4 Flashcards
Where Did It All Begin?
The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang
- Interstellar dust and gases disturbed by a nearby
supernova - Gravity causes matter to coalesce into sun, planets,
moons, asteroids, comets, etc. - Formation requires more than 100 million years
The Earth was likely formed roughly __________
5,000,000,000 years ago
The age of the Earth
ACCORDING TO SCIENCE
4.6 billion years
The age of the Earth
ACCORDING TO THE
BIBLE
6,000 years
evidence of the Big Bang
Microwave radiation
They detected leftover, cooled down radiation
by carefully scanning the sky with a device called the Holmdel Horn
Antenna. Their discovery was important evidence in support of the Big Bang
Theory and won them the Nobel prize in 1978.
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson detected leftover, cooled down radiation
by carefully scanning the sky with a device called the ___________
Holmdel Horn Antenna
Atmosphere mostly contained:
H2
Methane
CO2
Carbon Monoxide
and not much O2
The Environment for Life
- Volcanic Hot Springs
- Oceanic hydrothermal vent system
- Deep (below the level of UV penetration)
- Clays and/or Zeolites as templates
- Similarity with present day
chemosynthetic heterotrophic organisms
BIRTH OF AN ISLAND
Surtsey Island, Island
BIRTH OF AN ISLAND
*Formed on November 1963
*Formed in a volcanic eruption
originating in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
*A classic site for the study of biocolonization of founder populations
*Formed on November 1963
*Formed in a volcanic eruption
originating in the __________
*A classic site for the study of biocolonization of founder populations
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
- Dark, billowing clouds of hot hydrothermal fluid are rich in
dissolved metals. - As they rise into the cool ocean water, they precipitate these
metals along the sides of the vent, thus creating a “chimney”
that builds over time.
Black smokers
- Dark, billowing clouds of hot hydrothermal fluid are rich in
dissolved metals. - As they rise into the cool ocean water, they precipitate these
metals along the sides of the vent, thus creating a “__________”
that builds over time.
chimney
- The __________ also provide nutrients to a variety
of unusual plants and animals that
congregate around the vents in an area of
the ocean where life would generally not
exist.
fluids
Chemical Development of Prebiotic Organic Compounds -How?
- Bada and Miller’s “sub-ice organic gazpacho” theory
(ice as a catalyst for abiosynthesis reactions) - Amino acids of extraterrestrial origin
– Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites contain organic
compounds, amino acids,etc.
– Murchison Meteorite, Australia (L) and Allende Meteorite (~2
tons), Mexico (R)
Bada and Miller’s theory
“sub-ice organic gazpacho”
(ice as a catalyst for abiosynthesis reactions)
Bada and Miller’s “sub-ice organic gazpacho” theory
– Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites contain organic
compounds, amino acids,etc.
– Murchison Meteorite, Australia (L) and Allende Meteorite (~2
tons), Mexico (R)
Amino acids of extraterrestrial origin
contained amino acids not occurring in chemical
systems of living things on earth (exotics). It has been hypothesized that life
originated out in space and came to earth inside a meteorite.
The Allende Meteorite
do not come from Mars,
but from elsewhere in
space — most likely they
are remnants of spent
comets
terrestrial nanobacteria
The Murchison forms are interpreted to represent
an indigenous population of the preserved and
altered carbonized remains (microfossils) of
microorganisms that lived in the parent body of
this meteorite at diverse times during the past 4.5
billion years (Gy). —
Richard B. Hoover
*Made of layers of sediments that contain
Precambrian fossils of bacteria and
Cyanobacteria
*About 3.5 million years old
*Layers reflect the presence of
communities of many types of microscopic
organisms
*Became mineralized and preserved in rock
layers
stromatolites
*Internal layering and close-up of ___________. Surface is covered by a felt of cyanobacterial filaments that trap sediment grains that are washed
across the mat surface. Abundant sediment supply produces granular laminae, low
sediment supply produces layers rich in organic matter (green in drawing).
columnar stromatolites
The ___________ was the age of microbes, macroscopically expressed in colonial
structures that we call stromatolite
Precambrian
*helped in the evolution of early multicellular animals by radically increasing
oxygen levels in lakes and lagoons
*microbial mats contained four times more
oxygen than the virtually lifeless water
above – sufficient to support early multicellular animals such as worms and larvae.
*Multi-cellular animals first evolved during
the Ediacaran period, around 635 to 542
million years back, when level of oxygen
were merely 10 per cent of today’s levels.
*Early mobile animals might have evolved in
such an environment, living in the biomats
and creating burrows similar to those found
in Ediacaran-aged rocks.
Bacterial mats
Bacterial mats
*helped in the __________ of early multicellular ____ by radically increasing oxygen levels in lakes and lagoons
evolution, animals
Bacterial mats
microbial mats contained four times more
_______ than the virtually lifeless water
above – sufficient to support early multicellular animals such as worms and larvae.
oxygen
Bacterial mats
Multi-cellular animals first evolved during
the ___________, around 635 to 542
million years back, when level of oxygen
were merely 10 per cent of today’s levels.
Ediacaran period
Bacterial mats
_______ might have evolved in
such an environment, living in the biomats
and creating burrows similar to those found
in Ediacaran-aged rocks
Early mobile animals
