fossil record of early life
TRANSCRIPT
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Outline 22:
Fossil Record of Early Life
Life in the Precambrian
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Time Line
• 0.55 BY – animals with hard parts, start of the
Phanerozoic Era
• 2.0 BY – first definite eukaryotes
• 2.0-3.5 BY – formation of BIF’s, stromatolites
common
• 3.5 BY – oldest definite fossils: stromatolites
• 3.8 BY – C12 enrichment in sedimentary rocks,
chemical evidence for life; not definitive of life
• 4.0 BY – oldest rocks of sedimentary origin
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Fossil Evidence
• 3.8 BY ago: small carbon compound
spheres - early cells?
• 3.5 BY ago: definite fossils consisting
of stromatolites and the cyanobacteria
that formed them. The cyanobacteria
resemble living aerobic
photosynthesizers.
• 3.2 BY ago: rod-shaped bacteria
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Fossil Cell?
3.8 BY old
from
Greenland
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Modern
stromatolites,
Bahamas
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Modern stromatolites produced by
cyanobacteria, Sharks Bay, Australia
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Modern stromatolites produced by
cyanobacteria, Sharks Bay, Australia
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2 B.Y. old stromatolites from Canada
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Stromatolites, 2 BY old, Minnesota
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Cyanobacteria, makers of stromatolites
Microscopic
views
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Cyanobacteria, makers of stromatolites
1.0 Ga
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Cyanobacteria fossils, 1 BY old
Microscopic
views
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Cyanobacteria
3.5 BY old,
Australia
Microscopic
views
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Stromatolite, 3.5 BY old, Australia
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Closeup of stromatolite layers in last slide
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Fossil archaea or
bacteria, 3.2 BY
old from Africa
Modern archaea
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Fossil bacteria 2BY
old from MinnesotaModern bacteria
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The Banded Iron Formations
• Billions of tons of iron ore, the world’s
chief reserves.
• Formed between 3.5 and 2.0 BY ago.
• They record the gradual oxidation of the
oceans by photosynthetic cyanobacteria.
• When the oceans finished rusting,
oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere.
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Banded Iron
Formations are
the World’s
primary source of
iron ore.
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A piece of Banded Iron Formation, 2 BY old
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Iron Mine, Minnesota
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Iron Mine, Minnesota
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BIF: Banded Iron Formations
• Fe+2 reduced iron
• Fe+3 oxidized iron
• O-2 oxygen
• 2Fe + O2 2 FeO ferrous oxide (soluable)
• 2FeO + 1/2O2 Fe2O3 ferric oxide (rust)
• Between 3.5-2.0 BY ago, the ocean slowly rusted as dissolved iron was removed.
• The bands are alternating layers of rust and silica (SiO2
.H2O), formed during summer and winter, respectively.
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Evolution of Eukaryotes
• Strict requirement for oxygen.
• Oldest eukaryote about 2.1 BY old, a
multicellular algae.
• Evolved by symbiosis:
– first protist evolved chromosomes
– absorbed aerobic bacteria became
mitochondria
– absorbed cyanobacteria became
chloroplasts
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The oldest-known
macrofossil, Grypania
spiralis, a eukaryotic
algae from 2.1 billion
years ago.
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Endosymbiosis
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Plant-Animal Dichotomy
• All protists have mitochondria, but
only some have chloroplasts.
• Those with chloroplasts gave rise to
algae and eventually plants.
• Those without chloroplasts gave rise to
heterotrophs, including animals.
• Split happened before 2.1 BY ago.
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Endosymbiosis,
showing the
heterotroph and
autotroph split
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Eukaryotic heterotroph fossils, 1 BY old
Skeletonized amoebas
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Plant-Animal or Heterotroph-Autotroph Dichotomy
shows the Origin of Eukaryotes >2.1 BY ago
Protozoans and
Animals (0.6 BY)
True Algae and
Plants
Grypania, 2.1 BY
Origin of
Eukaryotes
Chloroplasts from
cyanobateria
Mitochondria from
purple bacteria ..
Was the 1.5 BY
delay in the
evolution of
animals required to
evolve the nerve
cell?
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Delayed Rise of Animals
• Multicellular algae arose 2.1 BY ago.
• Animals can be thought of as
multicellular heterotrophic protists.
They first appear 0.6 BY ago.
• Why the delay of over 1.5 BY? That’s
a long time for heterotrophs to remain
single-celled.
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Cause of the Delay?
• The time required for the complex
nerve cell to evolve. It coordinates
muscular movement.
• All animals more complex than
sponges have nerve cells. Sponges
don’t move, nor do plants or fungi.
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The First Animals
• The first animal fossils appear around
600 MY ago. They consist of trace
fossils and impressions of soft bodied
animals.
• The impressions are called the
Ediacaran fossils.
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Ediacaran Fossils
• Jellyfish
• Sea Pens
• Segmented worms
• A variety of “quilted” animals of
unknown biological affinities.
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Ediacaran Fossils
• Very thin for direct absorption of
oxygen. No evidence of gills.
• No hard parts because there were no
predators. These animals ate algae.
• Predators appeared by the end of the
Proterozoic as shown by hard part
fossils at the base of the Cambrian.
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Animal embryos, about 600 MY old,
preserved in phosphate
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Latest Proterozoic Life: The Ediacaran Fossils
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Latest Proterozoic Life: The Ediacaran Fossils
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Latest Proterozoic Life: The Ediacaran Fossils
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Ediacara Hills of Australia
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Ediacaran
fossils
exposed in
sandstone
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A modern sea pen,
a relative of corals
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A fossil sea pen
from the Ediacaran
of Australia
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Mawsonites, a
fossil jellyfish?
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A variety of Ediacaran fossils
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Dickinsonia – a segmented worm
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Dickinsonia –
a segmented
worm
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Kimberella – a probable mollusc
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Spriggina – an arthropod?
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Spriggina – an
arthropod?
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Tribrachidium – what is it?
Arkarua – oldest echinoderm?
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Tribrachidium – what is it?
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Evidence of bacterial mats on the sea floor
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Late Proterozoic trace fossils made by
animals digging in the seafloor