The Concept

Of Life Based on
Emerging pieces of
Evidence
Lesson 1
We will tackle about the Studies on
the Origin of Life, Evidence on
the First Forms of Life and The
Three Domains of Life.
Studies on The Origin of Life
Many Scientists have dedicated themselves to
finding out how life first appeared on Earth.

All in the name of

curiosity, science
and discovery!
Alexander Ivanovich Oparin
Russian
March 2, 1894 – April 21, 1980
a Soviet biochemist notable for
his theories about the origin of life, and
for his book The Origin of Life.
He also studied the
biochemistry of material processing
by plants and enzyme reactions in
plant cells.
John Scott Haldane
Scottish
May 2, 1860 –March 14/15 ,1936
a physiologist famous for
intrepid self-experimentation
which led to many important
discoveries about the human body
and the nature of gases.
Oparin- Haldane Hypothesis
This hypothesis suggested that if
the primitive atmosphere was
reducing (as opposed to oxygen-
rich), and if there was an
appropriate supply of energy,
such as lightning or ultraviolet
light, then a wide range of
organic compounds might be
synthesized.
Primordial Soup
Haldane coined the
term 'prebiotic soup' or
'prebiotic atmosphere' that
consisted of an abundance of
methane, ammonia, and
water. This term became a
powerful symbol of the Oparin-
Haldane view of the origin of
life.

Soup sounds
delicious!
Harold Clayton Urey
American
April 29, 1893 – January 5, 1981
a physical chemist played a
significant role in the development of
the atom bomb, but may be
most prominent for his
contribution to theories on the
development of organic life from
non-living matter.
Stanley Lloyd Miller
American
March 7, 1930 – May 20, 2007
a chemist who made landmark
experiments in the origin of life by
demonstrating that a wide range of vital
organic compounds can be synthesized by
fairly simple chemical processes from
inorganic substances.
Evidence on the First
Forms of Life
FOSSILS
!
FOSSILS
🞇 One of the strongest pieces of evidence that show
many life forms existed in Earth in the past 3.5
billion years.
FOSSILS
🞇 One of the strongest pieces of evidence that show
many life forms existed in Earth in the past 3.5
billion years.
Bone Fossil
Shell Fosill
Plant Fossil
Footprint Fossil
 How do
fossils form?
Fossil Formation
Over long periods of time, particles piled up on
the remains of organisms and eventually became
sedimentary rocks, preserving the original
body patterns of organism.
Paleontologists
scientists who study fossils
 Found remains of
microscopic living cells,
called microfossils, in
rocks that formed 3.5 billion
years ago after the Earth
cooled and solidified.
 Microfossils
🞇a fossil or fossil fragment
that can be seen only
with a microscope
🞇 existed in mats and
formed layered
structures called
stromatolites.
Stromatolites
a calcareous mound built up
of layers of lime- secreting
prokaryotes, or single-
celled organisms, called
cyanobacteria (the blue-
green algae) and trapped
sediment, found in
Precambrian rocks as the
earliest known fossils, and
still being formed in
lagoons in Australasia.
Cyanobacteria
🞇 Believed by scientists to be the first oxygen-
producing organisms that helped evolve the
Earth’s early atmosphere into one that can support
early life forms
Cyanobacteria
🞇 As these microorganisms continued generating
oxygen, other photosynthetic organisms evolved
and increased the level of oxygen in the
atmosphere.
🞇 This increased the chance of more and more
oxygen reaction ammonia, a reaction that results
in the release of nitrogen into atmosphere.
Which resulted in the
formation of the
ozone layer!
A rapid evolution of life occurred
after oxygen became abundant.
The Three Domains of Life

Life is everywhere on
Earth!!!
Life forms exist in different
environmental conditions.
🞇 There are organisms in soil, air, and even in
freezing waters or deep sea thermal vents.
🞇 This diversity of life constitutes many and
varied lineages of organisms.
🞇 Some lineages have gone extinct due to
geological events brought by tsunamis,
volcanic eruptions, extreme fluctuations in
temperature and rising water levels.
Carl Richard Woese
American
July 15, 1928 – December 30, 2012
a microbiologist and
biophysicist. He is famous
for defining the Archaea (a
new domain or
kingdom of life)
in 1977 by phylogenetic taxonomy
of 16S ribosomal RNA, a technique
pioneered by
Woese which revolutionized
the discipline of microbiology.
 Domain
🞇 the highest taxonomic rank
of organisms in the three-
domain system of taxonomy
🞇 higher than the animal
kingdom classification
Three Domains
The Three Domains
Archaea
🞇 Also known as ancient bacteria because they
resemble the ancient prokaryotes
🞇 Their morphological and genetic characteristics differ
from other forms of bacteria.
🞇 Lives mostly in extreme environments:
 Near rift vents in the deep sea at 100c
 Hot springs
 Alkaline
 Acid waters
 Guts of cows
 Guts of termites
 Guts of some marine life forms which produces
methane
Archaea
Bacteria
🞇 Also known true bacteria or simply bacteria
🞇 Constitutes a great portion of prokaryotic
microorganisms.
🞇 Ecologically diverse, some are found in
 Water
 Soil
 Other organisms
🞇 Some are aerobic(needs oxygen), some are
anaerobic.
Bacteria
Eukarya
🞇 Also known Eukaryotes
🞇 Have membrane-bound nucleus
🞇 Have eukaryotic cells composed of membrane-
bound organelles
🞇 Can be unicellular
 Protists
 Yeast
🞇 Can be multicellular
 Plants
 Fungi
 Animals
Eukarya