Common descent

A group of organisms is said to have common descent if they have a common ancestor. In biology, the theory of universal common descent proposes that all organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor or ancestral gene pool.{{ref|transfer}}

Footnotes

• {{note|transfer}} The earliest life-like forms probably exchanged genetic material laterally in a manner that is analogous to lateral gene transfer amongst bacteria. For this and other reasons, the most recent common ancestor may have been a genetic pool rather than an organism.
• {{note|UCD}} Robin Knight et. al., (2001) "Rewiring The Keyboard: Evolvability Of The Genetic Code," Nature Reviews - Genetics. 2: 49-58.