Family Trees and Ancestry

I also have a deep appreciation for family trees. Unfortunately, my own exploration has only covered a few generations, and it's riddled with gaps. The tedious bureaucracy of sifting through countless census records, often poorly filled out by disinterested officials, is not something I particularly enjoy.

While I may never uncover all the identities of my closest ancestors, I do recognize that our lineage extends far beyond what anyone could trace. If we go back far enough, you'll find that you, too, are part of this shared history.

Our journey began with a handful of families in Africa, who ventured out into the world, eventually leading to the population of over seven billion humans we see today.

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Further Back in Time

However, this was not the true beginning. Our evolutionary journey includes relatives such as the Denisovans and Neanderthals—some of whom contributed to our genetic diversity through interbreeding.

Collectively, our ancestry traces back through early hominins like Australopithecus to the species that diverged into both humans and chimpanzees, occurring between four and thirteen million years ago.

Delving deeper, we discover that while we do not "descend from" monkeys, we share a connection with them. Anyone who has observed primates can attest to the striking similarities. If we go even further back, we find that all apes (including ourselves) and monkeys share a lineage with rodents and rabbits.

The bond extends to our pets; our cats and dogs, while lacking certain human traits, are indeed part of our extended family. As an animal lover, this realization fills me with joy.

Tracing the Family Tree of Life

As long as we avoid seeking individual names, we can outline the family tree of every mammal back to the first fish-like creatures that made the leap to land. But how far back can we trace this lineage?

Introducing LUCA

It is evident that we are all connected; every animal, plant, and even fungi (sharing a third of our DNA with us) are part of this intricate web. But where does it all converge?

To construct a true family tree, we must trace it back to a singular, shared origin—a distant ancestor we can refer to as our Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA. Unfortunately, no images of LUCA exist, as it lived long before the invention of oil paints or even the first fossil records.

In essence, you, I, and every living entity are here because of a fundamental efficiency in the universe. The initial living cells were simple, single-celled organisms akin to bacteria (prokaryotes), acting as protective containers for essential chemical reactions, thus boosting efficiency. Nature, it seems, favored this arrangement.

LUCA was not the first cell, as Earth likely had the right conditions for simple life to emerge multiple times. However, LUCA is believed to have succeeded around four billion years ago.

What Comes Next?

Bacteria have a peculiar tendency to exchange DNA, complicating the task of tracing our genetic history back to those primordial life forms. This leads to a murky trail of evidence.

What we do know is that these single-celled organisms frequently encountered each other, leading to instances where one cell absorbed another. Typically, the larger cell would either discard or consume the smaller one. However, around 1.8 billion years ago, an unusual event occurred. The larger cell recognized the advantages of hosting a smaller one, which provided a new energy source.

This seemingly insignificant event was monumental in allowing life to evolve into the complex forms we observe today.

Ultimately, LUCA's descendants have flourished, resulting in the extraordinary variety of life in our solar system—and perhaps the universe. This includes you and me, all thanks to LUCA and nature’s remarkable drive for efficiency.