Geology 209 Final Chapter 11

Importance of fossil record and evolution

To understand the history of life

The simple to complex pattern in fossil records

Old fossils are single called while younger ones are multicellular

Dominant elements in life forms

Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen (CHON)

Product of CHON atoms

Simple substances called monomers

Examples of monomers

Carbon dioxide, water and methane

Who theorized about CHON molecules?

Alexandr Ivanovic Oparin

CHON molecules could have been formed before life to give rise to _________

The first cells

Primordial soup

Consisted of organic and inorganic monomers

Start point of Oparin’s model

Plant cells are too complex to have been formed without a long process of inorganic evolution

Earth’s original atmosphere

Reducing one, without free molecular oxygen, allowed molecules to accumulate

What was the atmosphere originally dominated by?

Hydrogen and hydrogenated gases

Product of combining simple organic molecules

Polymers

Usually Supercrustal Group

Contains the oldest sedimentary rocks on Earth

What do graphite levels indicate?

Organic origin

Naked gene

A simple gene living outside a cell that is capable of self reproduction

What did Miller and Urey obtain from their experiment?

Seven amino acids, organic compounds

Molecules do not ______

Fossilize

Earliest cells

Prokaryotes

Prokaryote cell

Small sized, and does not have a well defined nucleus in the cytoplasm, only capable of multiplication and were asexual (mitosis)

Where were the oldest isolated fossil cells located?

Apex Chert

Apex Chert

Lithological unit in a volcano sedimentary formation

Cyanobacteria

Organisms capable of photosynthesis

Stromalites

Organo-sedimentary structures of various shapes

Growth layer

Photosynthetic organisms are concentrated in the uppermost portion of the stromalite

Where do anaerobic bacteria occur?

Oxygen depleted zone

Cyanobacteria diversification

Happened in parallel with numerical development and colonization of the different environments on Earth

What are apex chert Cyanobacteria similar to?

Modern iron bacteria

What are the strelley pool chert Cyanobacteria similar to?

Modern purple bacteria

Banded iron formations

Rocks that consist of an alternation of iron-rich and iron-poor formations

Earth rusting

Reddish appearance of iron-rich levels

Global distribution of stromalites

Neoarchean, Paleoproterozoic, Mesoproterozic, Neoproterozoic

Patchy distribution of stromalites

Mesoarchean, Paleozioc, Mesozoic, Cenozoic

Uncertain occurrences of stromalites

Paleoarchean

No stromalites

Eoarchean

What layer consists of oxygen-producing photosynthesis Cyanobacteria and aerobic bacteria?

Growth surface

What layer consists of non-oxygen-producing photosynthetic bacteria and bacteria that are anaerobic but still use oxygen when available?

Undermat

What layer includes most of the stromatolite, consists of calcium carbonate and no living bacteria or Cyanobacteria?

Stromatolite mass

What organisms have more complex cells, a well defined nucleus, and include structures capable of transmitting genetic information through sexual repreduction?

Eukaryotes

Organelles

Structures surrounded by a thin membrane

Where were the first isolated true eukaryote cells discovered?

Bitter springs formation (Australia)

What Eukaryote was the first evidence of organisms becoming multi-cellular and is similar to modern red algae?

Bangiomorphia

What Eukaryote has algal microstructures escaping from a bag like structure (acritarch) which helps them survive dry and cold climates?

Torridonophycus

What Eurkaryote was first discovered in the Unites States, shows similarities of modern group restate amoebas and is hard evidence of organisms with animal-like metabolisms?

Melanocyrillium