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Sep 19, 2022 · The origin of life on Earth stands as one of the great mysteries of science. Various answers have been proposed, all of which remain unverified. To find out if we are alone in the galaxy, we will need to better understand what geochemical conditions nurtured the first life forms.
While current geochemical evidence dates the origin of life to possibly as early as 4.1 Ga, and fossil evidence shows life at 3.5 Ga, some researchers speculate that life may have started nearly 4.5 billion years ago.
Instead life almost certainly originated in a series of small steps, each building upon the complexity that evolved previously: 1. Simple organic molecules were formed. Simple organic molecules, similar to the nucleotide shown below, are the building blocks of life and must have been involved in its origin.
Prokaryotes were the earliest life forms, simple creatures that fed on carbon compounds that were accumulating in Earth’s early oceans. Slowly, other organisms evolved that used the Sun’s energy, along with compounds such as sulfides, to generate their own energy.
May 29, 2024 · Since Earth is about 4.6 billion years old, these finds suggest that the origin of life must have occurred within a few hundred million years of that time. Chemical analyses on organic matter extracted from the oldest sediments show what sorts of organic molecules are preserved in the rock record.
May 29, 2024 · The origin of life is a result of a supernatural event—that is, one irretrievably beyond the descriptive powers of physics, chemistry, and other science. Life, particularly simple forms, spontaneously and readily arises from nonliving matter in short periods of time, today as in the past.
Learn what fossil evidence reveals about the origins of the first life on Earth, from bacteria to animals, including the phyla we know today.
