G4 Earth Evolution: Life

Lecture 1: Origin of life and complex life.

Myth marketing and hype.
Lecture 2: Proterozoic life and metazoans
Lecture 3: The Phanerozoic record and exceptional
preservation
Lecture 4: Effects of life on Earth and
non-Uniformitarianism

Lecture 1: Origin of life and complex life.

Myth marketing and hype.
1. What can be known about the evolution of life?
2. Establishing a list of events
3. Establishing a possible chronology
4. Archaean life
5. Evolution of complexity

1. What can be known about the evolution of life?

Lazcano, 2001
Of necessity, work on the origin of life should be regarded
as enquiring and explanatory rather than definitive and conclusive
.the issue should be addressed conjecturally in an
attempt to construct a coherent historical narrative.
Hence influenced by scientific and cultural fashions, for example,
the possibility of life originating on Mars
early heterotrophy in a Dog-eat-Dog social climate.
Is a scientist allowed to not know something?

2. Establishing a list of
events

Assumed steps

Common ancestor to all modern

life
DNA based

Evidence or reasoning

DNA sequencing

2. Establishing a list of
events

Assumed steps
Darwins warm little pond

Evidence or reasoning
Oparin and Haldanes theories, 1920s
Miller experiments (eg 1993)
- electrical discharges for 1 week over a
mixture of CH4, NH3, H2 and H2O
produced organic molecules including
amino acids and urea.
Importance of HCN - polymers denature
to produce amino acids, purines, and
adenine.

Common ancestor to all modern

life
DNA based

Evidence from the Murchison Meteorite

- 4.6 Ga,
includes array of protein and non-protein
amino acids, purines, pyramidines,
hydrocarbons and evidence of liquid
water.

2. Establishing a list of
events

Assumed steps
Darwins warm little pond

Most primitive modern

organisms are
hyperthermophiles
However, rapid decay of
most organic molecules at
high temperatures makes
this unlikely for the pond.

Common ancestor to all modern

life
DNA based

Evidence or reasoning
Oparin and Haldanes theories, 1920s
Miller experiments (eg 1993)
- electrical discharges for 1 week over a
mixture of CH4, NH3, H2 and H2O
produced organic molecules including
amino acids and urea.
Importance of HCN - polymers denature
to produce amino acids, purines, and
adenine.
Evidence from the Murchison
Meteorite - 4.6 Ga,
includes array of protein and non-protein
amino acids, purines, pyramidines,
hydrocarbons and evidence of liquid
water.

2. Establishing a list of
events

Assumed steps
Darwins warm little pond

Appearance of anaerobic
heterotrophs using surrounding
molecules for growth and
reproduction

Evidence or reasoning

Heterotrophs chemically simple, but

need a convincing method of carrying
information through time.
RNA? But ribose and phosphate
esters chemically unlikely in chemical
soup.
Maybe modified nucleic acid sugarphosphate backbones , maybe another
self-replicating molecule, maybe
something like prions.

Common ancestor to all modern

life
DNA based

2. Establishing a list of
events

2. Establishing a list of
events

Assumed steps
Darwins warm little pond

Evidence or reasoning

Appearance of anaerobic
heterotrophs using surrounding
molecules for growth and
reproduction
Transition to RNA world

Common ancestor to all modern

life
DNA based

RNA is catalytic and encoding.

Used in primitive reproduction
today.

2. Establishing a list of
events

Assumed steps
Darwins warm little pond

Evidence or reasoning

Appearance of anaerobic
heterotrophs using surrounding
molecules for growth and
reproduction
Transition to RNA world
Darwinian evolution towards
dominance of DNA

Common ancestor to all modern

life
DNA based

This is what we see today.

Better fidelity of information
carriage

2. Establishing a list of
events

Assumed steps
Darwins warm little pond

Evidence or reasoning

Appearance of anaerobic
heterotrophs using surrounding
molecules for growth and
reproduction
Transition to RNA world
Darwinian evolution towards
dominance of DNA
Evolution of primitive cells

Common ancestor to all modern

life
DNA based

Margulis minimum cell.

2. Establishing a list of
events

Assumed steps
Darwins warm little pond

Evidence or reasoning

Appearance of anaerobic
heterotrophs using surrounding
molecules for growth and
reproduction
Transition to RNA world
Darwinian evolution towards
dominance of DNA
Evolution of primitive cells
Evolution of autotrophy
Common ancestor to all modern
life
DNA based

Necessary for sustainability.

Most primitive life does it.

2. Establishing a list of
events

Assumed steps
Darwins warm little pond

Evidence or reasoning

Appearance of anaerobic
heterotrophs using surrounding
molecules for growth and
reproduction
Transition to RNA world
Darwinian evolution towards
dominance of DNA
Evolution of primitive cells
Evolution of autotrophy
Common ancestor to all modern
life
DNA based

All molecular trees show a

single, common root to the tree
of life.

3. Establishing a possible chronology

Assumed steps
Darwins warm little pond
Appearance of anaerobic
heterotrophs using surrounding
molecules for growth and
reproduction

Evidence or reasoning
During and after meteorite bombardment.
Murchison Meteorite - 4.6 Ga
After 3.8 Ga

Transition to RNA world

Darwinian evolution towards

dominance of DNA

..

Evolution of primitive cells

Evolution of autotrophy

Carbon isotopes go light very early - around

3.8 Ba. Stromatolites.
(Oldest fossils disputed, oldest definite
fossils 2.5 Ba from Transvaal Supergroup)

Common ancestor to all modern

life
DNA based

3. Establishing a possible chronology

4. Archaean life

Lecture 2: Proterozoic life

and metazoans
1. Prokaryotes and eukaryotes
2. Evolution of eukaryotes
3. Eukaryote radiations
4. Evolution of metazoans
5. PreCambrian-Cambrian boundary

1. Prokaryotes and eukaryotes

2. Evolution of eukaryotes

3. Eukaryotic radiations
Biologically: probably split off at 3.5 Ba
Palaeontologically: oldest ?2.1 Ba from Michigan BIF
large cells common since 2 Ba
Acritarchs: unequivocal eukaryotes, probably dinoflagellate cysts
from 1.7 Ba
common from 1 Ba

4. Origin of metazoans

4. Origin of metazoans

5. The PreCambrian-Cambrian boundary

5. The PreCambrian-Cambrian boundary