Origin of Life In the beginning of time, all that existed was the spirit of Keawe. This spirit, a tiny light in the dark, empty land of Po, was the beginning of all creation. Keawe dwelled in his calabash, until one day, he threw open the lid, and tossed it up to become the blue sky. He then took an orange disk out of his calabash and hung it in the sky to create the sun. This was the beginning of life according to ancient Hawaiian myth. (Fullard-Leo) Next, Keawe turned himself into two separate beings, his daughter Na Wahine, and his son Kane. Kane was the male generative force of creation and the ruler of natural phenomenon. Na Wahine and Kane spiritually mated, and the divine Royal Family was conceived. The Royal Family consisted of the other Gods in the ancient Hawaiian religion. (Fullard-Leo)             Ku, Lono, and Kanaloa made up the male side of the family. Ku was the god of war, and also reigned over woodland and crops. He was worshipped in different forms by various craftsmen. Fishermen, for example, worshipped the God Kuula. Kanaloa was the god of seamen and fisherman, and looked over the Southern Pacific Ocean. Lono was the lord of the sun, wisdom, and medicine. Being associated with medicine, he was concerned with the growing of herbs, and thus responsible for the greening of the Earth. (Fullard-Leo) The daughters of the Royal Family were Laka (the goddess of Hula), Hina (the mother of Maui), and Kapo (the goddess of the South Pacific). The rest of the Hawaiian polytheistic religious community was made up of deities and divinities responsible for different aspects of nature and life. (Fullard-Leo)

Origin of the Earth Universe formed 15 billion years ago (Big Bang) Galaxies formed from stars, dust and gas Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago

Origin of the Atmosphere Suns energy stripped away 1st atmosphere 2nd atmosphere formed from volcanic outgassing Primitive atmosphere: CO2, water vapor, lesser amts of CO, N2, H2, HCl, and traces of NH3 and CH4 (3.5 bya)

Origin of the Atmosphere O2 came in 1.5 bya from photosynthesis Present atmosphere: 78% N2, 21% O2, 0.04% CO2, + trace gasses

Formation of Earth’s Oceans (4 bybp): Off gassing of water vapor from volcano Condensation Rain Early in Earth’s history, widespread volcanic activity released large amounts of water vapor (H2O vapor) and smaller quantities of other gases. As Earth cooled, the water vapor (a) condensed into clouds and (b) fell to Earth’s surface, where it accumulated to form the oceans (c).

Origin of Life Life began~ 3.5 bya Organic molecules (C H O N P S) swimming in shallow seas Stage 1: Abiotic synthesis of organic molecules such as proteins, amino acids and nucleotides

Origin of Life Stage 2: joining of small molecules (monomers) into large molecules

Origin of Life Stage 3: origin of self-replicating molecules that eventually made inheritance possible

Origin of Life Stage 4: packaging these molecules into pre-cells, droplets of molecules with membranes that maintained an internal chemistry

Origin of Life Miller & Urey (1953)- mixed water vapor, NH3, CH4, H2 + electric spark  amino acids and other organic compounds electrodes spark CH4 NH3 H2 water vapor condenser boiling water water containing organic compounds

Origin of Life Produced: 20 amino acids Several sugars Lipids Purine and pyrimidine bases (found in DNA, RNA & ATP)

chemosynthetic bacteria (extremophiles) Chemosynthesis: 02 + 4H2S + C02 CH20 + 4S +3H20 Stromatolites (bacteria & cyanobacteria) Oldest fossils found in western Australia and southern Africa ~ 3.5 byo Photosynthesis: 6H2O + 6CO2 + nutrients + light energy C6H12O6 + 6O2 Stromatolites are hard, sedimentary structure built by mat-forming microbial communties. They range in size from a few mm to hundreds of meters (most are < 1 m) They are rare today, being found in only a few inhospitable environments such as the geothermal pools in Yellowstone and hypersaline parts of Sharks Bay Stromatolites were more common in the proterozoic Their decline in abundance has been attributes to the effects of grazing by newly evolved metazoans (animals)

Stromatolites mostly cyano Stromatolites from Shark’s Bay Australia

Inquiry How old is the Earth? What was the 1st organism to have appeared 3.5 bya? How did it eat? When did oxygen 1st appear in the atmosphere? How was it produced? What did Miller & Urey’s study conclude?