Stem Life: A Framework for Understanding the Prebiotic-Biotic Transition

Abstract

Abiogenesis is frequently envisioned as a linear, ladder-like progression of increasingly complex chemical systems, eventually leading to the ancestors of extant cellular life. This “pre-cladistics” view is in stark contrast to the well-accepted principles of organismal evolutionary biology, as informed by paleontology and phylogenetics. Applying this perspective to origins, I explore the paradigm of “Stem Life,” which embeds abiogenesis within a broader continuity of diversification and extinction of both hereditary lineages and chemical systems. In this new paradigm, extant life’s ancestral lineage emerged alongside and was dependent upon many other complex prebiotic chemical systems, as part of a diverse and fecund prebiosphere. Drawing from several natural history analogies, I show how this shift in perspective enriches our understanding of Origins and directly informs debates on defining Life, the emergence of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA), and the implications of prebiotic chemical experiments.