The Astronomy Picture of the Day recently linked to my research on extreme shrimp at NASA-JPL. This led to one reader asking whether Rimicaris hybisae might be a lifeform that evolved independently from the rest of life on Earth. Well, we are absolutely certain that isn’t the case. All life as we know it shares a common ancestor, which lived roughly 4 billion years ago. We know this because all life shares certain features at a molecular level, such as the genetic code and homochirality of amino acids and sugars.
In the meantime I went back to writing up the results of the shrimp research (after a break of a few years). So, hopefully more soon!
Emma Versteegh 