Module 1: Early Earth and the Diversification of Life

Question 1

Earth formed ______ based on analysis of slowly decaying radioisotopes.

Answer 1

approx. 4.5 BYA

Question 2

Earth is formed as a result of

Answer 2

Nuclear fusions on the sun

Question 3

Analyses of ancient ____ ____ indicate the presence of solid crust and liquid water on the earth as early as 4.3 billion years ago

Answer 3

zircon crystals

Question 4

evidece that suggest biogeic origin.

Provides evidence for life on eart on 4.1 BYA

Answer 4

Carbon isotopes ratios of graphite materials

Question 5

Oldest known sedimentary rocks is dated _____ BYA

Answer 5

3.86 BYA

Question 6

How old is the oldest known Earth minerals

Answer 6

4.4 BYA

Question 7

How old is the oldest known rocks?

Answer 7

4.1 BYA

Question 8

How old is the oldest known meteorites

Answer 8

4.6 BYA

Question 9

4 requirements needed for life to develop from non-living matter

Answer 9

1. Little or no free oxygen
2. Abundant energy source
3. Occurence of chemical building blocks, dissolved inorganic minerals
4. Time

Question 10

Types of attempts to reconstruct the production of organic molecules from simpler materials

Answer 10

1. organic molecules could form spontaneously
2. “reducing atmosphere”
3. organic polymers can form spontaneously from monomer building blocks

Question 11

proposed that organic molecules could form spontaneously from
simpler raw materials when sufficient energy is supplied in a reducing

Answer 11

Oparin and Haldane (1920s)

Question 12

created a “reducing atmosphere” of H2O, H2, NH3, CH4 in a spark chamber; after sparking, they found that amino acids and other organic compounds had formed

Answer 12

Miller and Urey (1950s)

Question 13

What is the point of “reducing atmosphere” by Miller and Urey

Answer 13

To mimic earth’s early atmosphere

Question 14

Different models for how and where life started

Answer 14

1. prebiotic broth hypothesis
2. bubble hypothesis
3. iron-sulfur world hypothesis
4. deep-hot biosphere hypothesis
5. exogenesis
6. Religious/christian belief

Question 15

life began from an “organic soup” in the oceans

Answer 15

Prebiotic broth hypothesis

Question 16

a variation on the prebiotic broth, with “oily bubbles” from an organic soup interacting with land surfaces at shallow seas or seashores

Answer 16

bubble hypothesis

Question 17

life began from an “organic soup” interacting with mineral surfaces at hydrothermal vents in the ocean floor, with abundant iron and sulfur there impacting the early metabolism that developed

Answer 17

iron-sulfur world hypothesis

Question 18

life began in an “organic soup” deep within the Earth

Answer 18

deep-hot biosphere hypothesis

Question 19

earth was seeded with life from an extraterrestrial source

Answer 19

Exogenesis

Question 20

life was created by a Divine Creator

Answer 20

religous/Christian belief

Question 21

How is submarine mounds link to possibility origin of life?

Answer 21

Hydrothermal water reacts with Ocean water that can results to mineral precipitates which from energy-rich compartments.

Question 22

Types of models that explains how first cells could have originated and functioned

Answer 22

A. Protobionts that resembled living cells
B. Genetic production

Question 23

resemble living cells , the evolutionary precursor of prokaryotic cells

Answer 23

Protobionts

Question 24

a type of protobiont, that form spontaneously when liquid water is added to abiotically
produced polypeptides

Answer 24

Microspheres

Question 25

- Likely was the first - can catalyze a variety of reactions, including some self-catalytic reactions - Store genetic information

Answer 25

RNA

Question 26

likely came later and had the selective advantage of greater stability

Answer 26

DNA

Question 27

The earliest self-replicating biological systems may have been based on ____ ___

Answer 27

Catalytic RNA

Question 28

preceded the divergence of Bacteria and Archaea

Answer 28

LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor)

Question 29

The first evidence of life in the fossil record is ____

Answer 29

Isotopic "Fingerprints"

Question 30

First evidence of cells

Answer 30

Microfossils of prokaryotic cells in the fossils of stromatolites

Question 31

First cells were most likele ____ (type of metabolism)

Answer 31

Anaerobic heterotrops

Question 32

What are the first photosynthetic organisms

Answer 32

Purple and green sulfur bacteria

Question 33

What do you call the metabolism of the microorganisms that may have used H2 and CO2 to produce acetate or methane

Answer 33

Chemolithotrophic metabolism

Question 34

are formed when certain kinds of microbial mats cause the deposition of carbonate or silicate minerals that promote fossilization

Answer 34

Stromatolites

Question 35

evolved a photosystem capable of oxygenic photosynthesis in which H2O supplanted H2S as the reductant for CO2, thereby generating O2 as a waste product.

Answer 35

Cyanobacterial lineage

Question 36

WHat year did Cyanobacterial lineage evolve a photosystem

Answer 36

by 2.5-3.3 BYA

Question 37

contain microfossils that appear remarkably similar to modern species of phototrophic bacteria

Answer 37

Ancient stromatolites