ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Last eukaryotic common ancestor

Ah, the last eukaryotic common ancestor! Alright, here's an easy explanation for you:

There was a time long, long ago, before humans, plants, and animals existed. But there were tiny creatures called single-celled organisms. Some were called prokaryotes because they had no nucleus in their cell, and some were called eukaryotes because they did have a nucleus.

Now, the ancestor of all eukaryotes is called the last eukaryotic common ancestor. It's like a super old grandparent that all the eukaryotes we know today came from! Scientists think that this ancestor lived about 1.5 billion years ago.

But how do they know this? Well, they study the DNA of different organisms and compare them. By looking at similarities and differences, they can figure out who is related to who. And they found that all eukaryotes have some similar features in their DNA, suggesting they came from the same ancestor.

So, the last eukaryotic common ancestor was the very first eukaryote, and all the eukaryotes today are its descendants. Pretty cool, huh?