Darwin's coral reef of life according to Gugraten and Gupna: the lineages of living things today (in black) all descend from one ancient ancestor (black arrow). But this ancient ancestor did not live alone. Many other extinct species lived around it (gray lines). However, lateral gene transfer (red arrow) allowed their genes to survive and has reached the present day. This means that different cellular mechanisms in our body, such as the ribosomes and the enzymes that produce ATP, have different and extinct ancestors, who did not live in the same places and at the same times as the common ancestor of us and all the living world.