Adam C.
Simon
Ph.D., University of Maryland,
2003
Research Associate
Department of Geology
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
p: 301 405 0235
f: 301 314 9661
e-mail: asimon@[Link]
Life is an ancient and
Origins and perhaps unique feature of
the Earth.
Extinctions: The main point of this
lecture is to investigate
A Brief History of the development and
history of life forms on
Life on Earth Earth, to explore changes
in the Earth that have
supported that
development, and to
examine how life on
Earth has changed over
the course of Earth
history.
The Burgess shale, British Columbia,
major site of Cambrian fossils
Geologic Cenozoic
Myr
0
Time Phanerozoic Mesozoic
65
245
Paleozoic
544
Pre-Cambrian
4600
Note that the Precambrian comprises the first
~4 BILLION years of Earth history
(the next diagram is not to scale)
Paleontology
Problems
Science that studies past life is constrained to use
only that which remains (fossils).
In many places the fossil record is incomplete, fragmentary,
and complicated. Ancient microfossil remains
may resemble non-biotic material --
making unequivocal tests is difficult or impossible.
As a result, there are significant gaps in what we understand
and what are only best guesses for ancient life.
How Organisms Advance
evolution - the changes that species undergo through time,
eventually leading to the formation of a new species
(a unifying theory of biology, like plate tectonics is for geology)
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859)
natural selection - the process whereby individuals that are
well adapted to their environment survive, passing on the
favorable characteristics to their offspring
“the survival of the fittest”
genetics - how characteristics are encoded in genes and
passed on to next generations
Major Developments
Through Geologic
Time
3500 Myr: fossil prokaryotes
[disputed]
(single celled bacteria, nucleus
not organized)
--some think chemical evidence
for life goes back to ~3800 Myr
3800 Myr primitive ocean
4400 Myr oldest crustal minerals
4500 Myr primitive
atmosphere in place
Origins of Life, or
Where Do We Get this Stuff, Anyway?
Three prevailing interpretations exist for the ultimate
origins of life on Earth:
• Miller-Urey hypothesis: synthesis of
complex organic molecules by
lightning-atmosphere reactions
• abiotic synthesis of organic molecules
in hydrothermal systems
• import of organic matter from
extraterrestrial sources (meteorites,
comets, dust)
Where Else?
Is life unique to Earth? If the concept of abiotic synthesis
is widely applicable, water, heat and rock are all that are
needed to make simple organisms (what happens after
that, though, is where science fiction takes over).
The Martian meteorite ALH84001 spurred controversy over life
outside Earth. Some compelling evidence has been put forth that
some of the material is fossilized bacteria.
Magnetic Fossils
Many cells precipitate Fe-bearing crystals (basically the
mineral magnetite) and these crystals have many
distinctions from those generated inorganically.
The magnetite in ALH84001 passes all of the tests that
are required of biologically-formed magnetite:
• size & shapes of crystals
• elongation of the ultrafine-grained crystals
• truncation of ends of crystals
• exclusion of trace metal impurities
• perfect crystal lattice
• alignment in chains of similarly-sized particles
But, If Life Evolved on Mars, Could It be
Exported in Martian Meteorites?
Life from Mars
• Mars topography suggests abundant ancient water (both
river channels and a significant ocean)
• composition of Martian meteorites suggests Mars had an
atmosphere and protective ozone layer early in its history
• Earth receives ~1 ton of Martian meteoritic debris each year
(mainly very small bits, but every so often a big chunk)
• some large Mars chunks take much less time to get to Earth
than it would take to kill bacteria (or fungal spores or plant
seeds) in harsh interplanetary space
• ALH84001 was not heat-sterilized by blasting off Mars or
entry into Earth’s atmosphere
The Last Word on Martian Life
The hard disk drive industry alone is worth billions and they
have been working 60 years without finding an inorganic
process capable of making magnetite meet more than 3 of
the 7 characteristics of bacterial magnetites!
Early Mars would have been a good place
for life, and no one has been able to
disprove the hypothesis that the magnetite
in ALH84001 is biogenic
The Tree of Life you are here
Early life was dominated by
simple organisms: bacteria
and a newly-discovered
group, the Archaea.
Archaea are organisms that
can survive in extreme
conditions of temperature,
pressure, acidity, salinity. For life on Earth may have started
somewhere around here
this reason they are called
extremophiles.
you are still here
Archaea
Archaea, since they
thrive in conditions
considered so extreme
by modern standards,
are very fitting as life’s
earliest vestiges.
Chemosynthesis, combined with the ability to live deep
underground, at very high or low temperatures, and/or under very
stressful chemical conditions, are main reasons why Archaea
would have been successful on early Earth.
Life in Weird Places
Despite the harsh conditions at
mid-ocean ridges, a host of
specially adapted organisms
thrive in the hydrothermal vent
environment (300 new species
discovered so far).
Giant tube worms were
discovered by submersible off
the Galapagos in 1977, and
have since been found near all
active sea floor vents.
Symbiosis
The giant tube worms have essentially no mouths or digestive
systems.
How can they live?
They do so by partnering with billions of bacteria in a symbiotic
relationship. Many of the vent bacteria are hyperthermophiles:
organisms that thrive at very high temperatures.
Chemosynthesis
The worms suck up H2S
from the vent fluid.
The bacteria living in the
worm’s fleshy outer layers
make their food by oxidizing
this sulfur in the process
called chemosynthesis.
They also convert CO2 to
carbon compounds that they
pass back to the worms for
Life in Other
Extremes
We now recognize organisms living in nearly every geological
material we examine. Some organisms favor excedingly acidic
mine waters, and others thrive in hypersaline lakes, while others
can only survive deep in Antarctic ice. Drill cores from the upper 1-
2 km of the Earth’s surface yield traces of life.
Cyanobacteria
3000 Myr: photosynthetic blue-
green algae fossils
(cyanobacteria, stromatolites)
Fossil Bacteria
This is what life on Earth
looked like 3500 Myr ago.
the individual bacteria are microscopic,
Stromatolites are layered
mounds of cyanobacteria,
common 3000 Myr ago.
but the mounds are actually quite large...
are rare today, but
Stromatolites were important in
much of the
PreCambrian.
Today, stromatolites exist only in harsh environments (these are in western
Australia), where more evolved animals (snails) are less likely to eat them.
Oxygenated
Atmosphere
2500 Myr: oxygen becoming
abundant in atmosphere (by
2200 Myr, banded iron
formations no longer found)
How Did the Atmosphere Get its Oxygen?
photosynthesis: making complex hydrocarbons and
oxygen using CO2, water and solar energy ...requires
a substance called chlorophyll
CO2 + H2O + energy = CH2O + O2
respiration: reacting hydrocarbons in the presence of
oxygen to release stored energy ...as when wood is
burned; products include CO2 and water
CH2O + O2 = CO2 + H2O + energy
cyanobacteria
Oxygen to Build an Ozone Layer
Remember that the early Earth had no ozone (O3) layer, which
screens out harmful UV radiation.
Things on the Earth’s surface prior to an oxygen-rich
atmosphere would have been
constantly fried by this radiation.
Since we know life existed long before free, abundant
atmospheric oxygen, it presents two possible conclusions:
• early organisms were very hardy, with
superior UV-resistance
• organisms evolved principally beyond the
effects of UV bombardment...
1800 Myr: eukaryotes (multi-celled)
...these simple organisms are
the predecessors of all
modern, complex, multicellular
life, from stink bugs to Einstein
Eukaryotes
The Cambrian
Explosion
544 Myr: organisms with hard
shells become widespread
...prior to this all of the animals
had bodies of soft tissue but no
‘protection’ (difficult to preserve
as fossils this way)
In the ~50 Myr before
this time, fossils of
soft-bodied multi-cell
animals become
more abundant.
Life Diversifies diversity
540 Myr
1000 Myr
2000 Myr
3000 Myr
4000 Myr
- MASS EXTINCTION - Paleozoic Highlights
colonization of land by seed
plants and animals
(vertebrates, insects)
fishes populate the oceans
major reef-building
development trilobites,
mollusks, corals,
brachiopods, sponges
In order to survive (and thrive)
Plant Progress on land, plants needed the
proper structural support, as
well as internal improvements
in plumbing and gas transfer
(respiration), relative to algal
predecessors.
Ferns and fern-like
plants (all seedless)
were the common
Paleozoic plant life.
- MASS EXTINCTION -
Mesozoic Highlights
first ants, termites, grasshoppers,
butterflies
flowering plants develop
birds and mammals become
important
dinosaurs develop and dominate
MASS EXTINCTION ?
Cenozoic Highlights
genus Homo evolves (2+ Myr)
grasslands replace forests
modern mammals and
marsupials
The Dinosaur Body-Temperature Debate
Dinosaur fossils have interpreted to indicate a high level of
activity in some families. Does being active, agile, energetic
require that at least some dinosaurs were warm blooded?
The answer is:
not necessarily.
This does not mean
that dinosaurs were
definitely cold- or
warm-blooded.
We simply don’t know
enough about
dinosaur physiology to
say anything for sure.
Some Popular Dinosaur Misconceptions
Dinosaurs represent failure and extinction.
RESPONSE: Rather, dinosaurs are the best examples of success and
adaptation. They ruled the Earth longer than any other land animals (over 150
million years), and gave rise to BIRDS.
Dinosaurs and humans coexisted.
RESPONSE: The death of the last dinosaur and the appearance of the first
"human" (genus Homo) was separated by about 62 million years.
The word dinosaur means "terrible-lizard."
RESPONSE: Actually it was originally defined to mean "fearfully-great lizard",
by Richard Owen in 1842. The Greek word "deinos", when used as a
superlative, means "fearfully-great". Dinosaurs are not lizards.
More Popular Dinosaur Misconceptions
Whatever you see about dinosaurs on T.V. or in the movies must be true.
RESPONSE: Popular books, movies, and TV specials need not be 100%
accurate. They often contain errors and outdated information, and may reflect
the personal bias of the writer. (Most dinosaur books and TV scripts are not
reviewed by professional dinosaur paleontologists).
Dinosaurs all lived and died at the same time.
RESPONSE: The distance in time between Tyrannosaurus and Apatosaurus
(formerly called "Brontosaurus") is more than the time between T. Rex and your
parents, about 65 Myr. Of the ~900 named species of Mesozoic dinosaurs, only
two or three dozen species faced the final extinction in North America.
Mammals arose after the dinosaurs, and helped drive the dinosaurs into
extinction by eating dinosaur eggs.
RESPONSE: Mammals and dinosaurs both appeared in the Late Triassic
Period. There is no evidence that dinosaurs went extinct because of predation
on their eggs.
Even More Dinosaur Misconceptions
All big reptiles from the prehistoric past are dinosaurs.
RESPONSE: Dinosaurs represented less than 10% of the 40 groups of reptiles
from the Mesozoic Era (Pterodactyls, sea-serpents, giant lizards, and other BIG
prehistoric beasts are NOT dinosaurs).
Archaeologists dig up dinosaurs.
RESPONSE: Archaeology and paleoanthropology only deal with man. They
cover the last 3-4 million years. Paleontology (a combination of Geology and
Biology), deals with all fossils and covers billions of years.
Birds are Dinosaurs
Birds arose from theropod dinosaurs at
some point in the Jurassic, according to
present knowledge.
Bird-dinosaur similarities:
- elongated foot bones
- hinge-like ankle joint
- wishbone
- similar tooth and egg microstructures
- elongated arms, clawed ‘hands’
- large orbits
- flexible wrist
- thin, hollow bones
- hands w/3 fingers, feet with 4
- S-shaped neck curve
- erect stance
- feathers?
Archaeopteryx, the first feathered fossil
Mass Extinctions
Throughout Earth history, there have been long periods of
gradual change (geological & biological), punctuated by
catastrophic periods of rapid, extreme change.
The most significant mass extinctions of organisms came at the
Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary (the Permian-Triassic) and at the
Mesozoic-Cenozoic boundary (the Cretaceous-Tertiary, or K-T).
Other extinctions, some extreme, some relatively ‘minor’, have
occurred throughout geologic history.
Various theories exist to explain why mass
extinctions have occurred.
Extinctions: A Fact of Life
Although the
Paleozoic and
Mesozoic eras
ended with
gigantic
extinction
events, the other
periods ended
with significant
die-offs, too.
Bolide Impact
The Earth has been the target of hits by
meteorites and comets (bolides)
throughout its life.
Large impacts likely lead to
catastrophic global climate change.
- ‘nuclear winter’ (cooling)
- acid rain
- poisonous gases
- greenhouse effect (warming)
K-T Boundary Impact Evidence
The impact that occurred in the Yucatan peninsula ~65 Myr ago,
most strongly linked to mass extinctions including of dinosaurs,
carries with it all of the necessary evidence of a giant impact.
Meteor Crater, Arizona, and an ancient impact in Canada
Bolide Impact Evidence
• impact crater
• shock metamorphism
• impact melts (tektites)
• sediments with anomalous trace element
concentrations (iridium)
Meteor Crater, Arizona, and an ancient impact in Canada
Shocked Mineral
Grains
Remember, quartz has no
cleavage (ordinarily).
When hit with the
massive, instantaneous
shock of a bolide impact,
quartz responds by
forming planar
deformation lamellae
1 mm
(bands) that are
unmistakable under the
microscope.
Tektite
Sedimentary
Iridium Anomaly
Concentrations of elements like
iridium are incredibly low in crustal
rocks. Dust from the destruction of
a bolide enters the atmosphere
and is deposited in a thin layer in
sedimentary basins.
This dust band has concentrations
of Ir (and other elements) that
cannot come from crustal material:
it is best explained from
extraterrestrial sources.
Chesapeake Bay Bolide Impact
This impact occurred 35 Myr ago. The structure is twice the size
of Rhode Island, nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon (1.3 km).
Chesapeake
Bay Bolide
Evidence
The Bay itself was formed only after the last ice age ended,
18,000 yr ago. The depression of the impact structure
may have clinched its ultimate position.
Bolide Impacts and Groundwater Quality
Aquifers along
the Bay overlie
impact rocks that
are saturated
with salty brine. If
you live on the
Eastern Shore
don’t drill a deep
groundwater well,
or you will be
drinking salt
water.
Intrinsic Hypotheses for Mass Extinction
Intrinsic hypotheses for mass extinctions use forces internal to
the Earth to explain massive biological shifts (extended effects
of plate tectonics and climate change).
This is particularly highly considered for the Permo-Triassic mass
extinction (~245 Myr ago) in which 90% of all species died out.
• sea level drops, probably due to the new plate configuration,
evicting organisms from shallow habitats
• increased oxidation of organic material pumps CO2 into
atmosphere, removes oxygen from sea water
• massive flood basalt eruptions (China, Siberia) causes short
term global cooling, aids long term warming
• global warming raises sea levels, flooding exposed shelves
The Snowball Earth
Hypothesis,
Part 1
This is a much-publicized
recent theory that
describes massive climate
change, specifically about
700 Myr ago, but
potentially applicable to
any period with the right
circumstances.
The Snowball Earth
Hypothesis,
Part 2
The hypothesis suggests
that oceans froze
(perhaps to ~1 km!).
The snowball phase was
followed by a rapid warming
event, so the pendulum of
global climate first swings
far to the cold side, then far
to the hot side,
perhaps geologically
‘instantaneously’.
The Snowball
Earth Hypothesis,
Part 3
The geological evidence
includes widespread
glacial deposits (some
that Wegener examined
when he pondered
continental drift) that are
topped by thick layers of
limestones that were
deposited in warm
seawater.
Geological
Evidence for a
Snowball Earth
Notice anything change?
These rocks in Namibia are
classic examples of rapid,
catastrophic climate change:
glacial deposits in razor-sharp
contact with warm-water
limestone.
Credits
Marshak, Earth: Portrait of a Planet (1st ed)
USGS Chesapeake Bay Bolide homepage
Smithsonian Institution
Univ. Cal. Berkeley Museum of Paleontology
E. Shock, Washington Univ.
AJ Kaufman, Univ. Maryland
J Kirschvinck, CIT
National Ice Core laboratory
