Ancestor of all living things was quite complex

Prior theories held that organism was little more than crude mess of molecular parts

Manfredo Seufferheld

Researchers studied simple organisms such as this bacteria to get a clearer picture of what LUCA was like.

By Jennifer Viegas

The relative of all living things, dubbed the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA), was a sophisticated organism with a complex structure recognizable as a cell, according to a new paper in the journal Biology Direct./.../

updated 10/5/2011 7:21:03 PM ET