UCLA researchers: Life got started shortly after planet cooled From Phys.org:
Life on Earth likely started 4.1 billion years ago—much earlier than scientists thought
UCLA geochemists have found evidence that life likely existed on Earth at least 4.1 billion years ago—300 million years earlier than previous research suggested. The discovery indicates that life may have begun shortly after the planet formed 4.54 billion years ago.
“Twenty years ago, this would have been heretical; finding evidence of life 3.8 billion years ago was shocking,” said Mark Harrison, co-author of the research and a professor of geochemistry at UCLA.
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“The early Earth certainly wasn’t a hellish, dry, boiling planet; we see absolutely no evidence for that,” Harrison said. “The planet was probably much more like it is today than previously thought.”
Analyzing 10,000 zircons,
The scientists identified 656 zircons containing dark specks that could be revealing and closely analyzed 79 of them with Raman spectroscopy, a technique that shows the molecular and chemical structure of ancient microorganisms in three dimensions. More.
Obviously, if this find holds up—given the information load even “simple life forms require—we can rule out a strict Darwinian explanation. After all, if such an explanation were correct, rocks would be evolving into life all around us.
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Anyway, significance and abstract:
Significance:
Evidence for carbon cycling or biologic activity can be derived from carbon isotopes, because a high 12C/13C ratio is characteristic of biogenic carbon due to the large isotopic fractionation associated with enzymatic carbon fixation. The earliest materials measured for carbon isotopes at 3.8 Ga are isotopically light, and thus potentially biogenic. Because Earth’s known rock record extends only to ~4 Ga, earlier periods of history are accessible only through mineral grains deposited in later sediments. We report 12C/13C of graphite preserved in 4.1-Ga zircon. Its complete encasement in crack-free, undisturbed zircon demonstrates that it is not contamination from more recent geologic processes. Its 12C-rich isotopic signature may be evidence for the origin of life on Earth by 4.1 Ga.
Abstract: Evidence of life on Earth is manifestly preserved in the rock record. However, the microfossil record only extends to ~3.5 billion years (Ga), the chemofossil record arguably to ~3.8 Ga, and the rock record to 4.0 Ga. Detrital zircons from Jack Hills, Western Australia range in age up to nearly 4.4 Ga. From a population of over 10,000 Jack Hills zircons, we identified one >3.8-Ga zircon that contains primary graphite inclusions. Here, we report carbon isotopic measurements on these inclusions in a concordant, 4.10 ± 0.01-Ga zircon. We interpret these inclusions as primary due to their enclosure in a crack-free host as shown by transmission X-ray microscopy and their crystal habit. Their d13CPDB of -24 ± 5‰ is consistent with a biogenic origin and may be evidence that a terrestrial biosphere had emerged by 4.1 Ga, or ~300 My earlier than has been previously proposed. (Public access .pdf) – Elizabeth A. Bella, Patrick Boehnke, T. Mark Harrison, and Wendy L. Mao
http://www.uncommondescent.com/origin-of-life/ucla-researchers-life-got-started-shortly-after-planet-cooled/
bornagain October 20, 2015 at 7:50 am
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Although this finding pushes the OOL back even earlier than thought, making what was already a bad situation even worse for naturalists, the extremely early origin of life on earth was already confirmed by several different lines of evidence other than the discredited 3.46 bya chert microfossils.
When Did Life on Earth Begin? Ask a Rock (3.85 bya)
http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/293/
When did oxygenic photosynthesis evolve? – Roger Buick – 2008
Excerpt:,, U–Pb data from ca 3.8?Ga metasediments suggest that this metabolism could have arisen by the start of the geological record. Hence, the hypothesis that oxygenic photosynthesis evolved well before the atmosphere became permanently oxygenated seems well supported.
http://rstb.royalsocietypublis...../2731.long
U-rich Archaean sea-floor sediments from Greenland – indications of +3700 Ma oxygenic photosynthesis (2003)
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004E&PSL.217..237R
Isotopic Evidence For Life Immediately Following Late Bombardment – Graph
http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/.....bitofc.jpg
The Sudden Appearance Of Life On Earth (3.9 billion years ago) – video
Stephen Mojzsis, a geologist at the University of Colorado, searches for the earliest life forms on the planet by examining minerals in ancient oceanic sediments.
http://www.scivee.tv/node/2312
When Did Life First Appear on Earth? – Fazale Rana – December 2010
Excerpt: The primary evidence for 3.8 billion-year-old life consists of carbonaceous deposits, such as graphite, found in rock formations in western Greenland. These deposits display an enrichment of the carbon-12 isotope. Other chemical signatures from these formations that have been interpreted as biological remnants include uranium/thorium fractionation and banded iron formations. Recently, a team from Australia argued that the dolomite in these formations also reflects biological activity, specifically that of sulfate-reducing bacteria.
http://www.reasons.org/when-di.....pear-earth
“We get that evidence from looking at carbon 12 to carbon 13 analysis. And it tells us that in Earth’s oldest (sedimentary) rock, which dates at 3.80 billion years ago, we find an abundance for the carbon signature of living systems. Namely, that life prefers carbon 12. And so if you see a higher ratio of carbon 12 to carbon 13 that means that carbon has been processed by life. And it is that kind of evidence that tells us that life has been abundant on earth as far back as 3.80 billion years ago (when water was first present on earth).,,, And that same carbon 12 to carbon 13 analysis tells us that planet earth, over it entire 4.5662 billion year history has never had prebiotics. Prebiotics would have a higher ratio of carbon 13 to carbon 12. All the carbonaceous material, we see in the entire geological record of the earth, has the signature of being post-biotic not pre-biotic. Which means planet earth never had a primordial soup. And the origin of life on earth took place in a geological instant” (as soon as it was possible for life to exist on earth).
– Hugh Ross – quote as stated in preceding video at 40:10 mark
Zircons and The Sudden Origin of Life Following the Late Heavy Bombardment- Dr. Fazale Rana – 2015 video (1:26:00 minute mark)
https://youtu.be/4mEKZRm1xXg?t=5191
Late Heavy Bombardment – graph
http://www.reasons.org/Media/D.....8_0000.jpg
Origins of Life – Hugh Ross – video (7:00 minute mark late heavy bombardment and extremely early origin of life, 19:00 minute mark diversity of first life, 21:00 no life from Mars, 24:00 minute mark no sugars or complex amino acids in space, 27:00 minute mark impossibility of transporting complex organic molecules to earth on comets, 31:00 minute mark various origin of life chemists debunking each other’s models) – video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTI5mEiz4O0
bornagain October 20, 2015 at 7:55 am
Iron in Primeval Seas Rusted by Bacteria – Apr. 23, 2013
Excerpt: The oldest known iron ores were deposited in the Precambrian period and are up to four billion years old (the Earth itself is estimated to be about 4.6 billion years old). ,,,
This research not only provides the first clear evidence that microorganisms were directly involved in the deposition of Earth’s oldest iron formations; it also indicates that large populations of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria were at work in the shallow areas of the ancient oceans, while deeper water still reached by the light (the photic zone) tended to be populated by anoxyenic or micro-aerophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria which formed the iron deposits.,,,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re.....110750.htm
The origin of photosynthesis so early on earth is certainly not a minor problem for naturalists:
Evolutionary biology: Out of thin air John F. Allen & William Martin:
The measure of the problem is here: “Oxygenetic photosynthesis involves about 100 proteins that are highly ordered within the photosynthetic membranes of the cell.”
http://www.nature.com/nature/j.....5610a.html
Enzymes and protein complexes needed in photosynthesis – with graphs
http://elshamah.heavenforum.or.....hesis#2527
Of note: anoxygenic (without oxygen) photosynthesis is even more of a complex chemical pathway than oxygenic photosynthesis is:
“Remarkably, the biosynthetic routes needed to make the key molecular component of anoxygenic photosynthesis are more complex than the pathways that produce the corresponding component required for the oxygenic form.”;
Early Life Remains Complex By Fazale R. Rana (FACTS for FAITH Issue 7, 2001)
Moreover, entire ‘microbial ecosystems’ are now found to go back at least 3.5 billion years
3.5 billion-year-old ecosystem found – November 12, 2013
Excerpt: “Mound-like deposits created by ancient bacteria, called stromatolites, and microfossils of bacteria have previously been discovered in this region. However, a phenomenon called microbially induced sedimentary structures, or MISS, had not previously been seen in rocks of this great age.”
MISS were created by microbial mats as the microbial communities responded to changes in physical sediment dynamics, Professor Wacey said.
“A common example would be the binding together of sediment grains by microbes to prevent their erosion by water currents,” he said. “The significance of MISS is that they not only demonstrate the presence of life, but also the presence of whole microbial ecosystems that could co-ordinate with one another to respond to changes in their environment.”,,,
The team described the various MISS from the ancient coastal flats preserved in the Dresser Formation and found close similarities in both form and preservation style to MISS in younger rocks.
http://www.sciencealert.com.au.....25003.html
Geobiologist Noffke Reports Signs of Life that Are 3.48 Billion Years Old – 11/11/13
Excerpt: the mats woven of tiny microbes we see today covering tidal flats were also present as life was beginning on Earth. The mats, which are colonies of cyanobacteria, can cause unusual textures and formations in the sand beneath them. Noffke has identified 17 main groups of such textures caused by present-day microbial mats, and has found corresponding structures in geological formations dating back through the ages.
http://www.odu.edu/about/odu-p...../topstory1
Microbial Mat Ecology – Image on page 92 (third page down)
http://www.dsls.usra.edu/biolo.....nit2.2.pdf
,,,Please note, that if even one type of bacteria group did not exist in this complex cycle of biogeochemical interdependence, that was illustrated on the third page of the preceding site, then all of the different bacteria would soon die out. This essential biogeochemical interdependence, of the most primitive different types of bacteria that we have evidence of on ancient earth, makes the origin of life ‘problem’ for neo-Darwinists that much worse. For now not only do neo-Darwinists have to explain how the ‘miracle of life’ happened once with the origin of photosynthetic bacteria, but they must now also explain how all these different types bacteria, that photosynthetic bacteria are dependent on, in this irreducibly complex biogeochemical web, miraculously arose just in time to supply the necessary nutrients, in their biogeochemical link in the chain, for photosynthetic bacteria to continue to survive. As well, though not clearly illustrated in the illustration on the preceding site, please note that a long term tectonic cycle, of the turnover the Earth’s crustal rocks, must also be fine-tuned to a certain degree with the bacteria and thus plays an important ‘foundational’ role in the overall ecology of the biogeochemical system that must be accounted for as well.
This following study gives strong indication that the long term tectonic cycle of the entire earth and early bacterial life indeed worked in conjunction with each other:
Ancient Earth Crust Stored in Deep Mantle – Apr. 24, 2013
Excerpt: New research,, demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago.,, This indicates that the sulfur comes from a deep mantle reservoir containing crustal material subducted before the Great Oxidation Event and preserved for over half the age of Earth.
“These measurements place the first firm age estimates of recycled material in oceanic hotspots,” Hauri said. “They confirm the cycling of sulfur from the atmosphere and oceans into mantle and ultimately back to the surface,” Hauri said.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re.....132705.htm
Dr. Ross points out that the extremely long amount of time it took to prepare a suitable place for humans to exist in this universe, for the relatively short period of time that we can exist on this planet, is actually a point of evidence that argues strongly for Theism:
Anthropic Principle: A Precise Plan for Humanity By Hugh Ross
Excerpt: Brandon Carter, the British mathematician who coined the term “anthropic principle” (1974), noted the strange inequity of a universe that spends about 15 billion years “preparing” for the existence of a creature that has the potential to survive no more than 10 million years (optimistically).,, Carter and (later) astrophysicists John Barrow and Frank Tipler demonstrated that the inequality exists for virtually any conceivable intelligent species under any conceivable life-support conditions. Roughly 15 billion years represents a minimum preparation time for advanced life: 11 billion toward formation of a stable planetary system, one with the right chemical and physical conditions for primitive life, and four billion more years toward preparation of a planet within that system, one richly layered with the biodeposits necessary for civilized intelligent life. Even this long time and convergence of “just right” conditions reflect miraculous efficiency.
Moreover the physical and biological conditions necessary to support an intelligent civilized species do not last indefinitely. They are subject to continuous change: the Sun continues to brighten, Earth’s rotation period lengthens, Earth’s plate tectonic activity declines, and Earth’s atmospheric composition varies. In just 10 million years or less, Earth will lose its ability to sustain human life. In fact, this estimate of the human habitability time window may be grossly optimistic. In all likelihood, a nearby supernova eruption, a climatic perturbation, a social or environmental upheaval, or the genetic accumulation of negative mutations will doom the species to extinction sometime sooner than twenty thousand years from now.
http://christiangodblog.blogsp.....chive.html
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This says:
“The Earth formed under so much heat and pressure that it formed as a molten planet. For nearly the first billion years of formation (4.5 to 3.8 billion years ago) — called the Hadean Period (or hellish period) — Earth was bombarded continuously by the remnants of the dust and debris — like asteroids, meteors and comets — until it formed into a solid sphere, pulled into orbit around the sun and began to cool down.
As Earth began to take solid form, it had no free oxygen in its atmosphere. It was so hot that the water droplets in its atmosphere could not settle to form surface water or ice. Its first atmosphere was also so poisonous, comprised of helium and hydrogen, that nothing would have been able to survive.
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About 4.1 billion years ago, the Earth’s surface — or crust — began to cool and stabilize, creating the solid surface with its rocky terrain. Clouds formed as the Earth began to cool, producing enormous volumes of rainwater that formed the oceans. For the next 1.3 billion years (3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago), the Archean Period, first life began to appear and the world’s landmasses began to form. Earth’s initial life forms were bacteria, which could survive in the highly toxic atmosphere that existed during this time.”
Which might seem all nice and good for the typical Darwinist (missing the “began to cool” not “had already cooled. Anyways, according to this:
“The oldest known iron ores were deposited in the Precambrian period and are up to four billion years old (the Earth itself is estimated to be about 4.6 billion years old). At this very early stage in geological history, there was little or no oxygen in the atmosphere. So the very oldest banded iron formations cannot be the result of O2-dependent oxidation.
In 1993, bacteria were discovered which do not need oxygen but can oxidize Fe(II) by using energy from light (anoxygenic phototrophic iron-oxidizing bacteria).
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This research not only provides the first clear evidence that microorganisms were directly involved in the deposition of Earth’s oldest iron formations; it also indicates that large populations of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria were at work in the shallow areas of the ancient oceans, while deeper water still reached by the light (the photic zone) tended to be populated by anoxyenic or micro-aerophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria which formed the iron deposits.”
Which shows that you have life flourishing at >4.1 billion Darwin years ago, making me wonder whether anyone has stopped by to check on the health of the (mythical) first-cell. When did it spontaneously generate? How long did it take to “evolve” into whatever “evolved” into … “evolved” into these newly discovered microbes ( assuming they did exist) and iron oxidizing bacteria??? :-/
Are you sure <300 million years (which puts it within the time where the water would be more steam than water) is enough for the poison in the soup bowl to vanish,and the spontaneously generated molecules to spontaneously form the mythical first-cell (without, of course, the help of natural selection as prebiotic NS is contradictory) for no reason whatsoever? The story is starting to look more really absurd. Kidding! It was never not absurd, it always comes down to "older/faster/younger/slower than previously thought".
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