From Suns to Life: A Chronological Approach to the History of Life on Earth

371 Pages·2006·5.893 MB·English

by  Muriel Gargaud, Jacques Reisse (auth.), Muriel Gargaud, Philippe Claeys, Purificación López-García, Hervé Martin, Thierry Montmerle, Robert Pascal, Jacques Reisse (eds.)

FROM SUNS TO LIFE: A CHRONOLOGICAL APPROACH TO
THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON EARTH
From Suns to Life: A Chronological Approach
to the History of Life on Earth
Edited by
MURIEL GARGAUD
PHILIPPE CLAEYS
PURIFICACIO´ N LO´ PEZ-GARCI´A
HERVE´ MARTIN
THIERRY MONTMERLE
ROBERT PASCAL
JACQUES REISSE
Reprintedfrom Earth Moon,andPlanets
Volume98, Nos. 1–4,2006
123
AC.I.P catalogue recordforthisbook isavailable fromthe libraryof Congress
ISBN0-387-45082-7
ISBN978-0-387-45082-7
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TableofContents
1 FromtheArrowofTimetotheArrowofLife/M.GARGAUDandJ.REISSE......... 1–9
1.1 TheNotionofTimeinAstrobiology...................................................................... 1
1.2 Why,Where,WhenandHow:HerearetheQuestions........................................... 3
1.2.1 WHY?.................................................................................................... 3
1.2.2 WHERE?............................................................................................... 4
1.2.3 WHEN(ANDHOW)?........................................................................... 4
1.3 OurModestContributionstothe‘‘When’’(and‘‘How’’?)Answers....................... 5
1.3.1 THE‘‘WHENANDWHERE’’MAKING-OF..................................... 5
1.3.2 THE‘‘WHY’’MAKING-OF................................................................. 5
1.3.3 THE‘‘HOW’’MAKING-OF................................................................. 6
2 DatingMethodsandCorrespondingChronometersinAstrobiology/M.GARGAUD,
F.ALBARE`DE,L.BOITEAU,M.CHAUSSIDON,E.DOUZERYand
T.MONTMERLE................................................................................................... 11–38
2.1 Astronomy:DatingStellarAgeswiththe‘‘Herzsprung–RussellDiagram’’........... 11
2.2 Geochemistry:PrinciplesofRadioactiveDating.................................................... 16
2.2.1 LONG-LIVEDCHRONOMETERS..................................................... 19
2.2.2 SHORT-LIVEDCHRONOMETERS:EXTINCT
RADIOACTIVITIES............................................................................ 20
2.2.3 THELIMITSOFTHEMETHOD........................................................ 22
2.3 Chemistry:TheImpossibleuseofChemicalClocksinaPrebioticScope................ 23
2.3.1 SOMECHEMICALCLOCKSANDTHEIRLIMITS......................... 25
2.3.2 CONCLUSIONS................................................................................... 26
2.4 Biology:TheMolecularClocks............................................................................. 27
2.4.1 HISTORICALPERSPECTIVEONTHEMOLECULARCLOCK..... 27
2.4.2 THEGLOBALMOLECULARCLOCK:ASINGLERATE
APPROACH.......................................................................................... 29
2.4.3 THELOCALMOLECULARCLOCKS:AFEWRATEAPPROACH 30
2.4.4 THE RELAXED MOLECULAR CLOCKS: A MULTIPLE RATE
APPROACH.......................................................................................... 31
2.4.5 THE FUTURE MOLECULAR CLOCKS: ACCURACY AND
PRECISION.......................................................................................... 32
2.5 TheTripleClockofLifeintheSolarSystem.......................................................... 32
2.5.1 ISTHEREABEGINING?THEPROBLEMOF‘‘TIMEZERO’’AND
THELOGARITHMICCLOCK............................................................. 32
2.5.2 ASTRONOMYVS.GEOLOGICALANDBIOLOGICAL
CHRONOLOGIES:THELINEARCLOCKS..................................... 35
3 SolarSystemFormationandEarlyEvolution:theFirst100MillionYears/
T.MONTMERLE,J.-C.AUGEREAU,M.CHAUSSIDON,
M.GOUNELLE,B.MARTYandA.MORBIDELLI.............................................. 39–95
3.1 TheFirstMillionYears:The‘‘StellarEra’’............................................................ 40
3.1.1 THESUN’SBIRTHPLACE.................................................................. 40
3.1.2 THESUNASAFORMINGSTAR...................................................... 46
3.1.3 ASTELLARVIEWOFTHE‘‘PRIMITIVESOLARNEBULA’’........ 50
3.2 TheFirst10MillionYears:The‘‘DiskEra’’.......................................................... 54
3.2.1 THEEVOLUTIONOFCIRCUMSTELLARDISKSAROUND
YOUNGSTARSANDIMPLICATIONSFORTHEEARLYSOLAR
SYSTEM................................................................................................ 54
3.2.2 THEFIRSTFEWMILLIONYEARSASRECORDEDBY
METEORITEDATA............................................................................ 63
3.2.3 INTERMEZZO..................................................................................... 73
3.2.4 THEFIRSTSTAGESOFPLANETARYFORMATIONINTHE
SOLARSYSTEM.................................................................................. 74
3.3 TheFirst100MillionYears:The‘‘TelluricEra’’.................................................... 83
3.3.1 FORMATIONOFTHETERRESTRIALPLANETSAND
PRIMORDIALSCULPTINGOFTHEASTEROIDBELT................ 83
3.3.2 THEFORMATIONOFTHEMOON.................................................. 85
3.3.3 TOWARDS1GYR:THEEARLYEVOLUTIONOF
THEEARTH......................................................................................... 87
4 BuildingofaHabitablePlanet/H.MARTIN,F.ALBARE`DE,P.CLAEYS,
M.GARGAUD,B.MARTY,A.MORBIDELLIandD.L.PINTI........................... 97–151
4.1 TerrestrialDifferentiation..................................................................................... 98
4.1.1 BULKCOMPOSITIONOFTHEEARTH((cid:1)4.568GA)...................... 99
4.1.2 ENERGETICOFPLANETARYDIFFERENTIATION
PROCESSES.......................................................................................... 100
4.1.3 THECHRONOMETERSOFACCRETIONAND
DIFFERENTIATION........................................................................... 102
4.1.4 PETROLOGYOFPLANETARYDIFFERENTIATION................... 103
4.1.5 PLANETARYMAGMAOCEANSANDTHESURFACEOFTHE
PLANETSATTHEENDOFACCRETION((cid:1)4.56TO(cid:1)4.45GA).... 105
4.1.6 THEEARLYCRUST:TOWARDPLATETECTONICSAND
CONTINENTS(4.5-4.4GA).................................................................. 106
4.2 LateContributions................................................................................................ 107
4.2.1 ATMOSPHERE.................................................................................... 107
4.2.2 OCEAN................................................................................................. 119
4.3 TheFirstContinents.............................................................................................. 128
4.3.1 THE3.8–3.9GAARCHAEANCRUST................................................ 129
4.3.2 THE4.0GAARCHAEANCRUST...................................................... 132
4.3.3 THEPRE-4.GAHADEANCRUST.................................................... 132
4.4 LateHeavyBombardment(LHB)......................................................................... 137
4.4.1 THELATEHEAVYBOMBARDMENT(LHB).................................. 137
4.4.2 ORIGINOFTHELHB......................................................................... 143
5 PrebioticChemistry–Biochemistry–EmergenceofLife(4.4-2Ga)/R.PASCAL,
L.BOITEAU,P.FORTERRE,M.GARGAUD,A.LAZCANO,P.LO´ PEZ-
GARCI´A,D.MOREIRA,M.-C.MAUREL,J.PERETO´ ,D.PRIEURand
J.REISSE................................................................................................................ 153–203
5.1 AWordofCautionAboutChronology................................................................. 154
5.2 AScenarioStartingFromtheFirstChemicalBuildingBlocks............................... 157
5.2.1 AVAILABILITYOFORGANICMATTERANDENERGY............. 158
5.2.2 FAVOURABLEAREASFORPREBIOTICCHEMICAL
PROCESSES.......................................................................................... 159
5.2.3 CHEMICALEVOLUTIONTHROUGHASTEPWISEPROCESS.... 159
5.2.4 CHEMICALEVOLUTIONTHROUGHADYNAMICPROCESS... 160
5.2.5 CATALYTICACTIVITYANDINFORMATIONSTORAGE.......... 161
5.3 HypothesisaboutEarlyMetabolisms.................................................................... 167
5.3.1 PRELIMINARYDEFINITIONS......................................................... 168
5.3.2 HOWTHEFIRSTENTITIESPRESUMABLYGAINEDTHEIR
ENERGYANDCARBON?.................................................................. 168
5.4 OriginandEvolutionofCompartments................................................................ 171
5.4.1 AMPHIPHILICVERSUSNON-AMPHIPHILIC
COMPARTMENTS.............................................................................. 171
5.4.2 SELF-ASSEMBLYANDEARLYEVOLUTIONOF
COMPARTMENTS.............................................................................. 173
5.5 TheHypothesisofanRNAWorld........................................................................ 174
5.5.1 THERNAWORLDSCRIPT................................................................ 175
5.5.2 THECASEOFADENINE................................................................... 178
5.5.3 PROVISIONALCONCLUSIONS........................................................ 179
5.6 TheRNA/DNATransitionandtheOriginoftheGeneticCode............................ 180
5.6.1 THEORIGINOFTHEGENETICCODE........................................... 180
5.6.2 DATINGGENETICTAKEOVERS:HOWOLDARECELLULAR
DNAGENOMES?................................................................................. 184
5.7 TheLastCommonAncestor.................................................................................. 187
5.7.1 PROTEINSYNTHESISINTHECENANCESTOR............................ 189
5.7.2 THECENANCESTOR’SGENOME:DNAORRNA?........................ 189
5.7.3 ENERGYANDCARBONMETABOLISMINTHE
CENANCESTOR.................................................................................. 190
5.7.4 THEMEMBRANEOFTHECENANCESTOR.................................. 191
5.7.5 OTHERUNRESOLVEDQUESTIONS............................................... 192
5.8 TheOriginofViruses............................................................................................. 193
5.8.1 VIRALPROPERTIES.......................................................................... 194
5.8.2 HYPOTHESESONTHEORIGINOFVIRUSES................................ 195
6 EnvironmentalContext/H.MARTIN,P.CLAEYS,M.GARGAUD,D.L.PINTI
andF.SELSIS.......................................................................................................... 205–245
6.1 EvolutionofGeologicalMechanisms:The2.5GaTransition................................ 206
6.1.1 EPISODICCRUSTALGROWTH....................................................... 206
6.1.2 GLOBALEVOLUTIONANDCHANGES((cid:1)2.5GAAGO)............... 208
6.1.3 CONCLUSION..................................................................................... 213
6.2 AtmosphereandOceanPhysico-chemicalEvolution............................................. 214
6.2.1 ATMOSPHEREEVOLUTION............................................................ 214
6.2.2 CHEMICALEVOLUTIONOFTHEOCEANS................................... 223
6.3 DisturbingEvents.................................................................................................. 232
6.3.1 SPHERULELAYERS:THERECORDOFARCHAEANAND
PROTEROZOICIMPACTEVENTS................................................... 233
6.3.2 THEPALEOPROTEROZOICGLACIATIONS,THEFIRSTSNOW-
BALLEARTH....................................................................................... 238
7 AncientFossilRecordandEarlyEvolution(ca.3.8to0.5Ga)/P.LO´ PEZ-GARCI´A,
P.CLAEYS,E.DOUZERY,P.FORTERRE,D.MOREIRA, D.PRIEUR
andM.VANZUILEN.............................................................................................. 247–290
7.1 TheFirstTracesofLife......................................................................................... 248
7.1.1 THETRACERS.................................................................................... 250
7.1.2 EXAMPLESFROMTHEFIELD........................................................ 255
7.1.3 THECHALLENGESAHEAD............................................................. 264
7.2 MicrobialandMetabolicDiversification............................................................... 265
7.2.1 HOWDOCONTEMPORARYCELLSGAINTHEIRENERGY?..... 265
7.2.2 WHATWERETHEMOSTPROBABLEMILESTONES?.................. 267
7.3 TheOriginofEukaryotes...................................................................................... 269
7.3.1 DIFFERENTHYPOTHESESFORTHEORIGINOF
EUKARYOTES.................................................................................... 270
7.3.2 THELASTCOMMONANCESTOROFCONTEMPORARY
EUKARYOTES.................................................................................... 274
7.3.3 WHENDIDEUKARYOTESAPPEARANDDIVERSIFY?.............. 275
7.4TheNeoproterozoic–CambrianTransition((cid:1)1000to542Ma)............................... 279
8 ASyntheticInterdisciplinary‘‘ChronologicalFrieze’’:anAttempt/D.DESPOIS
andM.GARGAUD.................................................................................................. 291–297
8.1 GeneralDescription.............................................................................................. 291
8.2 HowtoInterprettheDataofthe‘‘ChronologicalFrieze’’?.................................... 293
8.2.1 EONANDPHASE................................................................................ 293
8.2.2 AGE,ERRORBARS,TIMEANDDURATION................................. 293
8.2.3 REFERENCETIMES........................................................................... 293
8.2.4 EVENTS................................................................................................ 293
8.2.5 DATINGMETHODS........................................................................... 294
8.2.6 RELEVANTOBSERVATIONS........................................................... 294
8.2.7 RELIABILITY...................................................................................... 294
8.2.8 CONSEQUENCESFORLIFE’SORIGINANDEVOLUTION......... 294
8.2.9 REFERENCES..................................................................................... 294
8.2.10NOTES.................................................................................................. 294
9 LifeOnEarth...AndElsewhere?/T.MONTMERLE,P.CLAEYS,M.GARGAUD,
P.LO´ PEZ-GARCI´A,H.MARTIN,R.PASCAL,J.REISSEandF.SELSIS......... 299–312
9.1 TheChronologyofLifeintheSolarSystem:Highlights........................................ 300
9.1.1 FROMTHEBIRTHOFTHESUNTOTHEBIRTHOFTHE
EARTH.................................................................................................. 300
9.1.2 THEHISTORYOFTHEEARLYEARTHANDGEOLOGICAL
CONSTRAINTSONTHEORIGINOFLIFE..................................... 302
9.1.3 FACTSOFLIFE................................................................................... 304
9.2 OurWorldinPerspective:IsLifeUniversal?.......................................................... 306
10 Authors’CVs.......................................................................................................... 313–317
11 Glossary................................................................................................................. 319–370
Earth,Moon,andPlanets(2006)98:1–9 (cid:1)Springer2006
DOI10.1007/s11038-006-9085-7
1. From the Arrow of Time to the Arrow of Life
MURIEL GARGAUD
Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences del’Univers, Universite´Bordeaux1, Bordeaux, France
(E-mail: [email protected])
JACQUES REISSE
Faculte´desSciencesApplique´es(CP165/64),Universite´LibredeBruxelles,Brussels,Belgium
(E-mail: [email protected])
(Accepted4 April2006)
Abstract. Astrobiology, like many (but not all) sciences, must take into account questions of the
‘‘Why?’’, ‘‘Where?’’, ‘‘How?’’ and ‘‘When?’’ type. In this introductory chapter, we explain why, in this
book,wewillonlyconsidertwoofthesequestionsthatare,moreover,deeplyinterrelated.Chronologyis
bydefinitionrelatedtothe‘‘when?’’questionbutassoonasweareinterestedinthehistoryofEarthorthe
historyoflife,itisimpossibletotreatthesequestionsandtheiranswerswithoutexplicitreferencestothe
‘‘how?’’questions.Wealsopresentinthischapterthegenesisandtheaimofthebook.
Keywords: Time,dating
1.1. The Notion of Time in Astrobiology
Scientists are trained to ask questions about Nature. As is well known in
dialectics, the quality of the question determines the quality of the answer.
Questions that remain unanswered for a long time are probably questions
that must be formulated in a different way.
Each chapter (from the ‘‘Dating methods and corresponding chronometers in astro-
biology’’chapter2tothefinal‘‘LifeonEarthandelsewhere’’chapter9)hasbeensubmittedtoa
verysevereinternalrefereeing,eachauthorhavingreadmany,ifnotall,contributionstomake
comments, criticisms and advice. As a general rule these comments/remarks were discussed
amongsttheauthorsandwereincludedintheoriginaltext.Ideally,alltheauthorscouldhave
signed together all the contributions but we have preferred to ‘‘render to Caesar the things
whichareCaesar’s’’andthespecialistwhofirstwroteitsignedeachsubchapter.Forfurther
information on the contributing authors, please refer to CVs’, included at the end of this
volume. All subchapters devoted to the same general field have been gathered together as a
chapterunderageneraltitle.Consequently,eachchapterisalphabeticallyco-signedbyallthe
authorsofthesubchapters,andthefirstauthoristhecoordinator whosuperviseditshomo-
geneityandcompleteness.Inallcases,eachauthordidhis(orher)besttogivetothereaderthe
most accurate and recent data, along with the evidence, but also assumptions, on which the
dataisfoundedand,whennecessary,thecautionrequiredforitsinterpretation.Aglossaryof
terminologyusedinallchaptersisavailableattheendofthisvolume.
2 MURIELGARGAUDANDJACQUESREISSE
Among the numerous questions scientists are interested in, those related
to time are probably the most fascinating because time is a very peculiar
dimension. From Einstein’s work, we learnt that, for physics, time is ‘‘just’’
the fourthdimension but, on theother hand, weare also aware thatthe time
dimension, as we perceive it, is qualitatively different from the space
dimensions. Time ‘‘flows’’; time is irreversible and associated with past,
present and future.
‘‘Why is time different from the other dimensions?’’ remains an open
question, and this is one major reason why many scientists are fascinated by
problems related to time. Of course, not all sciences are historical, i.e. not all
sciences focus their study on similarities or differences occurring between
past, present and future events. For example, a chemist studying the evolu-
tion of a reaction as a function of time certainly knows that if pressure,
temperature and all other experimental conditions are kept the same, the
reactionwillevolvetomorrowinadeterministicway,exactlyasitdoestoday.
For this chemist, time is a parameter easily measurable with a chronometer.
Even if the reaction under study is irreversible, chemists (as all scientists)
know that the physical laws do not change with time. As Noether showed,
this time translation independence is related to the energy conservation law
(Zee, 1986)
The situation is completely different for a geologist or a biologist inter-
ested in evolutionary problems. They must take into account the historical
time and, therefore, the irreversible flow of time, the so-called ‘‘arrow of
time’’ (e.g. Klein and Spiro, 1997). For these scientists, a chronometer is
useless: they need to measure time with respect to a conventional reference
time. Their situation can be compared to that of a historian who, in Western
countries, uses as reference time the birth of Christ, even though its date is
still debated among historians, being uncertain by several years. All of them,
historians, geologists or biologists have in common their need to apply to a
time reference chosen by convention.
Cosmologists are the only scientists who could claim to use a time scale
basedonanabsolutezeroevenif,today,itisdiscussedwhethertheBigBang
itself could be considered as the origin of our time. Planetologists and geol-
ogists use different reference times depending on the problem they are inter-
ested in. They know from cosmologistsand astronomers thatthe Universe is
probably13.7billionyearsold,buttheydonotusetheBigBangasreference
time: they use the age of the oldest meteorites instead. Frequently, but not
always, they use a time scale that takes as reference time the ‘‘present time’’
defined as 1950 AD1, which is the reference used for 14C dating. Any time is
thus expressed in ‘‘years before present’’ (yr BP). On this scale and just as
examples, the accretion of the solar system took place approximately
1AD = Anno Domini = AfterJesus-Christ.