LUCA

• Luca, L.U.C.A., L. U. C. A.

LUCA (plural LUCAs)

1. (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 […] .

• LCA
• MRCA
• progenote

• ACLU, UCLA, caul