A Fixer Upper

Chapter 1: A Quick History Lesson

Our Atmosphere

The earth has been around for approximately 4.5 billion years and was formed originally as a ball of molten rock. It then started to cool, creating a crust on the top but also leaving behind many volcanoes, allowing gases to be released from the centre of the earth. Such gases formed the earth’s atmosphere which was made up of Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), Nitrogen, and steam (extremely hot vaporize water, AKA water vapour) with small amounts of ammonia (NH 3 ), and methane (CH 4 ). At some point in history (approximately 3.6 billion years ago) the earth must have reached an ambient temperature of less than 100 o C (the boiling point of water) allowing the  water vapour to condense and fall as rain. In turn, this created the first oceans.

The atmosphere at the time was still made up of mostly CO2 but due to the temperature dropping and oceans forming some of it was dissolved in the water. Subsequently this CO2 that was dissolved into the oceans was then trapped in rocks. These are now known as carbonates and the most common of which is limestone. Due to the great amount of Carbon stored in the rocks they have been given the name ‘carbon sinks’. This decreased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere which is a key stepping stone to the modern-day atmosphere but we’ll get back to that later.

1 billion years after the earth’s creation the first life forms started to appear. As there was no ozone layer protecting the earth from radiation these early organisms formed in the oceans because the water reflected most of the radiation. They were simple, single celled life forms which no one to this day knows exactly why or how they formed but there are many theories. One of them is, through a series of events that joined chemicals together using the energy from a lightning strike to make the first genes. Once the chemicals were connected in the right way an oily blob formed around it to protect it. The genes then gave out a series of instructions so that this cell divided in two to make a clone of itself. Remaining as single cells they evolved into two groups: archaea and bacteria. Another, is that life came to earth on an asteroid with water and other nutrients. But that’s not what this book is about so I’ll let you make your mind up about that.

Cyanobacteria are thought to be the first organisms to photosynthesise. Growing on the outside of the stromatolites (seen to the right) they were able to perform photosynthesis.  This allowed them to use the sun’s energy, water and carbon dioxide to form glucose and oxygen, the equation being ‘H2O + CO2 + energy -> C6O12H6 + O2’. Being able to create their own food meant that cyanobacteria could grow and reproduce much quicker. Because these were unicellular organisms that reproduce asexually they could easily grow very rapidly by cloning themselves. Some of these bacteria would go on to break down ammonia (NH3) into nitrogen. tromatolites, like those found in the World Heritage Area of Shark Bay, Western Aus

While this evolution was happening lots of oxygen was being produced by these organisms that were photosynthesising. Now, most people would think that the CO2 is used and Oxygen is made and that’s how the story ends, but not quite. See O2 reacts with ammonia (which is a very toxic gas) to make water and nitrogen meaning that the oxygen can’t go into the atmosphere. However, there was an extraordinary increase in nitrogen in the atmosphere thanks to bacteria and oxygen causing the ammonia to turn into nitrogen. This is why we see the massive percentage of nitrogen in our atmosphere today.

Once enough ammonia was used up, some oxygen managed to find its way to the top of the atmosphere where it turned into O3 ion due to the UV light and electrical discharges in the earth’s upper atmosphere. This is what we call ozone or the ozone layer which absorbs most of the solar and cosmic radiation along with UV radiation and in turn shields the earth from the dangers of space. Having a shield around the earth allowed even more life to form and for them to move onto dry land giving them extra space to grow. With this growth came even more O2 and less CO2 but this had one major issue. The organisms at the time weren’t used to an atmosphere with lots of oxygen.

Life – From Bacteria to Us

Approximately 2 billion years ago various bacteria combined together in the process called endosymbiosis in which one cell goes into another cell. All plants, animals and fungi can trace their ancestors back to here. We call this group the Eukaryote domain. Eukaryote means ‘true cell’ because unlike bacteria and archaea all of these organisms’ cells have a nucleus and a much more complex cell structure.

I have to state now that I am not going into depth about evolution and its proof. If people are educated correctly evolution is very clearly a fact and there is no denying it but that discussion can be for another place and time.

Half a billion years after the Eukaryote domain was formed, the Fungus kingdom was made. It originated from simple molds that weren’t true fungi but instead were the building blocks for things like mushrooms and yeast.

After 3.5 billion years the first animals and plants began to form. Plants came from simple algae while animals originated from amoeboid which are unicellular organisms that had evolved to be more complex than bacteria. These all originated in the oceans but by 450 million years ago plants moved onto land. This was major progress for life on earth. Furthermore, the oceans saw a rise in oxygen levels from 10-13% to 25%.  Such an increase in oxygen was caused by organisms converting carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis. Before this change, the high levels of CO2 caused the greenhouse effect, warming the earth and leading water temperatures to be at 45oC. Although other organisms such as bacteria and archaea had made it onto earth it hadn’t made a significant impact due to their extremely small size and the high temperatures meant that more complex life found it hard to develop. I won’t go on about plants a lot. We just need to know that they are the major contributors for converting carbon dioxide into oxygen - and still to this day phytoplankton provide most of the world’s oxygen.

Animals on the other hand are who we will look at because that is where we can trace our roots. In addition to this I will reiterate that I won’t cover any specifics on evolution but there are a lot of other books that provide all the proof. Back to the point. As we know, animals originated from unicellular organisms. These evolved to form sea sponges and jellyfish (the first true animals). From here on all animals are under a subgroup of bilateral meaning that they are roughly symmetrical. For example, we have two arms, two hands and the same number of fingers on each hand. Just like us all other animals from 550 million years ago onwards have some sort of symmetry. From here animals split in two, the proteomes which evolve into arthropods and further to insects. 

The other section is deuterostomes, evolving into phylum Chordata and eventually to vertebrates. Being a vertebrate means that you have a back bone unlike other animals before. By having this backbone, it allows the animals to make complex and more efficient moves and therefore have an advantage over invertebrates (animals without a backbone), whether they used it for superior hunting, to evade predators or help them build tools (hint). From here we get a jaw and then more bones developing. In addition, two types of fish split off from here. One being ray finned fish - also known as Actinopterygii - which is what most people would think of as ‘fish’, including: tuna, gold fish and salmon, to name a few out of millions. The other group is the cartilaginous fish - otherwise known as elasmobranchs - and consists of those made up of cartilage and not bones such as rays and sharks.

The fish that eventually evolved to survive on land are known as lobe finned fish. Which evolved into tetrapod’s approximately 350 million years ago. Tetrapods could only go on land for short amounts of time but this was the start of animals on land and amphibians. Around this kind of time plants had established themselves on land and created many swamps - which would become the coal we burn today. This also led to the production of even more oxygen - leading to much higher levels than today. Furthermore, the earth was a lot cooler then leading to large portions of land being covered by glaciers.

Approximately, 100 million years later some of the Tetrapods evolved into reptiles and later into birds. On the other turning point in history Tetrapods eventually – 200 million years ago - evolved into mammals. However, life was hard because at this point in time the world became a lot hotter with a severe lack of oxygen and there is evidence of a mass extinction event. In addition, many of the gasses that comprised the atmosphere were poisonous, with carbon monoxide - a gas that if inhaled will kill individual cells and stop oxygen getting into the blood and around the body - making up 5% of those gases.

By the time those mammals - that lead to homosapiens - were in existence the atmosphere had become what we know today and allowed many more organisms apart from ourselves to exist.

Most mammals including humans are placentals, meaning they have a placenta and therefore can have live births. The only group of mammals that don’t have a placenta is the marsupials. From here we get boreoeutheria which splits into lots of different paths which lead to other groups of mammals such as hoofed mammals and carnivores. However, the group we are most interested in is primates. There are a few key stages that make us humans different from other primates. These include; the loss of a tail – at the age of the new monkeys – the remnants that we can observe as are coccyx (tail bone); starting to walk on to feet is an aspect that great apes like ourselves and finally our most distinct and unique characteristic that sets us apart from other animals is our brain size and in turn intelligence.

We are the only creatures known to be able to create civilisations such as our own. We started by using basic tools to help us hunt and defend ourselves. Later they were used to set up shelter and build houses. Furthermore, our brain is programmed for relationships and communication. This is key in building such civilizations as it takes teamwork to achieve such feats. We demonstrate this continuously through new inventions and knowledge in all sorts of fields. Other animals such as dolphins have a similar brain and from research and keeping a close watch on their behaviours we can tell that they are set up to be family animals that work as a team. Moreover, they are the only other animals known to have intimate relationships. Another group of animals that have similar attributes to humans are beavers. Although they aren’t the only creatures to use tools they use them in a substantially similar way to humans. This is through the use of sticks to build a dam for themselves and their family. These are of teamwork and building skills.

We may not regard them on the same level of intelligence as us but they are showing the same signs that early homo sapiens or other early primates that evolved into humans may have done. This insight into how other animals act, gives us a good sense of how we have developed and changed over time. To build on this, we can understand where our creativity has come from as a species but can also see where it has gone wrong. Although these other animals have some similar attributes to us humans, they are still a part of ecosystems and environments. Whereas we have separated ourselves from other organisms by believing we are the controllers and domineers of this world. It has led to the destruction of forests,