Last universal ancestor

Last universal ancestor (LUA), also LUCA (last universal common ancestor), is the hypothetical latest living from which all currently living organisms descend. As such, it is the of the set of all. It is estimated to have lived some.

Misconceptions
The LUA is not hypothesised as:
 * 1) the first living organism ever.
 * 2) the most primitive possible living organism.

The hypothesis
At the time when LUA was first hypothesized, construction of based upon  between all living cells indicated that there was an early split between the  and the remainder of life. This was inferred from the fact that, at that time, all known archaeans were highly resistant to environmental extremes such as high salinity, temperature or acidity, and led some to suggest that LUA evolved in areas like the, where such extremes prevail today. However, since that time, archaeans have been discovered in less hostile environments and are now believed by many taxonomists to be more closely related to than, though this is still a matter of some contention.

It is possible that all of LUA's contemporaries would have since become with only the LUA's genetic heritage living on to this day. However, this suggestion ignores the possibility of. has proposed that there was no individual organism which could be considered a LUA, but rather that the genetic heritage of all modern organisms derives from an ancient community of organisms.