The History of Life on Earth

When did life arise on

Earth?
The Earth is thought to
be approximately 4.6
billion years old, but life
is believed to have
occurred approximately 4
billion years ago (bya)

How did life begin???

The Origin of Life: Early Ideas

Spontaneous Generation

idea popular in the 1600-1700s

living things come from the nonliving
evidence: beetles and other insect larvae arise from
cow dung; frogs emerge from mud

In 1688, the Italian Francisco Redi In 1668,

Francesco Redi, an Italian physician, did an
experiment with flies and wide-mouth jars. He
demonstrated that meat that was covered did
not produce maggots

This may have been the first true scientific

experiment

Francesco Redi experiment with

flies and wide-mouth jars

The Origin of Life

Spontaneous generation

Mid-1800sdisproved by Louis Pasteur and

John Tyndall

no growth

Broth in flask is boiled

to kill preexisting
microorganisms.

Condensing water collects

as the broth cools, sealing
the mouth of the flask.

growth

If neck is later broken off,

outside air can carry
microorganisms into broth.

Other Ideas: Life from a

Biblical Creation?
Christian Creationism states
that the world, including all
life, was created about 6,000
years ago in six literal days by
a God.
But how does one accurately
and fairly test for this?...
Whats the observation,
hypothesis, test?
This idea does not really fit into
the confines of a Science
course.

LikethestudyofFrenchImpressionist
painters,Religionisnotpartof,nor
adequatelycoveredin,aSciencecourse.

Origin of Life:
Another idea

Biogenic-looking features in
ALH84001 Martian meteorite

http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/astrobiology/biomarkers/images.html

Extra-terrestrial Origins
In 1969, a meteorite (left-over bits from the origin of the
solar system) landed near Allende, Mexico. The Allende
Meteorite (and others of its sort) have been analyzed
and found to contain amino acids, the building blocks
of proteins.
This idea of panspermia hypothesized that life originated
out in space and came to earth inside a meteorite. The
amino acids recovered from meteorites are in a group
known as exotics: they do not occur in the chemical
systems of living things. The ET theory is now
discounted by most scientists, although the August
1996 discovery of the Martian meteorite and its
possible fossils have revived thought of life elsewhere
in the Solar System.
Anyway.This only moves the problem to elsewhere!

The Latest on Extra-terrestrial

Origins

The Raelians
Raelians believe that humanity

was created from the DNA of

superior alien scientists
Follow the teachings of a
former French magazine
sportswriter and wannabe
race-car driver Claude
Vorilhon, 56. He took the name
"Rael" after he claimed a close
encounter of the third kind.

Origin of Life: Current Theory

Chemical Evolution
.....The idea that long ago complex collections

of chemicals formed the first cells.

Life began in the oceans 4 bya from simple
chemicals joining together in a primordial
soup
Complex chemicals evolved into living cells

WhatweretheconditionslikeonEarthwhenlifearose?
Uptoabout4bya,asteroidimpactsandvolcaniceruptionsresulted
inthereleaseofvariousgasesthatbegantoformanatmosphere
ItconsistedmainlyofCO2,withsomenitrogen,watervaporand
sulfurgases;hydrogenquicklyescapedintospace
CO2intheatmospheretrappedsolarradiation,makingtheEarths
surfaceratherwarm
Earthwascoolenoughtoformacrust,andwatervaporcondensed
toformoceans
OceansinturnhelpedtodissolveCO2fromtheatmosphereand
deposititintocarbonaterocksontheseafloor

What were the conditions like on Earth when life

arose?
Organic molecules were undoubtedly being
formed on the Earths surface
Lightening and ultraviolet radiation from the Sun
acted on the atmosphere to forms small traces of
many different gases, including ammonia (NH3),
methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO) and ethane
Also, cyanide (HCN) probably formed easily in the
upper atmosphere, from solar radiation and then
dissolved in raindrops

The Origin of Life

The possible origin of
organic molecules

a. 1953the
Stanley Miller
experiment

Whatisthesimplestlivingcellthatonecanimagine?

Auniversalminimalcell
mustcontainthefollowing::
Cellmembrane
Cytoplasm
DNAandRNA
Proteins
Enzymes
Ribozymes

The Origin of Life

Early Speculations
More circumstantial evidence

accumulated

Astronomers found simple organic

compounds in meteorites
They were convinced that Earths initial
atmosphere could not have matched
Oparin-Haldanes model

The Origin of Life

Early Speculations

More circumstantial evidence

Fossils of ancient bacteria (3.5 billion years old) were

found in Australia
Suggested life may have evolved rapidly in less than a
billion years

The Origin of Life

Early Speculations

What are the possible scenarios?

When ocean tidal pool evaporates

Salts get highly concentrated
Could have happened in ancient oceans
Concentrating aminos, may allow
protein to form

The Origin of Life

Early Speculations

Phospholipids arrange themselves into bubbles

Chemicals could be concentrated in bubbles (might

contain protein, etc.)
These bubbles would persist aided by natural selection
If they burst, spew contents into air where other
reactions occur
Over hundreds of millions of years, similar processes
could have filled oceans with proteins, carbohydrates,
phospholipids, nucleotides

The Origin of Life

Early Speculations
Phospholipids arrange themselves into

bubbles

Eventually they reach a level of

complexity
Called protocells (not living)
Still cant reproduce, no DNA

The Origin of Life

Early Speculations
Is DNA essential?

Scripps Institute, 1993 found small molecules

of synthetic RNA that within an hour began
making copies of itself & the copies made
more copies
Then copies began to change - evolveacquiring new chemical characteristics, but
not alive

The Origin of Life

Early Speculations

Is DNA essential?

Protocells might qualify as the first cells if they have RNA that:
Can make copies of itself & evolve
Could synthesize enzymes capable of breaking down other
organic compounds
Could synthesize enzymes capable of building and
maintaining cell membranes

Later DNA could have evolved as method of conveniently &

safely
Storing vital chemical info contained in cell RNA

The Origin of Life

Early Speculations

The First Cells

Age of microbes3.5 billion years ago

1. The earliest living cellsanaerobic

prokaryotes

2. Photosynthetic bacteria and the

evolution of an oxygen-rich environment

3. Development of aerobic metabolism

II. The first cells

The rise of eukaryotesabout

1.4 billion years ago

1. Endosymbiotic hypothesis

2. The origin of the nucleus

1. Anaerobic, predatory
prokaryotic cell engulfs
an aerobic bacterium.

aerobic
bacterium
2. Descendants of engulfed
bacterium evolve into
mitochondria.

3. Mitochondria-containing
cell engulfs a photosynthetic
bacterium.
4. Descendants of photosynthetic
bacterium evolve into chloroplasts.

First Cell Types

Heterotrophic cells

Incapable of producing their own food

Autotrophs

Can produce chemicals to store energy

Chemoautotrophs

Store energy found in certain inorganic chemicals

First Cell Types

Most organisms found free oxygen intolerable

In oceans
Organisms that built simple and complex organic
compounds
Removed CO2 from the atmosphere
More advanced autotrophs removed most of the rest &
replaced it with oxygen
The excess oxygen changed forever chemical nature of
atmosphere to todays

Further Evolution of First Cells

First

cells, prokaryotes, were always simple

in structure

- 1.5 billion years ago

A new cell appeared eukaryotes
Had membranes to isolate certain chemical
reactions

Cellular

life then evolved into what we

know today

Archaea & Bacteria Domains

Directly related to oldest organisms on

earth

Have had lots of time to evolve & differentiate

Thrive nearly everywhere

Depths of oceans & Earth, all surfaces

Multicellular organisms

A. Advantages of multicellularity

B. Challenges of multicellularity

C. The first multicellular organisms

1. Plantsprimitive marine algae

2. Animalsmarine invertebrates

D. The transition to land

1. Advantages of terrestrial living

2. Challenges of terrestrial living

III. Multicellular organisms

The transition to land

The evolution of land plants

a. The first land plants

1) Mosses and ferns

2) Continued water dependency

b. Conifersthe invasion of dry habitats

c. Flowering plants

1) The dominant plant form today

2) Pollination by insects

III. Multicellular organisms

D. The transition to land

The evolution of terrestrial animals

a. Arthropods

b. Lobefin fish to amphibians

c. Amphibians to reptiles

1) The age of the dinosaurs

2) Reptiles and maintenance of body temperature

d. Birds

1) Insulating feathers retain body heat

2) Evolution of feathers for flight

III. Multicellular organisms

The evolution of terrestrial animals

e. Mammals

1) Insulating hair retains body heat

2) Live births and mammary glands

IV. Human evolution

A. Primate evolution

1. Grasping handsprecision grip and

power grip

2. Binocular and color vision with

overlapping fields of view

3. Large brainallows fairly complex social

systems

H.habilis
H.sapiens
Homo ergaster
H. heidelbergensis

Australopithecus
afarensis

H. neanderthalensis
H. erectus
A. robustus

Ardipithecus
ramidus
A. africanus

A. boisei

IV. Human evolution

Hominid evolution

1. The evolution of dryopithecinesbetween

20 and 30 million years ago

2. Australopithecinesthe first true hominids

a. Appeared 4 million years ago as evidenced by
fossils
b. Walked upright
c. Large brains

IV. Human evolution

3. Homo habilis2 million years ago

a.
b.

Larger body and brain

Ability to make crude stone and bone tools

4. Homo erectus1.8 million years ago

a.
b.
c.
d.

Face of modern human

More socially advanced
Sophisticated stone tools aided in hunting
Used fire

IV. Human evolution

5. Homo sapiens200,000 years ago
a. Neanderthals evolved 100,000 years ago

1) Similar to humansmuscular, fully erect,

dexterous, large brains

2) Developed ritualistic burial ceremonies

b. Cro-Magnons evolved 90,000 years ago

1) Direct descendants of modern humans

2) Were artistic and made precision tools