1 / 28

Early Earth and The Origin of Life

Early Earth and The Origin of Life. Chapter 26. Your book uses a clock analogy. The Earth cooled, then what happened?. ~ 3.9 billion years ago  1 st life formed. 1 st fossils of life discovered  prokaryotes. Ancient Bacterium 1 st prokaryotes. Fossilized bacterium 3.5 bya.

preston
Download Presentation

Early Earth and The Origin of Life

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Early Earth and The Origin of Life Chapter 26

  2. Your book uses a clock analogy

  3. The Earth cooled, then what happened? ~ 3.9 billion years ago  1st life formed 1st fossils of life discovered prokaryotes

  4. Ancient Bacterium 1st prokaryotes Fossilized bacterium 3.5 bya Some bacteria of today

  5. Two braches of the prokaryotic tree occurred relatively early. • A split ~ 3 billion years ago • Split into the bacteria and archea. Fossilized bacteria found In stromatolites, mats of bacteria

  6. About 2.7 bya oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere • 1st photosynthesizing bacteria that produced oxygen  CYANOBACTERIA

  7. Evidence for Oxygen in early atmosphere…Banded iron formations • O2 produced dissolved in sea precipitated as iron oxide.

  8. Large spike in O2 levels Nearly 10 % increase 2.2 bya What happened? • Evolution of 1st eukaryotic organisms were algae that contained organelles called chloroplasts. • Killed many bacteria  survivors are found today Obligate anearobes. • Other survivors became specialize and cell respiration was born.

  9. Origins of eukaryotic life 2.2 bya

  10. Evolution of multicellular eukaryotes ~ 1.2 bya 1st multiucellular eukaryotes algae

  11. Then an ice age! 750 –570 mya • Confined life to deep sea vents and areas where glacier melt allowed sunlight through the surface of the waters. Called the SNOWBALL EARTH. • Then the thaw and the first major diversification of eukaryotes evolved  then the second diversification in the early Cambrian produced the major lineages we know today.

  12. Then an explosion of animal life… Cambrian period about 543 mya

  13. Plants, fungi then animals colonized the land 500 mya Plants evolved adaptations to land Concurrently with fungi that Obtain nutrients from the plants In return the plants get increased water Absorption SYMBIOSIS Then herbavores and their predators

  14. Animal evolution • Herbavores (plant eating)  Predators • Arthropods (invertebrates)  Vertebrates (amphibians  land dwelling  reptiles  Birds and mammals  Humans)

  15. The origins of life • 4 bya  Earth’s crust solidified  No life • 3.5 bya  1st Prokaryotes seen • That means that somewhere between 4 bya to 3.5 bya life evolved.

  16. What happened in that 500 million years? • It was thought that life could arise from nonliving matter  Spontaneous generation • Louis Pasteur’s experiments showed this not to be true…

  17. Pasteur’s Experiments

  18. So biogenesis  life only comes from life, made its way into the scientific community. • But it must have been violated at least once right? • Most scientists see a 4 stage model for the evolution of life.

  19. Evolution of life; 4 stage model • Stage 1: Abiotic synthesis: organic chemicals combined to form the first molecules of biology (amino acids and nucleotides) • Stage 2: The joining of these molecules to produce more complex polymers (proteins and nucleic acids) • Stage 3: The development of these molecules to self -replicate. • Stage 4: The packaging of these molecules into protobionts droplets of membranes.

  20. Evidence for stage 1: Abiotic synthesis: organic chemicals combined to form the first molecules of biology (amino acids and nucleotides) • Oparin-Haldane Hypothesis • Conditions of early Earth were favorable for the formation of organic compounds from inorganic precursors. • Cannot replicate in today’s world rich in O2 (from the evolution of plants) • What effect does O2 have on bond formation? • Miller and Urey tested the hypothesis in the lab

  21. Miller-Urey experiment

  22. Conclusion of experiment • Organic molecules such as amino acids and nucleotides formed. • Just said it was possible to happen this way, not that it did happen this way.

  23. Other possibilities… • Deep Sea vents • Meteorites may have contained some of the essential materials.

  24. Evidence for stage 2: The joining of these molecules to produce more complex polymers (proteins and nucleic acids) • Heat vaporizes water in solutions that contain these organic molecules  result  dehydration  polymerization of simple polypeptides. • Primitive earth had many heat sources for this to occur ex: lava deep sea vents etc.

  25. Stage 3: The development of these molecules to self-replicate. • Which came first, the chicken (enzyme) or the egg (nucleic acid)? • Answer: Both the chicken is part egg, that is RNA has both information storage capabilites and enzymatic activiy (ribozymes). • RNA can be autocatalytic.

  26. Stage 4: The packaging of these molecules into protobionts droplets of membranes. Natural Selection at the molecular level…

More Related