The Origin of Life on Earth

How Can We Study a

Unique Event that
Happened Several Billion
Hypothesis: Life arose by chemical


Years Ago?
evolution
 Pre-life processes observed in
biochemistry
 heredity (genetic material) evolves
The Origin and History of Life on
Earth
• What is Life?
 Life is, to the best of our knowledge to
date, unique to our planet Earth.
 There is no simple definition of Life,

except that life forms are able to act on

their own behalf to support their own
existence, and to reproduce themselves.
 The field of science known as Biology is

dedicated to the study of life, its

component species, and the variations
within species of life forms.
 Earth’s Biosphere and Life
Science
• Our Earth is as far as we know the only planet in our
Solar System (or beyond) which supports life of any
kind.

• The time table and processes of the origin of life is

poorly known at present, but there is evidence that
the simplest forms of life came into being more than 3
billion years ago (out of the total of 4.6 billion years
our Earth has been in existence).

• Earth’s original atmosphere contained little or no

molecular oxygen, which is required by current animal
and advanced plant life forms.
Necessary Conditions for
the Origin of Life
Earth at the time of life’s origin

 reducing atmosphere and energy

(uv and lighting (and from earth).
 result: small molecules

(monomers) essential to living

systems form and polymerize.
Necessary Conditions for
the Origin of Life is
polymerization
 generate carbohydrates, lipids,
amino acids, and nucleic acids

 molecules accumulated and

concentrated
 How Did Life Begin?
Experiments Refuted Spontaneous Generation
Chemical Evolution Preceded and Gave Rise to Life

Organic Molecules Can Form Spontaneously Under Prebiotic

Conditions

Organic Molecules Probably Accumulated Under Prebiotic

Conditions

Organic Molecules May Have Become Concentrated in Tidal Pools

• RNA May Have Been the First Self-Reproducing Molecule

• Membrane-Like Microspheres May Have Enclosed Ribozymes

 Did Microspheres Enclose the Earliest Cells?
• Cell-like microspheres can be formed by agitating proteins
and lipids in a liquid medium. Each microsphere in this
photo is about 5 micrometers (µm) in diameter.
 Earth’s Biosphere and Life
• Science
The oxygen currently in our atmosphere is produced
by green plant photosynthesis, which began with
reduction of carbon dioxide by anaerobic bacteria,
also known as cyanobacteria or “blue-green algae”,
inhabiting the oceans in Earth’s early history.

• Animal life, as we know it (which requires atmospheric

oxygen), did not come into existence until about 600
million years ago.

• An important topic of the present day is that humans

are returning CO2 to the atmosphere at a faster rate
than plants can reduce it to form O2, which can cause
global warming.
Evolution of Oxygen Content of Earth’s Atmosphere
 Experimental Research on the
Origin of Life
• One of the greatest unsolved mysteries of science is, “how
did life evolve on Earth?”

• We have evidence that the oldest and simplest forms of life,

anaerobic bacteria, may have formed more than 3.6 billion
years ago (only 1 billion years after Earth was created).

• These life forms, also called cyano-bacteria or “blue-green

algae”, did not require oxygen to breathe (as do nearly all
organisms inhabiting Earth at the present time).
 Experimental Research on the
Origin of Life
• However, the capability of these anaerobic bacteria to convert
atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into oxygen (O2) and
carbohydrates made possible the evolution of more complex life
forms, including all animal life, that breathe oxygen and feed
upon plant carbohydrates.
• Since we have very few geologic records of the earliest periods of
life on Earth, scientists have performed laboratory experiments
with electric discharges (simulating lightning) in various mixtures
of gases (simulating Earth’s earliest atmosphere) to see if the
chemical substances required for life forms could have been
produced by lightning early in Earth’s history.
 The Experimental Apparatus
of Stanley Miller and
Harold Urey
• Life's earliest stages left no fossils, so evolutionary historians have
pursued a strategy of re-creating in the laboratory the conditions that
may have prevailed on early Earth.
• The mixture of gases in the spark chamber simulates lightning in Earth's
early atmosphere.
The Miller-Urey
experiment
• At the end of one week of
continuous operation Miller and
Urey observed that as much as
10-15% of the carbon within the
system was now in the form of
organic compounds. Two
percent of the carbon had
formed amino acids, including
13 of the 22 that are used to
make proteins in living cells,
with glycine as the most
abundant. Sugars, lipids, and
some of the building blocks for
nucleic acids were also formed.
Nucleic acids (DNA, RNA)
themselves were not formed. As
observed in all consequent
experiments, both left-handed
(L) and right-handed (D) optical
isomers were created in a
racemic mixture
The Murchison Meteorite crashed on September 28,
1969, near Murchison, Australia. The meteorite
contains minerals, water, and complex organic
molecules such as amino acids.
• Meteorites have been
found to contain amino
acids (the building blocks
of proteins), sugars, fatty
acids (the building blocks
of lipids), and nucleic acid
bases. The Murchison
meteorite, for instance,
contains chains of fatty
acids, various types of
sugars, all five nucleic acid
bases, and more than 70
different amino acids (life
uses 20 amino acids, only
six of which are in the
Murchison meteorite).
Building Life from Star-
Stuff
• Infrared and radio
telescope observations of
the clouds have detected
the PAHs, as well as fatty
acids, simple sugars, faint
amounts of the amino
acid glycine, and over
100 other molecules,
including water, carbon
monoxide, ammonia,
formaldehyde, and
hydrogen cyanide.
Martian Meteorite
• This picture shows a
sawn face of this fine-
grained gray rock. (The
vertical stripes are saw
marks.) The black
patches in the rock are
melted rock, or glass,
formed when a large
meteorite hit Mars near
the rock. The meteorite
impact probably threw
this rock, dubbed
"EETA79001," off Mars
and toward Antarctica on
Earth. The black glass
contains traces of
martian atmosphere
gases. This meteorite is
180 million years old.
Arctic, Antarctic, Mars
• Close-up of famous shapes
measuring 20 to 200
nanometers across in Allen
Hills meteorite [ALH84001],
found at Allen Hills, Antarctica,
showing what has generated
debate and controversy
around claims of ancient
fossilized microbial life.
"Several lines of evidence
suggest that the volume of a
sphere about 200 nanometers
across is needed to house the
chemistry of a cell that has a
biology familiar to us." --A.
Knoll Around 28 Mars
meteorites have been
identified so far.
• Image Credit: NASA
Is Life Evolving from Non-
life Today?
• Most chemical reactions that
gave rise to life occur readily
under the conditions that
prevailed on early Earth
Is Life Evolving from
Nonlife Today?
• Experiments by Louis Pasteur and
others convinced scientists that
life does not come from non-life
on Earth today.
 No growth Growth
(Broth cooled (Broth cooled
Broth Heated to without exposure and exposed to
Boiling to Sterilize to room air) room air)

Louis Pasteur's experiment disproving the spontaneous

generation of microorganisms in broth.
Is Life Evolving from Non-
life Today?

New life is no longer being

assembled from nonliving matter

molecules are oxidized

molecules are consumed
Protobionts: Enclosing
Prebiotic Systems
• Protobionts- aggregation of
polymers...living cell precursors
• The earliest protobionts probably
had lipid-based membranes.
figure 25-03.jpg
Protobionts: Enclosing
Prebiotic Systems
• First genetic material (information
storage) - RNA (not DNA!)
• RNA had both enzyme function and an
information transfer function.
• Some RNA’s—called ribozymes—have
catalytic (enzymatic) functions today.
 figure 25-04.jpg

RNA - can
fold up
and function
as enzyme
Figure
25.4
Protobionts: Enclosing
Prebiotic Systems
• DNA probably evolved after RNA-
based life became surrounded by
membranes that provided an
environment in which DNA was
stable.
Photosynthesis Is the
Source of Atmospheric O2
Cyanobacteria, first evolved
photosynthesis...the ability to
split water into hydrogen ions and
O2, creating atmospheric O2

O2 in the atmosphere made possible

the evolution of aerobic metabolism
Ozone layer develops
Bacterial mats
Stromatolites
some of the oldest fossils-
3.5 billion years!
The Origin and History of Life on
Earth

• What Is a Species?
 Species Are Groups of Interbreeding
Populations
 Appearance Can Be Misleading

 Allopatric and sympatric speciation

 Geographic Separation of a Population

Can Lead to Allopatric Speciation

 Ecological Isolation of a Population

Can Lead to Sympatric Speciation

 How Do New Species Form?
• Changes in Chromosome Number Can Lead to Sympatric Speciation
 Speciation by polyploidy
• Change Over Time Within a Species Can Cause Apparent “Speciation”
in the Fossil Record
• Under Some Conditions, Many New Species May Arise
 How Is Reproductive Isolation Between
Species Maintained?
• Premating Isolating Mechanisms Prevent Mating Between Species
 Members of Different Species May Be Prevented from
Meeting
 Different Species May Occupy Different Habitats
(Ecological isolation)
• Different Species May Breed at Different Times (Temporal Isolation)
• Different Species May Have Different Courtship Rituals
 Species’ Differing Sexual Organs May Foil Mating Attempts
• Postmating Isolating Mechanisms Limit Hybrid Offspring
 One Species’ Sperm May Fail To Fertilize Another Species’
Eggs
 Hybrid Offspring May Survive Poorly
 Hybrid Offspring May Be Infertile
 What Causes Extinction?
• Localized Distribution and Overspecialization make Species
Vulnerable in Changing Environments
• Very localized distribution can endanger a species
• Extreme specialization places species at risk
• Interactions with Other Organisms May Drive a Species to
Extinction
• Habitat Change and Destruction Are the Leading Causes of
Extinction
• Natural events, of geological or extraterrestrial origin, can
cause sudden, and extremely catastrophic, extinctions on a
large, or even global, basis.
 What Were the Earliest Organisms
Like?
• The First Organisms Were Anaerobic Prokaryotes
• Some Organisms Evolved the Ability to Capture the Sun’s
Energy
• Photosynthesis Increased the Amount of Oxygen in the
Atmosphere
• Aerobic Metabolism Arose in Response to the Oxygen Crisis
• Some Organisms Acquired Membrane-Enclosed Organelles
 Mitochondria and Chloroplasts May Have
Arisen from Engulfed Bacteria
 Evidence for the Endosymbiont Hypothesis Is
Strong
 Symbiosis Within a Modern Cell
• The ancestors of the chloroplasts in today's plant cells may
have resembled Chlorella, the green, photosynthetic,
single-celled algae living symbiotically within the cytoplasm
of the Paramecium pictured here.
The Probable Origin of Mitochondria and
Chloroplasts in Eukaryotic Cells
 What Were the Earliest Multicellular
Organisms Like?
• Some Algae Became Multicellular
 Higher organisms with differentiated cells evolved more than 1
billion years ago
• Animal Diversity Arose in the Precambrian Era
 Original animal forms were primarily aquatic shelled
invertebrates (ocean dwellers), dating back to the Proterozoic
(pre-Cambrian) era, more than 600 million years ago.
• Life Invaded the Land beginning in the Cambrian Era
 Land plants began in the Cambrian era, about 500 million years
ago
 Oxygen content of the atmosphere reached near-current levels in
the Devonian era, beginning nearly 400 million years ago
 Land animals date back to the Devonian era, about 350 million
years ago.
 Diversity of Ocean Life during the Silurian
Period
• (a) Life characteristic of the oceans during the Silurian period, 440
million to 410 million years ago. Among the most common fossils
from that time are (b) trilobites and their predators, such as nautiloids
and (c) ammonites. This (d) living Nautilus is very similar in structure
to the Silurian nautiloids, showing that a successful body plan may
exist virtually unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.
How Did Life Invade the Land?

•Some Plants Became Adapted to Life on Dry Land

•Primitive Land Plants Retained Swimming Sperm and
Required Water to Reproduce
•Seed Plants Encased Sperm in Pollen Grains
•Flowering Plants Enticed Animals to Carry Pollen
•Some Animals Became Adapted to Life on Dry Land
•Amphibians Evolved from Lobefin Fishes
•Reptiles Evolved from Amphibians
•Reptiles Gave Rise to Both Birds and Mammals
 A Fish that Walks on Land
• Some modern fishes, such as this mudskipper, walk
on land. Like the ancient lobefin fishes that gave
rise to amphibians, mudskippers use their strong
pectoral fins to move across dry areas in their
swampy habitats.
What Role Has Extinction Played
in the History of Life?

• Evolutionary History Has Been Marked by Periodic

Mass Extinctions
• Climate Change Contributed to Mass Extinctions
• Catastrophic Events May Have Caused the Worst Mass
Extinctions
• The extinction of the Dinosaurs has recently been
determined to have been caused by an asteroid
impact with the Earth about 65 million years ago
• There is evidence of an even more catastrophic
extinction event further back in Earth’s history (about
300 million years ago)
 Continental Drift from Plate Tectonics
• The continents are passengers on plates moving on Earth's
surface as a result of plate tectonics.
• (a) About 340 million years ago, much of what is now North
America was positioned at the equator.
• (b) All the plates eventually fused together into one gigantic
landmass, which geologists call Pangaea.
• (c) Gradually Pangaea broke up into Laurasia and
Gondwanaland, which itself eventually broke up into West and
East Gondwana.
• (d) Further plate motion eventually resulted in the modern
positions of the continents.
 Evolution of the Earth with Time: Continental Drift
200 Million Years Ago

50 Million Years Ago

150 Million Years Ago

100 Million Years Ago Present

How Did Humans Evolve?

• Some Early Primate Adaptations for Life in Trees Were

Inherited by Humans
• Binocular Vision Provided Early Primates with Accurate
Depth Perception
• Early Primates Had Grasping Hands
• A Large Brain Facilitated Hand–Eye Coordination and
Complex Social Interactions
• The Oldest Hominid Fossils Are from Africa
How Did Humans Evolve?

• The Earliest Australopithecines Could Stand and Walk

Upright
• Several Species of Australopithecus Emerged in Africa
• The Genus Homo Diverged from the
Australopithecines 2.5 Million Years Ago
• The Evolution of Homo Was Accompanied by
Advances in Tool Technology
• Neanderthals Had Large Brains and Excellent Tools
 How Did Humans Evolve?
• Modern Humans Emerged Only 150,000 Years Ago
• Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals Lived Side by Side
• Several Waves of Hominids Emigrated from Africa. The
Evolutionary Origin of Large Brains May Be Related to Meat
Consumption
• The Evolutionary Origin of Human Behavior Is Highly
Speculative
• The Cultural Evolution of Humans Now Far Outpaces
Biological Evolution
 Representative Primates
• The (a) tarsier, (b) lemur, and (c) lion-tail
macaque monkey all have relatively flat faces, with
forward-looking eyes providing binocular vision. All
also have color vision and grasping hands. These
features, retained from the earliest primates, are
shared by humans.
 The earliest hominid
• This nearly complete skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis,
which is more than 6 million years old, is the oldest
hominid fossil yet found.
Representative hominid tools
• (a) Homo habilis produced only fairly crude chopping tools
called hand axes, usually unchipped on one end to hold in the
hand. (b) Homo ergaster manufactured tools that were typically
sharp all the way around the stone; at least some of these
blades were probably tied to spears rather than held in the
hand. (c) Neanderthal tools were works of art, with extremely
sharp edges made by flaking off tiny bits of stone. In comparing
these weapons, note the progressive increase in the number of
flakes taken off the blades and the corresponding decrease in
flake size. Smaller, more numerous flakes produce a sharper
blade and suggest either more insight into tool making, more
patience, finer control of hand movements, or perhaps all three.
 Paleolithic Burial
• This 24,000-year-old grave shows evidence that CroMagnon people
ritualistically buried their dead.
• The body was covered with a dye known as red ocher, then buried
wearing a headdress made of snail shells and with a flint tool in its
hand.
 Competing Hypotheses for the Evolution of Homo Sapiens
• The "multiregional" hypothesis suggests that populations of H. sapiens
evolved in many regions simultaneously from the already widespread
populations of H. erectus.
Does Life Exist Elsewhere
in the Universe?
• Conditions that permit the
evolution of single-celled
prokaryotic life may be
widespread in the universe!!!
Does Life Exist Elsewhere
in the Universe?
• Landings at Roswell, New Mexico?
Does Life Exist Elsewhere
in the Universe?
• But, multicellular life is probably
rare.... more stringent requirements.
 planet with a relatively circular orbit

 a rapid rate of spin

 nearby planets that intercept

impacts
 large moon that stabilizes the

planet’s orbit
Does Life Exist Elsewhere
in the Universe?

• Although conditions on Earth

have fluctuated greatly, they
have been suitable for
multicellular organisms for nearly
a billion years.

• i.e., 1,000,000,000 years...

 figure 25-02.jpg

Figure
25.2
Need Text Description
The Origin of Life on
Earth
How Can We Study a Unique Event that Happe
Necessary Conditions for the Origin of Life
Protobionts: Enclosing Prebiotic Systems
Photosynthesis Is the Source of Atmospheric O
2

Is Life Evolving from Nonlife Today?

Does Life Exist Elsewhere in the Universe?
How Can We Study a
Unique Event that
Happened Several Billion
Years Ago?- 13 billion years
• Universe
ago
• Earth - 4.5 b.y.
• Life - ~ 4 b.y.
 figure 25-06.jpg

Figure
25.6

Figure 25.6
 Did Microspheres Enclose the Earliest Cells?
• Cell-like microspheres can be formed by agitating proteins
and lipids in a liquid medium. Each microsphere in this
photo is about 5 micrometers (µm) in diameter.
The Relationship between Time and the Decay
of Radioactive 40K (yellow) to 40Ar (blue)