith Interrogates Morpheus Transcript" https://scottmanning.com/content/smith-interrogates-morpheus...
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Edit: Maybe it takes virulence to colonise the galaxy. A sobering thought.