The Origin of Life on Earth
Evidence for the evolution of LUCA
- The first life form on Earth has been named LUCA
- LUCA stands for Last Universal Common Ancestor
- It is possible that LUCA evolved in hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean
- The conditions near hydrothermal vents provide opportunities for organisms to generate energy by chemosynthesis
By NOAA, Public domain, Wikimedia
Life is believed to have originated near hydrothermal vents
- Scientists have found fossilized structures in the sedimentary rocks near deep sea hydrothermal vents in Québec, Canada
- These structures are similar to those produced by modern prokaryotes found near hydrothermal vents
- The fossils are at least 3.77 billion years old, but could be more than 4 billion years old; one of the oldest forms of life ever found
- These fossil structures are small tubes made of hematite, which is the mineral form of iron (III) oxide
- The presence of carbonate and other carbonaceous material in the sedimentary rocks indicates that oxidation and other biological activities may have occurred there
- It indicates that these ancient bacteria had a similar biochemistry to modern iron-oxidising bacterial communities that live near hydrothermal vents
- Analysis of sequence data from modern species that live near hydrothermal vents indicates that they all share a common ancestor
- Based on the properties and functions of amino acid sequence data from these organisms, LUCA may have had the following characteristics:
- Anaerobic, therefore able to survive in the absence of oxygen
- Converted carbon dioxide into glucose
- Used hydrogen as an energy source, instead of sunlight
- Converted nitrogen into ammonia for the synthesis of amino acids
- Survived in environments of very high temperature (thermophilic)
- Based on the properties and functions of amino acid sequence data from these organisms, LUCA may have had the following characteristics:
- Fossil evidence and genetic analysis indicates that LUCA may have been an autotrophic extremophile that lived in hydrothermal vents, in an environment with an abundance of hydrogen, carbon dioxide and iron
- Note that this is not the only hypothesis for the origin of life; scientists will continue to gather and an analyze data that may support or refute existing theories