HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF

THE CONCEPT OF LIFE

Lesson 1
 Hi! I’m KIM and I’ll be with you in
this lesson.
We will tackle about the Studies on
the Origin of Life, Evidence on
the First Forms of Life and The
Three Domains of Life.
Studies on The Origin of Life
Many Scientists have dedicated themselves to
finding out how life first appeared on Earth.

All in the name of

curiosity, science
and discovery!
 OBJECTIVES
1.Identify the sequence of events at the
history of life on Earth.
2.Name the pieces of evidence on the
evolution of life on Earth.
3.Recognize the importance of knowing
the history of life on Earth.
What is LIFE SCIENCE?
Life Science is collection of
disciplines that is made up of
theories and principles that
tackles the structure and function
of living things starting from the
molecules level up to entire
ecosystem.
 Entry Ticket #1: LIFE
WHAT IS LIFE ? HOW DID LIFE
BEGIN AND
EVOLVE ON
EARTH?
 CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE
They’re made up of cells They exhibit metabolism

They respond to their

They grow and develop environment

They are capable of reproduction Maintain homeostasis

ACTIVITY 1: MY LIFE IN TIME LINE
Directions: Picture out a history of your life. Create
a timeline that will reflect the events that happened
to you in the past.

Guide Questions:
1. What is a timeline?
2. Why is creating a timeline significant?
 TIMELINE OF APPEARANCE OF LIFE
FORMS
 4.6 – 3.8 BYA - The early Earth is said to be violent
because of the meteorites and volcanic eruptions. With
this condition, Zircon Crystal was formed.

 3.5 BYA – Life on Earth initially began with

prokaryotes, discovered in discovered in sedimentary
rock formations called stromatolites.

 3.0 BYA – the first photosynthetic organism thrived

the earth which is blue green algae called
Cyanobacteria.
 2.0 BYA - Appearance of the first
eukaryotes and the influx of multicellular
organisms occurred 1.2 billion years ago.

 500 BYA – The Paleozoic era when the

trilobites and cephalopods became dominant
in the ocean particularly during the
Cambrian and Ordavician.

 251 – 65.5 BYA – The Mesozoic era the age

if reptiles that has a span 251 to 65.5 BYA
divided into Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous
period.
 250 TYA – The Cenozoic era recent life and based
on paleontological evidence. Homo Erectus have
evolved.
Theories on how life could have begun:

1. Extraterrestrial origin- The hypothesis explains that

life originated on another planet outside our Solar
System. Life was then carried to Earth on a
meteorite or an asteroid and colonized Earth.
However, this hypothesis has not been proven.
1. Panspermia- The theory
presumes that the “seed” of
life exists all over the universe
and can be propagated
through space, and that life
on Earth originated from those
seeds.
Divine creation- Many people
believe that life was put on Earth
by divine forces. Creation theories
are common to many of the
world’s religions and cultures.
1. Origin from nonliving matter- Scientist
believed that life arose on Earth from
inanimate matter after Earth had cooled.
They stated that random events probably
produced stable molecule that could self-
replicate. Then, natural selection favored
changes in the rate of reproduction which
eventually led to the first cell.
primordial soup theory proposed by
Alexander Oparin and John Haldane,

life started in a primordial soup of organic

molecules. Some form of energy from
lightning combined with the chemicals in
the atmosphere to make the building
blocks of protein known as the amino acids.
Alexander Ivanovich Oparin
Russian
March 2, 1894 – April 21, 1980

a Soviet biochemist notable for his

theories about the origin of life, and for his
book The Origin of Life.
He also studied the biochemistry of
material processing by plants and
enzyme reactions in plant cells.
John Scott Haldane
Scottish
May 2, 1860 –March 14/15 ,1936
a physiologist famous for intrepid
self-experimentation which led to many
important discoveries about the human
body and the nature of gases.
Oparin- Haldane Hypothesis
This hypothesis suggested that
if the primitive atmosphere was
reducing (as opposed to
oxygen-rich), and if there was an
appropriate supply of energy,
such as lightning or ultraviolet
light, then a wide range of
organic compounds might be
synthesized.
 Oparin 1924
Hypothesized that:
o The Earth’s atmosphere was extremely reducing
in its early stages of development.
o This means that the atmosphere had an excess
of negative charge and could cause reducing
reactions by adding electrons to compounds.
o These organic compounds could have
undergone a series of reactions leading to more
and more complex molecules.
o Organic molecules could have formed from
simple inorganic molecules.
o These molecules formed colloid aggregates, or
'coacervates', in an aqueous environment.
o These coacervates were able to absorb and
assimilate organic compounds from the
environment in a way reminiscent of metabolism.
o They would have taken part in evolutionary
processes, eventually leading to the first
lifeforms.
Haldane 1929
Hypothesized that:
o The early stages of Earth’s atmosphere was
reducing, which could catalyze reactions that
would form more complicated organic
molecules from simpler molecules.
o The oceans served as a huge cooking pot
where, powered by the sun or lightning,
chemical reactions could occur in an aqueous
environment to form a huge diversity of organic
compounds.
o The primordial sea served as a vast chemical
laboratory powered by solar energy.
o The atmosphere was oxygen free, and the
combination of carbon dioxide, ammonia and
ultraviolet radiation gave rise to a host of
organic compounds.
o The sea became a 'hot dilute soup' containing
large populations of organic monomers and
polymers.
o Groups of monomers and polymers acquired
lipid membranes, and that further developments
eventually led to the first living cells.
Oparin- Haldane Hypothesis
 Primordial Soup

Haldane coined the

term 'prebiotic soup' or
'prebiotic atmosphere' that
consisted of an
abundance of methane,
ammonia, and water.
This term became a
powerful symbol of the
Oparin-Haldane view of
the origin of life.
1953
 Harold Clayton Urey
American
April 29, 1893 – January 5, 1981

a physical chemist played a

significant role in the development of the
atom bomb, but may be
most prominent for his contribution to
theories on the development of organic
life from non-living matter.
Stanley Lloyd Miller

American
March 7, 1930 – May 20, 2007
a chemist who made landmark
experiments in the origin of life by demonstrating
that a wide range of vital organic compounds can
be synthesized by fairly simple chemical
processes from inorganic substances.
Miller-Urey Experiment
i. Harold Urey and his student Stanley Miller tried to calculate the chemical
constituents of the atmosphere of the early Earth. They based their calculations on
the view that the early atmosphere was reducing.
ii. In order to do this, they simulated early earth atmospheric conditions by creating a
closed system which contained water, methane gas, ammonia, and hydrogen gas.
iii. Urey suggested that his student, Miller should attempt to synthesize organic
compounds in this type of atmosphere.
iv. Miller carried out an experiment in which he passed a continuous spark discharge
at 60,000 Volts through a flask containing the gases identified by Urey along with
water. Furthermore, this electrical current was run through the laboratory set up to
simulate the catalytic source of lightning that was present in the early atmosphere.
v. Miller found that after a week, most of the ammonia and much of the methane had
been consumed. The main gaseous products were carbon monoxide and nitrogen.
vi. In addition, there was an accumulation of dark material in the water. Few of the
specific constituents of this could not be identified, but it was clear that the material
included a large range of organic polymers.
vii. From the results of their experiment, they found that up to 15% of the carbon in the
system was inorganic compounds that had formed in the system.
viii. This conclusion proved that organic molecules could be formed from inorganic
molecules in Earth’s early atmosphere.
Miller-Urey Apparatus
Analysis of the aqueous solution showed
that the following had also been
synthesized:
 25amino acids
(the main ones being
glycine, alanine and
aspartic acid)
 Several fatty acids
 Hydroxyl acids
 Amide products
Evidence on the First
Forms of Life
FOSSILS!
 FOSSILS
One of the strongest pieces of evidence
that show many life forms existed in Earth
in the past 3.5 billion years.
Bone Fossil
Shell Fosill
Plant Fossil
Footprint Fossil
 How do
fossils form?
Fossil Formation
Over long periods of time, particles piled up on the
remains of organisms and eventually became
sedimentary rocks, preserving the original body
patterns of organism.
Paleontologists
scientists who study fossils
 Examine the age of fossilized organisms
through radioisotope dating using radioactive
materials such as the radioactive components
of potassium-argon.
 Found remains of microscopic living cells, called
microfossils, in rocks that formed 3.5 billion
years ago after the Earth cooled and solidified.
 Microfossils
a fossil or fossil fragment that
can be seen only
with a microscope
 existed in mats and formed
layered structures called
stromatolites.
Stromatolites
a calcareous mound built up of
layers of lime- secreting
prokaryotes, or single-celled
organisms, called cyanobacteria
(the blue-green algae) and
trapped sediment, found in
Precambrian rocks as the earliest
known fossils, and still being
formed in lagoons in Australasia.
 Cyanobacteria
 Believedby scientists to be the first oxygen-
producing organisms that helped evolve the Earth’s
early atmosphere into one that can support early life
forms
 As these microorganisms continued generating
oxygen, other photosynthetic organisms evolved
and increased the level of oxygen in the
atmosphere.
 This increased the chance of more and more
oxygen reaction ammonia, a reaction that results in
the release of nitrogen into atmosphere.
Which resulted in the
formation of the
ozone layer!
A rapid evolution of life occurred
after oxygen became abundant.
The Three Domains of Life

Life is everywhere
on Earth!!!
Life forms exist in different environmental
conditions
 There are organisms in soil, air, and even in freezing
waters or deep sea thermal vents.
 This diversity of life constitutes many and varied
lineages of organisms.
 Some lineages have gone extinct due to geological
events brought by tsunamis, volcanic eruptions,
extreme fluctuations in temperature and rising water
levels.
Carl Richard Woese
American
July 15, 1928 – December 30, 2012

a microbiologist and biophysicist. He is

famous for defining the Archaea (a new
domain or kingdom of life)

in 1977 by phylogenetic taxonomy of 16S

ribosomal RNA, a technique pioneered by
Woese which revolutionized the discipline of
microbiology.
Domain
 the highest taxonomic rank of
organisms in the three-
domain system of taxonomy
 higher than the animal
kingdom classification
Three Domains
The Three Domains
Archaea
 Also known as ancient bacteria because they resemble the ancient
prokaryotes

 Their morphological and genetic characteristics differ from other forms of

bacteria.

 Lives mostly in extreme environments:

 Near rift vents in the deep sea at 100c
 Hot springs
 Alkaline
 Acid waters
 Guts of cows
 Guts of termites
 Guts of some marine life forms which producesmethane
Archaea
 Bacteria

 Also known true bacteria or simply bacteria

 Constitutes a great portion of prokaryotic microorganisms.
 Ecologically diverse, some are found in
 Water
 Soil
 Other organisms
 Some are aerobic(needs oxygen), some are anaerobic.
Bacteria
 Eukarya

 Also known Eukaryotes

 Have membrane-bound nucleus
 Have eukaryotic cells composed of membrane- bound
organelles
 Can be unicellular
 Protists
 Yeast
 Can be multicellular
 Plants
 Fungi
 Animals
Eukarya