Star Trek: 10 Huge Discoveries That No One Cared About
2. All Humanoid Species Share A Common Ancestor
In the Next Generation episode The Chase, several alpha quadrant species come together and realize that fragments of all their DNA, when combined, produce a holographic message of an ancient humanoid species that claims to be the ancestor of all humanoid life in the galaxy. Apparently, they were the first life in this part of the galaxy and, in their loneliness decided to seed thousands of planets with their genetic code, leading life on all these planets to develop towards a common humanoid body-type.
While this was clearly just an excuse for low-budget aliens that were just people in lizard-suits or with some junk on their foreheads, the implications of this in the Star Trek universe are profound.
The Klingons and Cardassians reject this news out of disgust but the Romulans and the Federation are not only open to the idea but convinced with the Romulan Commander saying to Picard, "Perhaps humans and Romulans are not so dissimilar after all." Despite this, this revelation never comes up in political or historical discussions.
All humanoid life in the universe is related.