Newly Created Life Form Stably Straddles Bacteria/Archaea Divide

The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) departed long ago, taking its evolutionary secrets to the grave or—more likely—the environs of a deep sea vent. Yet clues remain, scattered among the genomes of extant organisms. Such clues are often put together, figuratively speaking, by scientists who compare the genomes of organisms that split from the LUCA. But now select genomic clues have been put together in a way that could not be more literal. Specifically, genetic bequests long spl