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Unit 4 - Biology Notes

1) Early ideas about the origin of life included spontaneous generation, which was disproven by Louis Pasteur's experiments supporting biogenesis. 2) Most modern scientists think life originated through chemical reactions in Earth's early atmosphere that could have synthesized organic molecules. 3) Key steps included the formation of proteins, genetic material like RNA, enclosing molecules in membranes, and the emergence of the first prokaryotic cells nearly 4 billion years ago.

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18 views10 pages

Unit 4 - Biology Notes

1) Early ideas about the origin of life included spontaneous generation, which was disproven by Louis Pasteur's experiments supporting biogenesis. 2) Most modern scientists think life originated through chemical reactions in Earth's early atmosphere that could have synthesized organic molecules. 3) Key steps included the formation of proteins, genetic material like RNA, enclosing molecules in membranes, and the emergence of the first prokaryotic cells nearly 4 billion years ago.

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yaqoubalshamali
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Origin of Life - Module 13

➔ Origins: Early Life


◆ Spontaneous generation, one of the earliest ideas about how life is
produced, suggested that life arises from nonlife.
◆ People believed that worms, insects, and fish arose from mud.

◆ The theory of biogenesis says that only living organisms can produce
other living organisms. Louis Pasteur designed an experiment to show
that biogenesis was true even for microorganisms.

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➔ Origins: Modern Ideas
◆ Most biologists agree that life originated through a series of chemical
events in Earth’s early history.
◆ The primordial soup hypothesis suggested that if the Earth’s
atmosphere had a mix of certain gases, organic molecules could have
been synthesized.
◆ UV light from the Sun could serve as the energy source for these organic
molecules, which would eventually be the precursors to life.
◆ Miller and Urey were the first to show that inorganic compounds could
produce simple organic molecules, including amino acids.
◆ Scientists later found precursors to nucleotide bases could be formed from
even simpler molecules in simulated environments.

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➔ Making Proteins
◆ Life requires proteins, not just amino acids.
◆ One possible mechanism for the formation of proteins would be if amino
acids were bound to a clay particle, a common sediment in early oceans.

● Genetic Code
○ Many biologists consider RNA to have
been life’s first coding system.
○ RNA can act like enzymes called
ribozymes; it may have carried out early
life processes.
○ Other researchers have proposed that
clay crystals could have provided an
initial template for RNA replication.

● Molecules to Cells
○ Formation of membranes was an important step in the
evolution of life.
○ Researchers have investigated ways of enclosing molecules
in membranes, but the connection between various chemical
events and the overall path to cells is unresolved.

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➔ Cellular evolution
◆ Scientists hypothesize that the first cells were prokaryotes.
◆ Prokaryotes are smaller and simpler than eukaryotic cells.
◆ Prokaryotes are most similar to modern-day archaea.
◆ Modern archaea are found in extreme environments that are similar to
early Earth.

● Photosynthesizing Prokaryotes
○ Early earth lacked free oxygen until about 1.8 billion years
ago.
○ Evidence that iron oxide was formed by oxygen is found in
banded iron formations in sedimentary rocks.
○ Fossil evidence of photosynthesizing prokaryotes called
cyanobacteria has been found in rocks as old as 3.5 billion
years.
○ Cyanobacteria eventually produced enough oxygen to
support the formation of the ozone layer.

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Fossil Evidence of Change - Module 13

➔ Earth’s Early History


◆ Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago.
◆ Gravity pulled the densest elements to the center of the planet.
◆ After about 500 million years, a solid crust formed on the surface.
➔ Clues in Rocks
◆ A fossil is any preserved evidence of an organism.
◆ 99% of the species that have ever lived are now extinct, but only a small
percentage remain as fossils.
◆ Most organisms decompose before they have a chance to become
fossilized.
◆ Nearly all fossils are formed in sedimentary rock.
◆ The sediments build up until they cover the organism’s remains.
◆ Minerals replace the organic matter or fill the empty pore spaces of the
organism, or the organism decomposes and leaves behind an impression
of its body.
◆ Scientists who study fossils are called paleontologists.
◆ Relative dating is a method used to determine the age of rocks by
comparing them with those in other layers.
◆ Relative dating is based on the law of superposition, which states that
younger layers of rock are deposited on top of older layers.

◆ Radiometric dating uses the decay of radioactive isotopes to measure the


age of a rock.

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◆ Radiometric dating depends on knowing the half-life – the time it takes for
half of the original isotope to decay – of the isotope in question.

➔ The Geologic Time Scale


◆ The geologic time scale is a model that expresses the major geological
and biological events in Earth’s history.
◆ Epochs are the smallest units of geologic time(>1m years).
◆ Periods are composed of two or more epochs (10m years).
◆ Eras consist of two or more periods (100m years).
◆ An eon, the longest unit of time in the geologic time scale, can include
billions of years

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Darwin’s theory of evolution - Module 14

➔ Developing the theory of evolution


◆ Darwin on the HMS Beagle
● When Darwin began his journey, most people thought the world
was about 6000 years old, and that animals and plants were
unchanging.
● Darwin’s job on the Beagle was to be a naturalist, and to collect
biological and geological specimens during the travels.
◆ The Galápagos Islands
● Darwin noticed that the different islands all seemed to have their
own, slightly different varieties of animals.
● Almost every specimen Darwin collected on the Galápagos was
new to European scientists, though they were similar to species on
mainland South America.
● Island and mainland species should not have been so similar,
unless mainland species had changed since arriving on the islands.
◆ Darwin Continued His Studies
● Darwin hypothesized that new species could appear gradually
through small changes in ancestral species.
● Darwin inferred that if humans could change species by artificial
selection–directed breeding to produce offspring with desired
traits–then perhaps the same process could work in nature.
◆ Natural Selection
● Darwin described the process of natural selection: Some
competitors would be better equipped for survival than others;
those less equipped would die.

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➔ The origin of species
◆ Today, scientists use evolution to
mean cumulative change in a
group of organisms through time.
◆ Natural selection is not
synonymous with evolution. It is a
mechanism by which evolution
occurs.

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