LUCA

See also: luca and Luca

English

Alternative forms

Luca, L.U.C.A., L. U. C. A.

Noun

LUCA (plural LUCAs)

(taxonomy, biology, paleontology) Initialism of last universal common ancestor; the hypothesised most recent primordial organism that is an ancestor to all organisms now living.
Synonym: LUA

Coordinate terms: LCA, UCA
- 1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial, published 2000, page 19:
  Luca is now usually placed deep underground, in a fissure in hot igneous rocks, where she fed on sulphur, iron, hydrogen and carbon.
- 2011 November 26, Michael Marshall, “Our ancestor, the mega-organism”, in New Scientist, page 8:
  It was around 2.9 billion years ago that LUCA split into the three domains of life: the single-celled bacteria and archaea, and the more complex eukaryotes that gave rise to animals and plants […] .

Translations

hypothesised last common ancestor to all organisms

Finnish: viimeinen universaali esivanhempi, LUCA, alkusolu, progenootti

See also

Anagrams

ACLU, UCLA, caul

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