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Proterozoic Eon 2.5 bya – 570 mya. Photosynthesis transforms E and anaerobic procaryotic world Oxygen Revolution- full scale Stromatolites everywhere first abundant “fossils” of living organisms, mostly bacteria and archeans 2.1 bya - Eukaryotic cells evolve
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Proterozoic Eon2.5 bya – 570 mya • Photosynthesis transforms E and anaerobic procaryotic world • Oxygen Revolution- full scale • Stromatolites everywhere • first abundant “fossils” of living organisms, mostly bacteria and archeans • 2.1 bya - Eukaryotic cells evolve • Mid Proterozoic, Iron formation max as O2 builds up • Spells doom for earlier life forms; makes possible explosion of eukaryotic forms, include multicellular - algae, and toward end, first animals. • Shields accrete to stable continents “rocked” by plate tectonics
Stromatolites everywhere and surface is multicolored mats of slime!
Oxygen Revolution Reaches Peak around 2.1 bya • Photosynthetic life - primarily in the form of phytoplankton – cranking out O2 since 3.5 bya (first stromatolites). • Photosynthesis=metabolic process (organisms use sunlight, CO2 and H2O to make energy) • O2 is waste product of photosynthesis; essential to the metabolic processes used by animals.
Banded Iron Formations 2.5-2 bya • 2.5 bya: banded iron formations, from build up of oxygen, appear
Evolution Leaps Forward with Emergence of Eucaryotes • Took over a billion years of change • Evolution of life takes a huge leap with a new “domain” of life • Bigger leap than differences between plants and animals
Eucaryotic Cell Evolves (Coincides with Rise in O2?) • Photosynthetic procaryotes create stromatolite “cities”: waste leads to oxygen revolution, 2.2-2.1 bya • Cells with nuclei evolve – eucaryotes (2.2-2.1 bya) • Coincides with build-up of oxygen?
Eucaryotic cells (2.1 bya?) • Mitochondria may be formerly free existing cyanobacteria, now incorporated into the cell of a eucaryote (with nucleus) • Mitochondria is “energy factory” for eucaryotic • Eucaryotic cells builds protists, algae, fungi, plants, lichen (fungi and algae)
Microbial “Tracks and Trails” • Signs of life - different type of fossil • Microfossils - activities of microbes (not worms!) • Not organisms themselves but “traces”of their movements, existence • Some chemical footprints • Captured in chert - sedimentary rocks, and stromatolites
Rodinia Breaks Up • 1.2 bya continents smash together and form Rodinia • Supercontinent Rodinia lasts 350 my • 750 mya, Rodina breaks up • the atmosphere may have contained less than 5% of the oxygen it now holds, and it lacked the protective ozone layer
Sponges Form (modern ones shown) • Primitive multicellular animals
Snowball Earth 600-700 mya • Earth rocks backs and forth between complete/near complete ice ages • Namibian rock formations • earth covered in ice • Pattern in cliffs of rocks forming in cold climates interspersed with rocks forming in hot climates….
Edicarian Life Forms - Disappear and Don’t “Make It” • 600mya (?) first animals emerge - but these all go extinct • “Edicarian” animals • “Strange” life fossils discovered in shale - Australia, New Foundland • Ozone layer probably established