KNOW THE SCIENCE OF HOW LIFE ON EARTH EVOLVED

Know The Science Of How Life On Earth Evolved

The origin of life on earth is one of the most interesting subjects that are discussed. This topic has been discussed for thousands of years with many theories developing around it. Earth has been around for about 4.5 billion years; this figure was obtained using radiometric dating. In the beginning, it was hard for any form of life to develop under such harsh conditions.

The constant flux of asteroids in earth’s early celestial route made it very hard for any life to be sustained, but these asteroids are believed to be the source which brought life to earth. When the earth was cool enough and water began to form, and after the asteroid bombardment ceased, life became sustainable on earth.

In this article, we’ll be discussing some theories that try to explain how life evolved to this point.

The Oldest Fossil and the Oxidation Effect

The oldest fossil found on earth was in a single cell, dating back 3.5 billion years. Along with single-cell organisms, viruses were also there. The oxidation effect started when oxygen produced from the poisonous waste started being collected at the bottom of the ocean creating iron formations. It is still debatable to this day that it wasn’t oxygen that oxidized the iron, but some kind of bacteria that did it.

Eukaryotes and their Division

Eukaryotes are cells with organs inside, they still were single-cell organisms, the nucleus is the center of the cell where DNA is stored. Eukaryotes started evolving when single cells start merging together under different conditions. Eukaryotes are divided into 3 subdivisions: original plant ancestor, fungi, and animals. This is when they started to evolve independently of each other.

Snowball Earth and Comb Jellies

About 770 million years ago, the earth underwent a freezing process. After this point, ctenophores started splitting away from multicellular organisms, they used the water flow through their bodies to transfer oxygen and nutrients. We don’t have a lot of fossil evidence, though on the split of jellyfish from their ancestor.

Amino Acids

Proteins are made of DNA and RNA since they carry the genetic instructions for its creation. Amino acids were on of the first organic molecules that surface, they evolved over hundreds of millions of years by protein synthesis. This article explains the work of Dr. John Marks in the amino-acid synthesis field.

Knowing these scientific origins can change the way we view the world. Evolution teaches you that some simple interactions between cells can produce a butterfly effect that we call life. Looking from the outside, space, we can see how fragile and small life is, which only makes it more precious.

We may not be sure how exactly our world has come to life, we do have many theories, but no concrete evidence to know for sure. Someday, some humans will be able to know for sure where we came from. These scientific revelations become philosophical and help us understand how the world around us works and how lucky we could be.