LUCA: Our Last Universal Common Ancestor

We started our journey with prokaryote, the earliest form of life on earth. Now scientists are zeroing in on what came before prokaryote: LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor, who their research shows was the joint ancestor of bacteria and archaea (bacteria-like oranisms), who differ from eukaryotes, which includes all plants and animals. New research shows that eukaryotes (us!) emerged later! Whether the bacteria and bacteria-like entities constitute life and where did they come from are matters of intense debate, of course, and you can read about it here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/science/last-universal-ancestor.html and review the original research here: https://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol2016116