Unit II

Biodiversity and Systematics:

Evolutionary Relationships
 Learning Outcomes
 Demonstrate understanding of the following:
 Relevance, mechanisms, evidence, and the theories of
evolution.
 Basic taxonomic concepts and principles, description,
nomenclature, identification, and classification
 Differentiate the three-domain scheme from the
five-kingdom scheme of classification of organisms.
 Module 6:
History of life on Earth
 Big Idea
 Learning how life originated on Earth can help
you understand how complex life-forms have
become.
 Alexander Ivanovich Oparin
 (1894-1980) A Russian chemist who proposed
that the atmosphere of early Earth was very
reactive, with numerous incidents of lightning
and high levels of ultra violet radiation.
 “Primordial Soup” – early oceans contained a
solution of many essential elements and
compounds, wherein the earliest form of life
arose through a series of reactions that made
simple compounds become more complex.
 Big Idea
 The efforts of different scientists have enabled us
to learn history of life on Earth. We can use this
knowledge to learn how life has evolved from
simplest forms to the most complex.
 Procedures used:
 Examining ancient rocks,
 Petrified sap of ancient trees,
 Tar pits,
 And polar glaciers.
 The Origin of Life
 Geologic pieces of evidence show that Earth was
not formed from a single event.
 The densest element formed the core where
radioactive decay generated enough heat to
convert the interior of Earth into molten rock.
 Moderate dense elements floated to the surface,
forming Earth’s solid crust
 Less dense elements, which include hydrogen
and nitrogen, formed the atmosphere.
 The Origin of Life
 The infant planet was so different from now
because the sky before was most probably
pinkish orange, and its atmosphere contained
hydrogen cyanide, carbon dioxide and monoxide,
nitrogen, hyfrogen sulfide and water. No life-
form would have been able to survive that kind
of harsh environment.
Origin of Life
 First Organic Molecules
 Stanley Miller and Harold Urey
 American chemists who conducted an
experiment in the 1950s, which invovled
simulating the early conditions of Earth inside
the laboratory.
 they discovered several amino acids began to
accumulatein in their setup.
First Organic Molecules
 How Life Began
 Big Idea
 Learning the history of life on Earth let us know
how organisms adapt to changing environmental
conditions. We should also learn to find ways to
adapt or adjust to our environment.
 How Life Began
 Proteinoid Microspheres - a cell-like structures,
(similar to modern bacteria appeared 200-300
mya Earth cooled enough to carry the water)
were actually large organic molecules that had a
selectively permeable membrane and had a
simple means of storing and releasing energy.
How Life Began
 How Life Began
 Evolution of RNA and DNA
 One of the biggest questions regarding the
history of Earth is how biomolecules have
evolved.
 Some scientists have made surprising
discoveries suggesting that RNA could have
evolved before DNA due to three conditions:
 How Life Began
o Three conditions:
o Protein synthesis may occur in RNA but not in
DNA.
o RNA can catalyze certain reactions in the form of
ribozymes.
o The enzymatic reduction of RNA nucleotides
enables the synthesis of DNA nucleotides
How Life Began
 Where Did Life Evolve?
 Soil surfaces, interstellar space, and even the atmosphere
became the habitats where life may have begun.
 However, soil surfaces would not attract the quantity of organic
material, whereas stellar space and atmosphere are too dry also
for life to exists. Some suggested that life might have
originated from oceans, but complex organic molecules are
vulnerable to damage due to high sodium and chlorine
concentration in seawater. Lakes and seashore lagoons can
also be places where life might have originated because they
have warm temperatures (about 25°C) that can promote
chemical reactions. However, RNA bases become increasingly
unstable as temperatures rise above 0°C.
 Where Did Life Evolved?
 So perhaps, cold volcanic vents were the best
environments for organic reactions to occur
during early Earth. Laboratory experiments have
implied that amino acids and other important
molecules can form in such conditions.
 Origin of Eukaryotic Cell
 Complex life began from simple prokaryotic
organisms, which are said to be the ancestors or
precursors of eukaryotes.
 They are so successful in variety of habitats that
they can live in swamps, hindguts of termites, hot
springs, and even in deep sea and underground
rocks.
 Origin of Eukaryotic Cell
 Endosymbiotic Theory
 It is believed that about 2 billion years ago, some
ancient prokaryotes began evolving internal cell
membranes. These prokaryotes were the
ancestors of eukaryotic organisms.
 According to endosymbiotic theory, prokaryotic
cells entered those ancestral eukaryotes. The
small prokaryotes began living inside the larger
cells.
 Origin of Eukaryotic Cell
 Over time a symbiotic relationship evolved
between primitive eukaryotic cells and
prokaryotic cells in them.

This so-called symbiotic association hypothesis states that

eukaryotes emerged when some ancient anaerobic archaebacteria
(hosts) engulfed respiring alpha-proteobacteria (symbionts),
which evolved into the first energy-producing organelles.
 Multicellularity and Sexual
Reproduction
 When prokaryotes reproduce asexually, they duplicate
their genetic material and pass it on to daughter cells.
 When eukaryotes reproduce sexually, offspring receive
genetic material from two parents.
 Meiosis and fertilization shuffle and reshuffle genes,
generating lots of genetic diversity. The offspring of
sexually reproducing organisms are never identical to
either their parents or their siblings.
 The development of sexual reproduction sped up
evolutionary change because sexual reproduction increases
genetic variation.
 Multicellularity and Sexual
Reproduction
 Multicellularity
 After the emergence of sexual reproduction, there
came the development of multicellular organisms
from single-celled species.
Multicellularity and Sexual
Reproduction