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winklesnad31 t1_irzjht6 wrote

Reply to comment by JayGold in TIL that all Shiba Inu alive today are descended from one single Shiba, "Ishi," born in 1930. by Tsujimoto74

Well all life on earth is descended from a common ancestor.

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leojava t1_is2qz30 wrote

Are you telling us we're all incestuos cannibals?

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TheDrGoo t1_is0anfv wrote

I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic but that’s not what common ancestor means

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Dragmire800 t1_is0hn3q wrote

Um, yes it is. The one lifeform that diverged into all modern life is indeed the common ancestor of all life.

All life is descended from a common ancestor. Otherwise, there would have to have been two completely separate instances of the formation of life, both of which have survived until now

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XenaWolf t1_is0krvh wrote

It's a species, not a single individual.

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Dragmire800 t1_is0l45w wrote

No, it’s a single individual. One individual lifeform came to be in the primordial oceans of earth, which multiplied and branched out. A whole species didn’t pop out of volcanic vents and start breeding, it was one little guy

Maybe other individuals were also created, but they weren’t the same species, they didn’t evolve, they were formed. They don’t factor into our evolution, only one individual ended up as us

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XenaWolf t1_is0ly0d wrote

Most recent common ancestor

In biology and genetic genealogy, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as the last common ancestor (LCA) or concestor, of a set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all the organisms of the set are descended.

Common descent

The possibility is mentioned, above, that all living organisms may be descended from an original single-celled organism with a DNA genome, and that this implies a single origin for life. Although such a universal common ancestor may have existed, such a complex entity is unlikely to have arisen spontaneously from non-life and thus a cell with a DNA genome cannot reasonably be regarded as the “origin” of life.

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Edit: I didn't read close enough, you're right, it is individual.

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