EARTH AND LIFE

SCIENCE
CHAPTER 1:
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
LEARNING COMPETENCIES
• explain the evolving concept of life based
on emerging pieces of evidence
• describe classic experiments that model
conditions which may have enabled the
first forms to evolve
• discuss the unifying themes in the study
of life
• value life by taking good care of all
organisms.
THE CONCEPT OF LIFE
Earth is much older than life. Based on
radioactive decay studies of rocks, it was
revealed that Earth is around 4.5 billion
years old – 1 billion years older than the
oldest fossils? So how did life begin? Where
did it come from?
There were no witnesses to the origin of
life. However, there are possible
explanations that attempt to provide
different possibilities on how life could
have begun:
1. Extraterrestrial origin – the hypothesis
explains that life originated on another
planet outside the Solar System. Life
was then carried to Earth on a
meteorite or asteroid and colonized
Earth.
There were no witnesses to the origin of
life. However, there are possible
explanations that attempt to provide
different possibilities on how life could
have begun:
2. 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.
There were no witnesses to the origin of
life. However, there are possible
explanations that attempt to provide
different possibilities on how life could
have begun:
3. Divine Creation – many people believe
that life put on Earth by divine forces.
Creation theories are common to
many of the world’s religions and
cultures.
There were no witnesses to the origin of life.
However, there are possible explanations that
attempt to provide different possibilities on
how life could have begun:
4. Origin from nonliving matter – scientists
believe that life arose on Earth from
inanimate matter after Earth had cooled.
They stated that random events probably
produced stable molecules that could self-
replicate. Then, natural selection favored
changes in the rate of reproduction, which
eventually led to the first cell.
Scientists hypothesized that life began back
when conditions were quite different from
Earth’s current environment. These
conditions included an atmosphere that
lacked oxygen but was rich in carbon
dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and
nitrogen.
Earth’s surface was bombarded with
meteorites, volcanic eruptions, and intense
radiation from the sun. It is believed that
under these conditions, life may have
originated from nonliving matter – life
started from chemicals that already existed
in the environment.
These chemicals included water and clay,
minerals in the oceans, and the gases
present in the atmosphere. The energy that
was present on Earth caused these
chemicals to react with one another,
forming the complex molecules (e.g.,
amino acids, DNA, carbohydrates, and
lipids) that made life possible. However, the
source of these molecules must be
discovered to understand how life
originated from nonliving matter.
American chemist Stanley Miller
performed an experiment that replicated
early Earth conditions. Together with
Harold Urey, he provided proof that amino
acids and other organic molecules could be
formed.
The atmosphere that Miller and Urey
introduced into the flasks contained simple
molecules that were probably present in
the early Earth’s atmosphere: hydrogen,
carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor,
nitrogen, ammonia, and carbon monoxide.
They heated the mixture and zapped it
with electrical sparks to simulate lightning.
Within days, a dark, smelly mixture
developed. When this mixture was
analyzed, they found that many complex
molecules had formed, including some
amino acids that are the building blocks of
proteins. Using slightly different
combinations of starting molecules, Millar
and other scientists were able to generate
many amino acids, RNA and DNA
nucleotides, lipids, carbohydrates, and
adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
How did the first cell form?
The crucial feature that separates the cell
from its environment is the cell membrane
which contains lipids. Scientists think that
formation of tiny spheres of lipids may have
been the first stage in the origin of the cell.
When lipids mix with water, they form
bubbles called coacervates. These bubbles
had double-layered membranes similar to
the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane.
How did the first cell form?
The crucial feature that separates the cell
from its environment is the cell membrane
which contains lipids. Scientists think that
formation of tiny spheres of lipids may have
been the first stage in the origin of the cell.
When lipids mix with water, they form
bubbles called coacervates. These bubbles
had double-layered membranes similar to
the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane.
It was believed that the early oceans might
have contained numerous small lipid
coacervates that formed and eventually
dispersed. Coacervates are unable to
obtain energy from materials found in its
environment. However, they might have
developed these capabilities and were able
to transfer these to other coacervates
over time.
Scientists further hypothesized that for
millions of years, coacervates that floated
in the oceans joined together to form large
molecules. These larger molecules reacted
with each other, forming a more
complicated structure that has the ability
to replicate. The molecules developed into
cell-like structures that eventually became
the first true cells.
Scientists believe that the first cells were
the prokaryotes – organisms whose cells
have no nucleus. The first prokaryotes
were anaerobic, which means they did not
need and could not tolerate free oxygen.
Organisms that need oxygen could not
have survived because Earth lacked free
oxygen. Many anaerobic prokaryotes still
live on Earth today in places where there is
no free oxygen.
EARLY LIFE FORMS
Earth’s age, as estimated by several
independent studies, is about 4.5 Ga. So far,
no fossils have been found in the oldest
rocks, which are about 3.8 Ga. The oldest
fossils that have been discovered were
found in 3.5 billion year-old rocks that
were once sediments on the ocean floor.
The tiny fossils that were found in these
ancient rocks were bacteria.
Biologists separate the bacteria into two
groups according to the composition of
their cell walls and cell membranes, as well
as in the structure of some of their
proteins.
EUBACTERIA
also known as true bacteria. Most living
bacteria, including those that cause disease
and decay, are eubacteria.
ARCHAEBACTERIA
or ancient bacteria, are rare. They are
found mainly in hostile environments
where conditions resemble those of early
Earth (e.g., salty lakes, hot springs, swamps,
and ocean floor).
Today, biologists believed that the oxygen
of early Earth’s atmosphere was produced
by bacteria. About 3 Gya, a group of
photosynthetic bacteria known as
cyanobacteria, evolved. As they carried out
photosynthesis, oxygen gas is released into
the oceans. After hundreds of millions of
years, when the oceans had soaked up all
the oxygen they could hold, the oxygen
began to bubble out of the water and into Cyanobacteria are believed to have evolved from eubacteria.

the air.
Life was only able to move onto land
because of a change in the atmosphere. As
cyanobacteria added oxygen gas to the
atmosphere, large amount of oxygen began
to diffuse into the upper atmosphere,
producing ozone.

Cyanobacteria are believed to have evolved from eubacteria.

Before the ozone was formed, all life were
restricted to the oceans. But due to the
new ozone layer that acted like a shield,
which blocked ultraviolet radiation, the
radiation levels on Earth’s surface went
down to a level that allowed life to move
onto dry land.

Cyanobacteria are believed to have evolved from eubacteria.

More complex life forms appeared in the
fossil record. These organisms known as
eukaryotes were much larger than
prokaryotes, and they contained a central
nucleus and a complicated internal
structure. Over the past 1.5 billion years,
eukaryotic cells have evolved into
organisms that are composed of many
cells.
It is believed that the first single-celled
eukaryote evolved around 2 Gya and is the
ancestor of all plants and animals that exist
today. By about 400 Mya, enough ozone
had formed in the atmosphere to make
Earth’s surface a safe place to live in.
The first living things to populate the
surface of Earth were plants and fungi. The
solution to the challenge of living on dry
land was a unique mutualistic partnership
between plants and fungi called
mycorrhizae.

Mycorrhizal association shows a mutualistic relationship of

plants and fungi.
Plants provided food to the fungi while the
fungi provide nutrients obtained from
organic matter to the plants. Mycorrhizae
have close associations between the roots
of the plants and fungi. Fungi actually grow
on or into the plant root and then branch
out into rock or soil.

Mycorrhizal association shows a mutualistic relationship of

plants and fungi.
Fossil records reveal that plants covered
the surface of Earth within 80 million years
of their initial invasion. Animal soon
followed plants onto land. The first animals
to leave the water were the arthropods –
animals with hard body covering and
jointed legs.
The first arthropods to live on land were
scorpions. They are carnivorous relatives of
spiders with two large pincers on their
front legs and a venomous stinger at the
end of their tails.
 TABLE 9.1. MAJOR BIOLOGICAL EVENTS SINCE 4.5 GYA

Major Events Time

Table 9.1. shows
the major events Rapid diversification of animals; plants and 0.5 Gya
showing how life fungi appear; origin of humans (about 2
originated on Mya)
Earth since 4.5 Earliest animals; first multicellular 1.0 Gya
Gya. For two
billion years, organisms; diverse protists
bacteria were First eukaryotes 1.5 Gya
the only living
things on the Diverse and abundant bacteria 2.0 Gya
planet. Photosynthesis begins 2.5 Gya
Bacteria diversify 3.0 Gya
First bacteria appear 3.5 Gya
Oldest rocks 4.0 Gya
Earth forms 4.5 Gya
In the last 570 million years, there has been
a rapid diversification of multicellular life.
Plants, fungi, and most major animal groups
have evolved in this relatively short period
of time.
From the scorpions, a unique class of
terrestrial arthropod soon evolved: insects.
Today, there are more than 200 million
insects alive at any one time for each
person on Earth. In addition, more than 70
percent of the animal species discovered
are insects. Based on the fossil records and
studies, insects were the first animals to
develop wings.
More complex animals began to evolve.
Fossils showed that worm-like animals, the
earliest known animals with notochords,
existed. The notochords, however exists
only for a short time during the embryonic
development and is replaced by the
vertebral column or backbone. Chordates,
or animals with notochords and vertebral
column, are called vertebrates.
The earliest vertebrates were jawless
fishes with bony skeletons. These small
fishes appear to have fed in a head-down
position with their fins helping to keep
them upright while they suck up organic
particles from the bottom. For over 100
million years, jawless fishes were the only
vertebrates.
Today, the jawless fishes are the eel-like,
parasitic lampreys, and the scavenging
hagfishes. Eventually, the jawed fishes
evolved approximately 400 Mya. These are
now the sharks and bony fishes known
today.
The first vertebrates on land were the
amphibians, which evolved from bony fishes
about 350 Mya. Reptiles evolved from
amphibians about 300 Mya. The earliest
reptiles gave rise to a variety of species
that gradually replaced the amphibians as
the dominants terrestrial animals. The
massive reptiles known as dinosaurs arose
about 220 Mya. For more than 150 million
years, mammals and dinosaurs coexisted.
During this time, mammals were small and
did not diversify.
Although most dinosaurs are now extinct,
descendants of small insect-eating
dinosaurs still exists: the birds. Bird
feathers evolved from the same scales that
protected the dinosaurs as well. Birds,
mammals, and dinosaurs coexisted until
the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs 65
Mya during the Cretaceous period. This
caused birds and mammals to diverge
rapidly and fill the nearly-empty Earth.
CHARACTERISTICS OF
LIFE AND UNIFYING
THEMES OF LIFE
SCIENCE
Even though an amazing variety of living
things exists on Earth, they are all alike in
several ways. Does a god have anything in
common with a tree? What does a fish
have in common with a mushroom? Do
you have something in common with other
living things?
 CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE
In the study of life, there is an array of
biological characteristics or properties and
certain themes about how the living world
works that are discussed. These properties
are shared by all living things, passed down
over billions of years from the first
organisms to have evolved on Earth.
• CELLULAR ORGANIZATION
All cells have the same basic structure: a
membrane that encloses the cell and
controls materials that move in and out; an
internal fluid known as cytoplasm where the
organelles are suspended; and a nucleus
that contains the hereditary genes called
DNA.
• CELLULAR ORGANIZATION
Organisms can either be made up of only
one cell (unicellular) or made up of many
cells (multicellular).
• METABOLISM
All living things use energy. Moving,
growing, thinking – everything you do
requires energy. Where does all this energy
come from? It is captured from sunlight by
plants and algae.
• METABOLISM
To get the energy needed, plants or plant-
eating animals are consumed. These food
are converted into a useful form of energy.
The sum of all chemical process that
maintain the living state of an organism is
called metabolism.
• METABOLISM
All organisms use energy to grow, and all
organisms transport this energy from one
place to another within cells using special
energy-carrying molecules called ATP.
• HOMEOSTASIS
All living things maintain stable internal
conditions. While the environment often
varies a lot, organisms act to keep their
interior conditions relatively constant in a
process called homeostasis. The human
body maintains an internal temperature of
37 C (98.5 F), however hot or cold the
weather may be.
• REPRODUCTION
All living things reproduce. Reproduction
involves the transfer of genetic information
from parents to offspring. Reproduction
can be asexual or sexual.
• REPRODUCTION
Asexual Reproduction produces offspring
that are genetically identical to a single
parent, while sexual reproduction involves
two parents contributing genetic
information to produce a unique offspring.
• HEREDITY
All organisms possess a genetic system
that is based on the replication and
duplication of a long molecule called
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The
information that determines what an
individual organism will be like is written in
a code dictated by the sequence of the
DNA molecule.
• HEREDITY
Each set of instruction within the DNA is
called a gene. Because the DNA is faithfully
copied from one generation to the next,
any change in a gene is also preserved and
passed on to future generations. The
transmission of characteristics from parent
to offspring is called heredity.
 UNIFYING THEMES IN LIFE
SCIENCE
In addition to the characteristics, life
science is unified by certain themes. These
six general themes are levels of
organization, the flow of energy, evolution,
interacting systems, structure and function,
ecology, and science and society.
• LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION
There is a hierarchy of increasing
complexity within cells, from the molecular
level of DNA (where the chemistry of life
occurs), to the organelle level (where the
cellular activities are organized), to the
cellular level (the smallest level of
organization).
• THE FLOW OF ENERGY
Energy is used by organisms to grow and
do work. Without it, life stops. Almost all
the energy that living things need is
obtained from the sun. Plants capture the
energy from sunlight and use it to make
complex molecules in a process called
photosynthesis.
• THE FLOW OF ENERGY
These molecules then serve as the source
of fuel for animals that eat them. The flow
of energy among organisms helps
determine how organisms interact within
their environment.
• EVOLUTION
The theory of evolution helps explain how
all kinds of organisms came into existence.
It explains why organisms look the way
they do, and how organisms of the past are
related to the organisms alive today. It also
explains the relationships among various
groups of living organisms.
• EVOLUTION
Life forms are slowly changing and have
apparently been changing. Charles Darwin
proposed the theory of evolution by natural
selection which presumes that organisms
with more favorable traits would be more
likely to survive and reproduce in a certain
environment.
• EVOLUTION
These favorable traits are called
adaptations. For example, the cactus plant is
adapted to a desert environment. In time,
organisms that lack the necessary
adaptations would die out, and all
individuals with favorable adaptations
would live on. This process changes the
species over time.
• INTERACTING SYSTEMS
Living things interact with each other and
with the environment. A living community
is highly structured and interdependent.
This interdependent is the result of a long
process of evolution in which selection has
favored cooperation.
• INTERACTING SYSTEMS
For example, animal cells that descended
from symbiotic bacteria possess organelles,
and symbiotic fungi helped plants move
from sea to land. The coevolution of
flowering plants and insects has been
responsible for the diversity of both
species.
• STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
A relationship exists between structure
and function at all levels of biological
organization. In biology, structure is always
related to function. Hence, the hierarchy of
structural levels is the basis for the biology
organization.
• STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
Structural levels are built on the levels that
preceed it. Within the many kinds of
organisms in the living world, body
structures seem to be carefully designed to
carry out their functions.
• STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
For example, hummingbird sucks nectar
from a deep flower through its long
tongue.
• ECOLOGY
To fully understand the biological world,
biologists have recognized and studied the
interdependence of organisms with each
other and with their environment. This
branch of biology is called ecology.
• ECOLOGY
Ecology is the study of complex
communities of organisms in relation to
their environment. Organisms need the
physical environment to survive. They need
substances like water, nutrients, and gases
from the environment.
• ECOLOGY
The stability of the environment, in turn,
depends on the health functioning of
organisms in that environment.
• ECOLOGY
For example, all organisms depend on the
oxygen-carbon dioxide cycle, which
releases vital gases in the atmosphere.
However, this complex web of interactions
is easily disrupted when the environment is
polluted and individual species become
instinct, similar to what is happening in the
world today.
• SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
Knowledge from biological science can be
applied to specific problems in the society
to improve human life.
• SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
For example, the development of a vaccine
against poliomyelitis virus in the 1950s was
a scientific breakthrough that had a large
impact on society.
• SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
By producing the polio vaccine in bulk and
distributing it throughout the world,
scientists, business leaders, and
governments have worked together to
reduce the threat of polio.