HISTRIA GEOLGICA DA VIDA

Fernando Rocha
tavares.rocha@ua.pt

Departamento de Geocincias Universidade de Aveiro

Campus Universitrio de Santiago

3810-193 Aveiro Portugal Tel. +351 234 370357 | Fax. +351 234 370605

O QUE DIFERENCIA O NOSSO PLANETA DOS DEMAIS DO NOSSO SISTEMA SOLAR?

A existncia comprovada de VIDA superfcie do Planeta

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA? The diversity of life on Earth today is a result of the dynamic interplay between genetic opportunity, metabolic capability, environmental challenges,[and symbiosis. For most of its existence, Earth's habitable environment has been dominated by microorganisms and subjected to their metabolism and evolution. As a consequence of such microbial activities on a geologic time scale, the physical-chemical environment on Earth has been changing, thereby determining the path of evolution of subsequent life. For example, the release of molecular oxygen by cyanobacteria as a byproduct of photosynthesis induced fundamental, global changes in the Earth's environment.

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA? The altered environment, in turn, posed novel evolutionary challenges to the organisms present, which ultimately resulted in the formation of our planet's major animal and plant species.

THEREFORE THIS "CO-EVOLUTION" BETWEEN ORGANISMS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT IS APPARENTLY AN INHERENT FEATURE OF LIVING SYSTEMS.

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA?

Range of tolerance

Extremophiles

Chemical element requirements

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA?

Range of tolerance

The inert components of an ecosystem are the physical and chemical factors necessary for lifeenergy (sunlight or chemical energy), water, temperature, atmosphere, gravity, nutrients, and ultraviolet solar radiation protection.
In most ecosystems the conditions vary during the day and often shift from one season to the next. To live in most ecosystems, then, organisms must be able to survive a range of conditions, called "range of tolerance.

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA?

Range of tolerance

Outside of that are the "zones of physiological stress," where the survival and reproduction are possible but not optimal.
Outside of these zones are the "zones of intolerance," where life for that organism is implausible. It has been determined that organisms that have a wide range of tolerance are more widely distributed than organisms with a narrow range of tolerance.

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA?

Extremophiles

To survive, some microorganisms can assume forms that enable them to withstand freezing, complete desiccation, starvation, high-levels of radiation exposure, and other physical or chemical challenges.

Furthermore, some microorganisms can survive exposure to such conditions for weeks, months, years, or even centuries.

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA?

Extremophiles

Extremophiles are microbial life forms that thrive outside the ranges life is commonly found in.
They also excel at exploiting uncommon sources of energy.

While all organisms are composed of nearly identical molecules, evolution has enabled such microbes to cope with this wide range of physical and chemical conditions.

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA?

Extremophiles

Characterization of the structure and metabolic diversity of microbial communities in such extreme environments is ongoing.
An understanding of the tenacity and versatility of life on Earth, as well as an understanding of the molecular systems that some organisms utilize to survive such extremes, will provide a critical foundation for the search for life beyond Earth.

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA?

Chemical element requirements

All life forms require certain core chemical elements needed for biochemical functioning.
These include carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur the elemental macronutrients for all organisms often represented by the acronym CHNOPS. Together these make up nucleic acids, proteins and lipids, the bulk of living matter.

QUAIS SO AS CONDIES BSICAS PARA A VIDA?

Chemical element requirements

Alternative hypothetical types of biochemistry have been proposed which eliminate one or more of these elements, swap out an element for one not on the list, or change required chiralities or other chemical properties.

ORIGEM DA VIDA?

Clay theory

A model for the origin of life based on clay was forwarded by A. Graham CairnsSmith of the University of Glasgow in 1985 and explored as a plausible illustration by several other scientists, including Richard Dawkins.
Clay theory postulates that complex organic molecules arose gradually on a preexisting, non-organic replication platformsilicate crystals in solution. Complexity in companion molecules developed as a function of selection pressures on types of clay crystal is then exapted to serve the replication of organic molecules independently of their silicate "launch stage.

ORIGEM DA VIDA?

Clay theory

In 2007, Kahr and colleagues reported their experiments to examine the idea that crystals can act as a source of transferable information, using crystals of potassium hydrogen phthalate.

ORIGEM DA VIDA?

Clay theory

De facto, no s o habitat da argila coincide em boa parte com o habitat dos seresvivos, como tambm se verifica uma relao estreita entre as propriedades mais caractersticas da argila e dos organismos vivos e a respectiva interaco com a gua e o ar.

ORIGEM DA VIDA?

Clay theory

A argila funciona como um filtro e um substrato para a vida e, sendo ela, essencialmente, o resultado da actuao de processos qumicos, as suas caractersticas reflectem a natureza e o grau dos processos qumicos que presidiram sua formao em ambientes diversificados, num passado mais ou menos longnquo ou mesmo recente.

ORIGEM DA VIDA?

Clay theory

"Mother" crystals with imperfections were cleaved and used as seeds to grow "daughter" crystals from solution.
They then examined the distribution of imperfections in the crystal system and found that the imperfections in the mother crystals were indeed reproduced in the daughters, but the daughter crystals had many additional imperfections.

ORIGEM DA VIDA?

Clay theory

For gene-like behavior to be observed, the quantity of inheritance of these imperfections should have exceeded that of the mutations in the successive generations, and it did not.
Thus Kahr concludes that the crystals "were not faithful enough to store and transfer information from one generation to the next.

ORIGEM DA VIDA?

Clay theory

Cairns-Smith is a staunch critic of other models of chemical evolution. However, he admited that like many models of the origin of life, his own also has its shortcomings (Horgan 1991).

THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF LIFE The evolutionary history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and fossil organisms evolved. It stretches from the origin of life on Earth, thought to be over 4,500 million years ago, to the present day. The similarities between all present day organisms indicate the presence of a common ancestor from which all known species have diverged through the process of evolution.

THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF LIFE Microbial mats of coexisting bacteria and archaea were the dominant form of life in the early Archean and many of the major steps in early evolution are thought to have taken place within them.

The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, around 3,500 million years ago, eventually led to the oxygenation of the atmosphere, beginning around 2,400 million years ago.

THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF LIFE The earliest evidence of eukaryotes (complex cells with organelles), dates from 1,850 million years ago, and while they may have been present earlier, their diversification accelerated when they started using oxygen in their metabolism. Later, around 1,700 million years ago, multicellular organisms began to appear, with differentiated cells performing specialised functions.

THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF LIFE

The earliest land plants date back to around 450 million years ago, though evidence suggests that algal scum formed on the land as early as 1,200 million years ago.

Land plants were so successful that they are thought to have contributed to the late Devonian extinction event.

THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF LIFE

Invertebrate animals appear during the Vendian period, about 635 million years.

While vertebrates originated about 525 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION

The Late Devonian extinction was one of five major extinction events in the history of the Earth's biota. Occurred at the boundary that marks the beginning of the last phase of the Devonian period, about 374 million years ago. Overall, 19% of all families and 50% of all genera went extinct.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION

Although it is clear that there was a massive loss of biodiversity in the Later Devonian, the extent of time during which these events took place is uncertain, with estimates ranging from 500,000 to 25 million years. Nor is it clear whether it concerned two sharp mass extinctions or a series of smaller extinctions, though the latest research suggests multiple causes and a series of distinct extinction pulses through an interval of some three million years. Some consider the extinction to be as many as seven distinct events, spread over about 25 million years.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Previous context At the end of the Proterozoic, the supercontinent Pannotia had broken apart in the smaller continents Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia and Gondwana. During periods when continents move apart, more oceanic crust is formed by volcanic activity. Because young volcanic crust is relatively hotter and less dense than old oceanic crust, the ocean floors will rise during such periods. This causes the sea level to rise; large areas of the continents were below sea level.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Previous context Early Paleozoic climates were warmer than today, but the end of the Ordovician saw a short ice age during which glaciers covered the south pole, where the huge continent Gondwana was situated. Traces of glaciation from this period are only found on former Gondwana.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context During the Late Ordovician ice age, a number of mass extinctions took place, in which many brachiopods, trilobites, Bryozoa and corals disappeared.

These marine species could probably not contend with the decreasing temperature of the sea water.
After the extinctions new species evolved, more diverse and better adapted, filling the niches left by the extinct species.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context The Devonian Period (410 to 356 million years ago) has been traditionally refered to as the "Age of Fishes." This appelation is appropriate given the dramatic evolutionary changes in all of the major "fish" lineages during this period. But this emphasis on significant changes. fish evolution obscurs other more

These changes center on the emergence and diversification of semiaquatic and terrestrial tracheophytes (vascular plants).

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context The continents Laurentia and Baltica collided between 450 and 400 Ma, during the Caledonian Orogeny, to form Laurussia. Traces of the mountain belt which resulted from this collision can be found in Scandinavia, Scotland and the northern Appalachians. In the Devonian period (416-359 Ma) Gondwana and Siberia began to move towards Laurussia.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context The collision of Siberia with Laurussia caused the Uralian Orogeny, the collision of Gondwana with Laurussia is called the Variscan or Hercynian Orogeny in Europe or the Alleghenian Orogeny in North America. The latter phase took place during the Carboniferous period (359-299 Ma) and resulted in the formation of the last supercontinent, Pangaea.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context The collision of Siberia with Laurussia caused the Uralian Orogeny, the collision of Gondwana with Laurussia is called the Variscan or Hercynian Orogeny in Europe or the Alleghenian Orogeny in North America. The latter phase took place during the Carboniferous period (359-299 Ma) and resulted in the formation of the last supercontinent, Pangaea.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context By the late Devonian, the land had been colonized by plants and insects. In the oceans, there were massive reefs built by corals and stromatoporoids on land. Euramerica and Gondwana were beginning to converge into what would become Pangea.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context - synthesis The world was a very different place in the late Devonian. The continents were arranged differently, with a supercontinent, Gondwana, covering much of the southern hemisphere. The continent of Siberia occupied the northern hemisphere, while an equatorial continent, Laurussia (formed by the collision of Baltica and Laurentia) was drifting towards Gondwana.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context - synthesis The Caledonian mountains were also growing across what is now the Scottish highlands and Scandinavia The Appalachians rose over America. These mountain belts were the equivalent of the Himalaya today.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context - synthesis The biota was also very different. Plants, which had been on land in forms similar to mosses, liverworts, and lichens since the Ordovician, had just developed roots, seeds, and water transport systems that allowed them to survive away from places that were constantly wetand consequently built huge forests on the highlands.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Contemporaneous context - Major environmental changes From the end of the Middle Devonian, into the Late Devonian, several environmental changes can be detected from the sedimentary record: widespread anoxia in oceanic bottom waters; the rate of carbon burial shot up; benthic organisms were decimated, especially in the tropics and reef communities; high-frequency sea level changes associated with the onset of anoxic deposits.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION

The extinction

The extinction seems to have only affected marine life.

Hard-hit groups include brachiopods, trilobites, and reef-building organisms; the latter almost completely disappeared, with coral reefs only returning upon the evolution of modern corals during the Mesozoic

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION The extinction The causes of these extinctions are unclear. Leading theories include changes in sea level and ocean anoxia, possibly triggered by global cooling or oceanic volcanism. The impact of a comet or another extraterrestrial body has also been suggested.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION The extinction

Some statistical analysis suggests that the decrease in diversity was caused more by a decrease in speciation than by an increase in extinctions. This might have been caused by invasions of cosmopolitan species, rather than any single event.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Possible triggers - Bolide impact Bolide impacts can be dramatic triggers of mass extinctions. It has been posited that an asteroid impact was the prime cause of this faunal turnover, but no secure evidence of a specific extraterrestrial impact has been identified in this case. Impact craters can generally not be dated with sufficient precision to link them to the event; others dated precisely are not contemporaneous with the extinction. Although some minor features of meteoric impact have been observed in places (iridium anomalies and microspherules), these were probably caused by other factors.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Possible triggers - Plant evolution During the Devonian, land plants underwent a hugely significant phase of evolution. Their maximum height went from 30 cm at the start of the Devonian, to 30 m at the end of the period. This increase in height was made possible by the evolution of advanced vascular systems, which permitted the growth of complex branching and rooting systems. In conjunction with this, the development of seeds permitted reproduction and dispersal in areas which were not waterlogged, allowing plants to colonise previously inhospitable inland and upland areas.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Possible triggers - Effect on weathering These tall trees required deep rooting systems to acquire water and nutrients, and provide anchorage. These systems broke up the upper layers of bedrock and stabilised a deep layer of soil, which would have been on the order of metres thick. In contrast, early Devonian plants bore only rhizoids and rhizomes that could penetrate no more than a couple of centimetres. The mobilisation of a large portion of soil had a huge effect; soil promotes weathering, the chemical breakdown of rocks, releasing ions which act as nutrients to plants and algae.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Possible triggers - Effect on weathering The relatively sudden input of nutrients into river water may have caused eutrophication and subsequent anoxia. Therefore the postulated influx of high levels of nutrients may have caused an extinction, just as phosphate run-off from Australian farmers is causing unmeasurable damage to the great barrier reef today. Anoxic conditions correlate better with biotic crises than phases of cooling, suggesting that anoxia may have played the dominant role in extinction.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Possible triggers - Effect on weathering Devonian marine deposits are notable in part for the widespread occurrence of black shales in the shallow inland seas of North America and Eurasia.

These organic-rich sediments, which indicate anoxic (oxygendeprived) bottomwaters, occur at about the same time as the multiple extinction events in the Middle and Late Devonian.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION
Possible triggers - Effect on CO2 The "greening" of the continents occurred during Devonian time. The covering of the planet's continents with massive photosynthesizing land plants in the first forests may have reduced carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Since CO2 is a greenhouse gas, reduced levels might have helped produce a chillier climate. Evidence such as glacial deposits in northern Brazil (located near the Devonian south pole) suggest widespread glaciation at the endDevonian, as a broad continental mass covered the polar region. A cause of the extinctions may have been an episode of global cooling, following the mild climate of the Devonian period.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION
Possible triggers - Effect on CO2 The weathering of silicate rocks also draws down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This acted in concert with the burial of organic matter to decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from ~15 to ~3 times present levels. Carbon in the form of plant matter would be produced on prodigious scales, and given the right conditions could be stored and buried, eventually producing vast coal measures (e.g. in China) which locked the carbon out of the atmosphere and into the lithosphere.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION
Possible triggers - Effect on CO2

This reduction in atmospheric CO2 would have caused global cooling and resulted in at least final period of late Devonian glaciation (and subsequent sea level fall), probably fluctuating in intensity.

The continued drawdown of organic carbon eventually pulled the Earth out of its Greenhouse Earth state into the Icehouse that continued throughout the Carboniferous and Permian.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION
Final synthesis

A variety of causes have been proposed for the Devonian mass extinctions, including:
asteroid impacts,

global anoxia (widespread dissolved oxygen shortages),

plate tectonics, sea level changes and climatic change.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION
Final synthesis

One of the more interesting of these is the "Devonian Plant Hypothesis".

This theory, first proposed by Thomas Algeo, Robert Berner, J. Barry Manard and Stephen Scheckler in 1995, credits the expansion of terrestrial plants as the ultimate cause for mass extinctions in the tropical oceans.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION Final synthesis The ramifications of vegetational expansion were dramatic. These plants transformed the biosphere by transforming the terrestrial environment and linking it more closely with the aquatic realm. The first forests created a totally new biome. Terrestrial invertebrates responded to floral changes. Soil formation was accelerated and aquatic habitats became more diverse and stable. Freshwater and estuarine life became more diverse and productive. The effects of these plants are also implicated in global carbon cycling and the Devonian mass extinction.

DEVONIAN EXTINCTION

Final synthesis

Ironically, the development and maturation of terrestrial environments fostered by the expansion of terrestrial plants may have wrecked havoc on the oceans from which life first arose.

PERMIANTRIASSIC EXTINCTION EVENT The PermianTriassic extinction event is the most significant extinction event. Affecting mainly marine genera, the PermianTriassic (PTr) extinction event, informally known as the Great Dying, was an extinction event that occurred 251.4 Ma (million years) ago, forming the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geologic periods.

PERMIANTRIASSIC EXTINCTION EVENT It was the Earth's most severe extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct. It is the only known mass extinction of insects. Some 57% of all families and 83% of all genera were killed. Because so much biodiversity was lost, the recovery of life on Earth took significantly longer than after other extinction events. This event has been described as the "mother of all mass extinctions.

PERMIANTRIASSIC EXTINCTION EVENT Previous context With the formation of the super-continent Pangea in the Permian, continental area exceeded that of oceanic area for the first time in geological history. The result of this new global configuration was the extensive development and diversification of Permian terrestrial vertebrate fauna and accompanying reduction of Permian marine communities. Among terrestrial fauna affected included insects, amphibians, reptiles (which evolved during the Carboniferous), as well as the dominant terrestrial group, the therapsids (mammal-like reptiles).

PERMIANTRIASSIC EXTINCTION EVENT Previous context

The terrestrial flora was predominantly composed of gymnosperms, including the conifers. Life in the seas was similar to that found in middle Devonian communities following the late Devonian crisis. Common groups included the brachiopods, ammonoids, gastropods, crinoids, bony fish, sharks, and fusulinid foraminifera.

Corals and trilobites were also present, but were exceedingly rare.

PERMIANTRIASSIC EXTINCTION EVENT Contemporaneous context A large ( approximately 9), abrupt global decrease in the ratio of 13C to 12C, denoted 13C, coincides with this extinction, and is sometimes used to identify the Permian-Triassic boundary in rocks that are unsuitable for radiometric dating. Further evidence for environmental change around the P-Tr boundary suggests an 8 C (14.40 F) rise in temperature, and an increase in CO2 levels by 2000ppm (by contrast, the concentration immediately before the industrial revolution was 280ppm; in October 2010, this concentration was 388 ppm, some 108 ppm higher). There is also evidence of increased ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth, and causing the mutation of plant spores.

PERMIANTRIASSIC EXTINCTION EVENT Geologic Evidence of the Permian-Triassic Extinction Many different geologic aspects of the extinction period have been documented recently: 1. Salinity in the sea fell sharply during the Permian for the first time, changing oceanic physics to make deep water circulation more difficult. 2. The atmosphere went from very high oxygen content (30%) to very low (15%) during the Permian. 3. The evidence shows global warming AND glaciations near the P-Tr. 4. Extreme erosion of the land suggests that ground cover disappeared. 5. Dead organic matter from the land flooded the seas, pulling dissolved oxygen from the water and leaving it anoxic at all levels. 6. A geomagnetic reversal occurred near the P-Tr. 7. A series of great volcanic eruptions was building up a gigantic body of basalt called the Siberian Traps.

PERMIANTRIASSIC EXTINCTION EVENT Geologic Evidence of the Permian-Triassic Extinction Some researchers argue for a cosmic impact at P-Tr time, but the standard evidence of impacts is missing or disputed. The geologic evidence fits an impact explanation, but it does not demand one. Instead the blame seems to fall on volcanism, as it does for other mass extinctions.