1. IQ # 2
Answer the following using the diagram below:
a common ancestor for D & F
most closely related species
least related species
new species C arises at this point
common ancestor for E & F
The half-life of carbon-14 is about 5600 years. A fossil with ¼ the normal proportion of C14 is probably _______ years old. C D B E 3 4 F A 2 5 1

2. The History of Life on Earth
Chapter 26
The History of Life on Earth

3. IQ #3
What is the age of the Earth and when did prokaryotic and eukaryotic life emerge?
Describe the characteristics of the early planet and its atmosphere.
How did Miller & Urey test the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis and what did they learned?
What are the methods used to date fossils and rocks
Describe the evidence for the endosymbiotic theory.
How does continental drift explain the current distribution of species?

4. Early conditions on Earth

5. Earth = 4.6 billion years old
First life forms appeared ~3.8 billion years ago
How did life arise?
Non-living small organic molecules
Small molecules  macromolecules (proteins, nucleic acids)
Packaged into protocells/Protobionts (membrane-containing droplets)
Self-replicating molecules allow for inheritance
First genetic material most likely RNA
First catalysts = ribozymes (RNA)

6. Three Proposed Models of how macromolecules formed
Pre-Biotic Soup Hypothesis (Oparin & Haldane-independently)
**proposed in 1920’s**
Iron-Sulfur Hypothesis (Hydrothermal vents)
Seeded Meteorite impact

7. Synthesis of Organic Compounds on Early Earth
Oparin & Haldane:
Early atmosphere = H2O vapor, N2, CO2, H2, H2S methane, ammonia
Energy = lightning & UV radiation
Conditions favored synthesis of organic compounds - a “primitive soup”

8. Miller & Urey:
(1950’s): (tested primordial soup in lab)water, hydrogen, methane, ammonia
all 20 amino acids, nitrogen bases, & ATP, DNA, and RNA were formed

9. Formation of the first Cells
Began as molecular aggregates (microspheres & protobionts)
Divide often (binary fission)
Grow larger in size
Maintain a level of homeostasis internally
Produce electrical potential across surfaces
Absorbs materials from the surface (selective permeability)
Catalytic activity

10. Protocells & Self-Replicating RNA

11. Molecular Replication
Usually involves DNA, RNA and proteins
All can form on clay surfaces
Self-replication common with DNA & RNA
Which formed first?
DNA or RNA?

12. Molecular Replication
Most hypothesize that RNA was the first to form. Why?
RNA is a versatile molecule and:
Able to function both as an enzyme & substrate
Single stranded and easily forms H-bonds
Has catalytic properties
Can direct protein synthesis
Folds on itself and from various shapes

13. Molecular cooperation led to the first cells controlled by RNA
Oldest fossilized cells widely accepted (2 bya)
Layers of Microorganisms & sediment called:
Stromatolites
First cells thought to be anaerobic using glycolysis as its metabolic pathway
Heterotrophs → Photoautotrophs → Aerobes—Euk’s
(O2 increases) (endosymbiotic theory)

14. As prokaryotes evolved, they exploited and changed young Earth
The oldest known fossils are stromatolites, rocklike structures composed of many layers of bacteria (cyanobacteria) and sediment
Stromatolites date back 3.5 billion years ago
Living ones in Shark Bay Australia

19. We humans are, in simple terms, bags of water filled with proteins and prokaryotic bacteria (the bacteria in your body outnumber the cells in your body about 10 to 1). We humans have descended from organisms that adapted to living in a prokaryotic world, and we humans retain (conserved in evolutionary terms) in our mitochondria the cellular machinery to power our cells that we inherited (i.e., endosymbiosis) from the prokaryotes of deep time on earth.

20. Fossil Record: used to reconstruct history
Sedimentary rock (layers called strata)
Mineralized (hard body structures)
Organic – rare in fossils but found in amber, frozen, tar pits
Incomplete record – many organisms not preserved, fossils destroyed, or not yet found

22. Both used to date fossils and determine age
Relative Dating
Radiometric Dating
Both used to date fossils and determine age
Uses order of rock strata to determine relative age of fossils
Measure decay of radioactive isotopes present in layers where fossils are found
Half-life: # of years for 50% of original sample to decay

24. The fossil record chronicles macroevolution
Macroevolution consists of the major changes in the history of life
The fossil record chronicles these changes, which have helped to devise the geologic time scale

25. Geologic Time Scale
Eon  Era  Period  Epoch (longest to shortest) Present Day: Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period, Holocene Epoch

26. Clock Analogy of Earth’s History

27. Key Events in Life’s History
O2 accumulates in atmosphere
(2.7 bya)
Humans
(200,000)

28. Endosymbiont Theory
Mitochondria & plastids (chloroplasts) formed from small prokaryotes living in larger cells
Evidence:
Replication by binary fission
Single, circular DNA (no histones)
Ribosomes to make proteins
Enzymes similar to living prokaryotes
Two membranes

30. Evidence for endosymbiosis
Lab cultured Amoebas became infected with bacterium
Some died, others thrived and became dependent on the invaders

31. Pangaea = Supercontinent
Formed 250 mya
Continental drift explains many biogeographic puzzles

32. Movement of continental plates change geography and climate of Earth  Extinctions and speciation

33. Mass extinctions  Diversity of life
Major periods in Earth’s history end with mass extinctions and new ones begin with adaptive radiations

35. Major events during each Era
Precambrian: microscopic fossils (stromatolites)
Photosynthesis, atmospheric O2
Eukaryotes (endosymbiont theory)
Paleozoic: Cambrian Explosion
Plants invade land, many animals appear
Permian Extinction (-96% species)
Mesozoic: “Age of Reptiles”, dinosaur, plants
Formation of Pangaea supercontinent
Cretaceous Extinction – asteroid off Mexico’s coast
Cenozoic: Primates
Note: All end with major extinction & start with adaptive radiation