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What Was the Ancestor of Everything?

Season 1 Episode 37 | 11m 06s

The search for our origins go back to a single common ancestor -- one that remains shrouded in mystery. It’s the ancestor of everything we know and today scientists call it the last universal common ancestor, or LUCA.

Aired: 04/10/18
Extras
For flowering plants to take over, they first helped burn the old world—and then put the fires out.
Ancient weeds mimicked crops, tricking farmers into domesticating friends—and enemies—by mistake.
Brains and brawn aren’t opposites—they’ve been linked far longer than we might think.
Understanding the Isthmus of Panama.
How we might borrow genes from that ancient past of Greenland to help us adapt to the future.
Tiny mammals and a group of lizard-like reptiles shared a trait that helped them survive extinction.
Where the space rock came from 66 million years ago that crashed and killed the dinosaurs.
Fish evolved terrestrial traits to...stay fish?
We're the only ones with chins, and we don't know why.
Why did sharks get so incredibly diverse and odd during the Golden Age?
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For flowering plants to take over, they first helped burn the old world—and then put the fires out.
Ancient weeds mimicked crops, tricking farmers into domesticating friends—and enemies—by mistake.
Brains and brawn aren’t opposites—they’ve been linked far longer than we might think.
Understanding the Isthmus of Panama.
How we might borrow genes from that ancient past of Greenland to help us adapt to the future.
Tiny mammals and a group of lizard-like reptiles shared a trait that helped them survive extinction.
Where the space rock came from 66 million years ago that crashed and killed the dinosaurs.
Fish evolved terrestrial traits to...stay fish?
We're the only ones with chins, and we don't know why.
Why did sharks get so incredibly diverse and odd during the Golden Age?