Karlos wrote:
eukaryotic organism -
Until now I thought that was the name of a Finnish metal band.
It seems therefore, that the biochemical complexity known today is largely unchanged in every organism known. Were still using the same nucleic acids, proteins, electron transport chains, photosynthetic systems since pa(ramecium) fell of the bus (to paraphrase X-Ray). Of course there are better examples of some metabolic systems, but fundamentally the chemistry has not changed.
The upshot is "if it ain't broke then don't fix it". Despite the obvious progression of evolution over however many billion years, basic fundamentals barely change. However far you go back, the realisation that what evolution created was not necessarily "primitive" but a response to an environmental challenge. The Crocodile hasn't changed much in 120 million years, but it's purpose has remained the same, the Ceolocanth has remained the same creature for 200 million years.
The primate family can trace it's direct ancestry back 80 million years, mammals predate Sauropods and many species of plant are fundamentally unchanged since before the great extinction 65 million years ago.
