How did life BEGIN?

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Theories on the Origin of Life

1. ABIOGENESIS / SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

•Life was created spontaneously from lifeless or
inorganic matter

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• Louis Pasteur’s 1862 experiment disproved abiogenesis

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Theories on the Origin of Life

2. BIOGENESIS
•Life comes from pre-existing life

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Theories on the Origin of Life

3. SPECIAL CREATION
•Life was created by supernatural or divine forces

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Theories on the Origin of Life

4. INTERPLANETARY / COSMOZOIC THEORY

•Life originated on a distant planet
•Also known as PANSPERMIA

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/s9612609.gif

http://www.daviddarling.info/images/ballistic_panspermia.jpg

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– The presence of ice on Europa, a moon of Jupiter,
has led to hypotheses that liquid water lies
beneath the surface and may support life.

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– While Mars is cold, dry, and lifeless today, it was
probably relatively warmer, wetter, and with a
CO2-rich atmosphere billions of years ago.

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Theories on the Origin of Life

5. BIOGEOCHEMICAL THEORY
•Life evolved from inorganic matter

•Chemical and physical processes in Earth’s primordial

environment eventually produced simple cells.

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• 4 hypothetical stages:

(1) the abiotic synthesis of small organic molecules;

(2) joining these small molecules into polymers:

(3) origin of self-replicating molecules;

(4) packaging of these molecules into “protobionts.”

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 Protobionts
•Self-assembling biomolecules
•Living cells may have arisen from protobionts

http://www.evolutionsschwindel.com/images_evolutionsschwindel/159m.jpg http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/biog105/pages/demos/106/unit04/m
edia/early-prebionts.1.jpg

PROTEINOID COACERVATE
(polypeptides) (polypeptides + http://tigger.uic.edu/classes/phys/phys461/phys450/ANJUM04/RNA_sstrand.jpg

nucleic acids + RNA

polysaccharides) (nucleic acid)
• If enzymes are included in protobionts:
• The protobionts are
then able to absorb
substrates from
their surroundings
and release the
products of the
reactions catalyzed
by the enzymes.

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J.B.S. Haldane & A.I. Oparin
•Independently proposed that early earth atmosphere was
conducive for creation of organic molecules (w/ C)

http://www.nndb.com/people/003/000100700/jbs-haldane-1-sized.jpg
http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=9783&rendTypeId=4

HALDANE OPARIN
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Earth’s primeval atmospheres
•1st atmosphere
•hot hydrogen gas

•2nd atmosphere
•water, CO, CO2, N2,
NH3, CH4
•no oxygen
•Intense lightning
•Volcanic activity
•UV radiation http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/timeline/gallery/images/017.jpg

•1st seas – formed from torrential rains when earth

cooled down
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•The environment in
the early
atmosphere would
have promoted the
joining of simple
molecules to form
more complex ones.

•Gases underwent chemical reactions with each other and

formed a complex assemblage of molecules, carried by water.

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• In 1953, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey tested
the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis by creating, in
the laboratory, the
conditions that
had been postulated
for early Earth.
• They discharged sparks
in an “atmosphere” of
gases and water vapor.

Fig. 26.10
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 Debates on the origin of life abound

• Laboratory simulations cannot prove that these

kinds of chemical processes actually created life
on the primitive Earth.

• They describe steps that could have happened.

• The origin of life is still subject to much

speculation and alternative views.
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• Two rich sources for early prokaryote fossils:
1. Stromatolites – fossilized layered microbial mats
(3.5By old)

2. Sediments from ancient hydrothermal vent

habitats.
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Timeline of Life
on Earth
• Alternatively, we
can view the
timeline with a
clock analogy.
• Estimated age of
the Earth is 4.5-
4.7 billion years.

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings Zbasiao

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