THE EMERGENCE OF LIFE
According to our definition, life is a way of existence of material
objects capable of regulating the level of average daily mechanical stress and
reproducing similar entities (2004Архипов-БалтийскийСВ). As can be seen, in the given definition
there is no reference to protein bodies and organic compounds. Life as a
special qualitative state of matter is fundamentally possible not only on the
basis of carbon. At the same time, living systems with a different chemistry
are unknown, as are extraterrestrial beings.
The oldest potentially biogenic carbon on our planet appeared 4.10±0.01
billion years ago, and the simplest living beings appeared 4.1-3.8 billion
years ago (2015BellEA_MaoWL). The split of single-celled, anucleate forms of
prokaryotes (Procaryota) into bacteria (Eubacteria) and archaea
(Archaebacteria) occurred about 4.0 billion years ago (2002HedgesSB). The
oldest stromatolites, which are the remains of cyanobacterial communities
(Cyanobacteria), began to form in coastal waters 3.7 billion years ago (2016NutmanAP_ChivasAR).
Prokaryotes were already abundant in shallow and deep-sea marine environments
by 3.5-3.4 billion years ago, and direct evidence of life dates back 2.9-2.7
billion years (2013Beraldi-CampesiH). Traces of prokaryotic methanotrophs have
been found in soil aged 2.765±0.01 billion years (2000RyeR_HollandHD). The
first organism with a cell nucleus from the stem group of eukaryotes
(Eukaryota) flourished 2.7-2.5 billion years ago (1992HanTM_RunnegarB).
We believe that the acquisition of a nucleus by a cell was a key moment
in the evolution of species. Ultimately, mechanical stress, variability and
natural selection led to the formation of the hip joint, and in it – the
ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF).
References
Архипов-Балтийский СВ. Рассуждение о морфомеханике. Норма. В 2 т. Т. 2. Гл. 5-6. - Испр. и доп. изд. Калининград, 2004. [primo.nlr.ru , aleph.rsl.ru]
Bell EA, Boehnke P, Harrison TM, Mao WL. Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2015;112(47)14518-21. [pnas.org]
Hedges SB. The origin and evolution of model organisms. Nature Reviews Genetics. 2002;3(11)838-49. [nature.com]
Nutman AP, Bennett VC, Friend CR, Van Kranendonk MJ, Chivas AR. Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures. Nature. 2016;537(7621)535-8. [nature.com]
Beraldi-Campesi H. Early life on land and the first terrestrial ecosystems. Ecological Processes. 2013;2(1)1-17. [link.springer.com]
Rye R, Holland HD. Life associated with a 2.76 Ga ephemeral pond?: Evidence from Mount Roe# 2 paleosol. Geology. 2000;28(6)483-6. [pubs.geoscienceworld.org]
Han TM, Runnegar B. Megascopic eukaryotic algae from the 2.1-billion-year-old Negaunee Iron-Formation, Michigan. Science. 1992;257(5067)232-5. [science.org]
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The original text in Russian is available at the link: Появление жизни
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