BIOL 1500 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Rna World, Reproductive Isolation, Ring Species
Document Summary
Life: ability to replicate and by the presence of some sort of metabolic activity. Atmosphere contained large amounts of co2, nitrogen, methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and hydrogen sulfide this environment might have served as the cradle of life, warm little pond. Within days organic molecules (including amino acids) in their primordial sea. Under conditions similar to those on early earth, small organic molecules form, and these molecules have some chemical properties of life. Researchers discovered a molecule that could function as an enzyme that links together nucleic acids. Rna world hypothesis: proposes that the world may have been filled with rna based life before it became filled with the dna based life we see today. Rna molecules are on the border: replicate-first condition for life, don"t carry out metabolism-second condition for life. The development of a membrane, enabling metabolism and creating the first cells.
