How did life begin?

13 - 17 bya: Big Bang formed the universe

4.6 bya: Our solar system formed
4.55 bya: Earth formed
4 - 3.5 bya: Life emerged

4 Overlapping Stages:
1) Nucleotides and amino acids produced prior to
existence of cells
2) Nucleotides and a.a.s became polymerized to form
DNA, RNA and proteins
3) Polymers became enclosed in membranes
4) Polymers enclosed in membranes evolved cellular
properties

Primitive Earth
Reducing Atmosphere Hypothesis
Primitive atmosphere:
- H2O vapor, N2, CO2
- Small amounts of H2 and CO

Monomers evolved and joined to

form Polymers

1920s: Oparin and Haldane

Abiotic Synthesis

First Biomolecules
Miller and Urey (1953)
Showed that biochemicals
could be produced from
simple nonbiological sources
Primitive atmospheric
gases
Strong energy
sources

Millers & Ureys

Apparatus & Experiment.

Alternative Mechanisms
Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (Theory of Panspermia)
Organic carbon from asteroids and
comets stocked prebiotic soup
Meteorite studies - Carbonaceous chondrites
lots of organic carbon, a.as, nucleic
acid bases
Controversy - destroyed by intense heat of
impact?

Deep-sea vent Hypothesis - 1988

Key organics arose at deep-sea vents
Superheated water (300 0F) rich in H2S
and Metal ions mixes with cold seawater
Organics formed in temperature
gradient
around vents

Origin of the 1st Cell

Clay hypothesis
Simple organics polymerize on solid
surface (clay, mud, inorganic crystals)
into more complex organics
Stromatolites - mats of
mineralized cyanobacteria

Cell-like structures - Protobiont

Boundary (I.e. membrane)

Polymers inside contain info
Polymers inside w/ enzymatic function
Self-replication

Chemical Selection - RNA World

RNA in Protobionts
Can store info
Capacity for replication
Enzymatic functions (ribozymes)

Replaced by
DNA/RNA/Protein World

Fossil Dating
Fossils
Paleontology
Most fossils are traces of organisms embedded
in sediments
Sediment converted to rock
Becomes recognizable stratum in stratigraphic
sequence of rocks
Strata of the same age tend to contain the
similar fossil assemblages
Helps geologists determine relative dates of
embedded fossils despite upheavals

Strata + Fossils
younger

older

Fossil Dating - Absolute

Radiometric Dating
Half-life:
The length of time required for half the atoms to change into
something else
Unaffected by temperature, light, pressure, etc.
All radioactive isotopes have a dependable half life
ranges from seconds
billions of years

Radioisotope
Half-life (yrs)
Useful dating range (yrs)
14
C 14N:
5,730
< 50,000
40
K 40Ar:
1.3 billion
100,000 - 4.5 billion
235
207
U
Pb:
710 million
10 million - 4.5 billion
t = age of fossil (or date of death)
ln (N/N0) = natural log
(%radioisotope)
t = half-life of radioisotope

Geologic Time
Scale

Mass extinction currently?

Earths History
(Origin to Present)
Mass extinction 76% marine spp.

Mass extinction 80% marine spp.

Mass extinction 95% marine spp.

Patterns correlated
with:
1. Climate/Temp
2. Atmosphere
3. Land masses

Mass extinction 83% marine spp.

Mass extinction 85% marine spp.

trilobites

(Continental drift 1-10

cm/yr)

4.
5.
6.

Floods/Glaciation
Volcanic Eruptions
Meteorite impacts

Precambrian Time
Includes about 87% of the geological
timescale
Little or no atmospheric oxygen
Lack of ozone shield
allowed UV radiation to
bombard Earth
First cells came into existence
in aquatic environments
600 - 4,500 mya
Prokaryotes
Cyanobacteria left many ancient
stromatolites fossils
Added first oxygen to the
atmosphere

Ediacaran Fossils

Ediacaran/Vendian Period - 600 - 540 mya

Multicellular animals appear, including Sponges
mudflat animals, unusual forms,
no internal organs, no shells or bones
Mass Extinction occurred

Paleozoic Era
- 540 - 248 mya

Burgess Shale
organisms

- Includes three major mass

extinction events

Cambrian Explosion - 540 - 500 mya

Warm, wet climate, O2
All existent phyla developed(?)
Many marine inverts with shells
High diversity of the Cambrian may be due to

Invasion of Land
Plants
Seedless vascular plants date back to
Silurian period
Later flourished in Carboniferous period
Invertebrates
Arthropods were first animals on land
Outer skeleton and jointed
appendages pre-adapted them to live
on land
Vertebrates
Fishes first appeared in Ordovician
Amphibians diversified in the
Carboniferous Period
1st Reptiles appeared

Mesozoic Era - Age of Reptiles

248 - 65 mya
Triassic Period
Nonflowering seed plants became dominant

Jurassic Period
Dinosaurs achieved enormous size
Mammals remained small and insignificant
Cretaceous Period
Dinosaurs began precipitous decline
Mammals:
Began an adaptive radiation
Moved into habitats left vacated by dinosaurs

Cenozoic Era - Age of Mammals

65 mya through today

Tertiary, Quanternary Periods

Mammals continued adaptive radiation

(Birds and Insects diversified)
Flowering plants already diverse and plentiful
Primate evolution began - Quaternary Period
(1.8 mya to today - Age of Man)

Current Mass Extinction - Primates On the Brink

Grauer's gorilla

Pygmy Tarsier

Aye-Aye

Rondo dwarf galago

Northern Sportive Lemur

Slow Loris