dhw: But equally evolution could not have taken place without masses and masses of new information for the mechanism to work with. Otherwise, if this LUCA theory is correct, life would have been confined to deep sea vents. - The vents are a very logical place to start life which obviously occurred in the oceans. The vents have all sorts of minerals available, but not amino acids. The ones possibly arriving by meteorite would have to reach those vents to be helpful!