Can you prove that ALL living organisms come from one root?

Question

Can you prove that ALL living organisms come from one root?

Answer 1

The only proof is a logical proof.  Bacteria and more advanced lifeforms share the exact same DNA, amino acids and several other chemical systems.  Since bacteria divide by fission it is logical to assume that every beneficial change we posses was the result of a single mutation of a single cell.  That means that all life is descended from a single cell.  That would have logically been repeated several times.  It relies on the assumption that bacteria couldn't recombine or share parts of their DNA.

Answer 2

You can't "prove" things in science.

But there's a heck of a lot of evidence in the DNA of every living thing.

1. All living organisms share the same *kind* of DNA.

2. Out of the hundreds of possible amino acids, all living organisms use the same 20 amino acids.

3. All living organisms share the same *coding* (three-base codons) that translate to the same set of amino acids).

4. All living organisms share the same metabolic pathways.

Now, you might counter that any similarity is just as easily explained by the idea of a common Creator (a Creator that apparently has a bit of a lack of imagination).  

But there's more:

5a.  Any two living organisms in the same category share large amounts of DNA in common ... the closer in categorization, the more the commonalisties.

5b. This is not just a "similarity" ... but letter-for-letter identical DNA sequences, with specific tell-tale differences.

5c. Many of these similarities have nothing to do with *function* (or "design") because they occur in DNA that doesn't actually code for anything (what we call "junk DNA").

5d. These similarities diminish, the further away two organisms are.

For example, for any three organisms A, B, C ... if A and B share some DNA not shared by C ... then you will NOT find some other sequence that is shared by B and C but not A.    

In short we can trace an ancestral relationship.

Did I mention that this applies to *ALL* living organisms.

6. The more "junk DNA" there is, the more evidence of long-term evolution ... because "junk DNA" is the result of accumulation of DNA sequences that have long lost their function, or never had a function to begin with.  And in living organisms, as much as 98% of DNA is "junk DNA"!

And there is more ... *lots* more.   But you have to know a little bit of biochemistry, and not be predisposed to write of *ANY* evidence as simply the result of a Creator who is, for some reason, trying to *trick* us by deliberately putting in markers of common ancestry into every single living organism.

Again ... science is about *EVIDENCE* ... never "proof."

Answer 3

All living things have DNA.

I can't prove it but look at the fetuses of humans, chickens, pigs, lizards. They are pretty much identical. How else can you explain that other than having a common ancestor millions of years ago.

Answer 4

Mitochondrial DNA allows us to trace our roots to the first eukaryote cell, then it gets a bit complicated.

Recent speculation into the origin of species has come up with ideas saying that the original single celled life was vastly varied due to a different form of competition causing there to be a large amount of organisms that would of quickly diminished on the formation of the first multicellular life.