Evolution Research Assignment Paper: Origins Of Life

Origin of life
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Evolution
In biology, evolution refers to changes in the heritable traits of living organisms over successive generations. In other words, it relates to change through time as the species get more modified and diverse in characteristics for the purpose of producing a multiple descendant species. Though evolution and natural selection are sometimes conflated, however, evolution defines the historical occurrences of change while natural selection is just a mechanism that leads to evolution. It is apparent that with a strong natural selection, there is an ultimate rapid evolution process in living organisms. Despite the misunderstanding of evolution and natural selection, the two are distinct. According to scientists, natural selection is one process with the potential of inducing evolutionary change, though occasionally, it can occur without significant evolutionary change. On the contrary, processes other than natural selection can equally produce evolution in living organisms.
Planet of life
The planet of life aims at exploring the characteristics necessary for life existence of the universe. These characteristics ensure that the earth is an optimal place for the existing species. Temperature is one of those characteristics that facilitate evolution processes in a living organism. Temperature is determined by the distance from the sun. Similarly, it may also be determined by geothermal energy from the core. Despite 30-40 percent increase in solar output, temperature fluctuated from 10-20 degrees C over 3.7 billion years ago to facilitate the existence of life. The second characteristics of life are water, which is said to have existed in three phrases. These include liquid, solid and gas phases (Lal, 2008). The existence species of living organism today represents a long chain of the evolution process. It is interesting that these species have got specific roles to play in their respective ecosystem.
Origins of life on Earth
Based on the evidence from the chemical analysis as well as the measurements of radioactive elements in fossils and primitive rocks, it is apparent that life developed over two major phases. The first phase is chemical evolution, which involved organic molecules, proteins and chemical reactions to form the first protocells. This evolution took about 1 billion years. The second phase of life is the biological evolution, which originated from single-celled prokaryotic bacteria through eukaryotic creature to the eukaryotic multicellular organism. This broadly refers to the diversification of species. In a nutshell, the chemical evolution process started with the formation of the earth's early crust and atmosphere. The above chemical reactions resulted in the formation of small organic molecules form in the seas. The small organi...