Do we know what type of organism/life first started on Earth?

[nukeman]

I am not sure on this, so hope someone can shed some light on this. I asked this in the Astronomy forum, as someone told me to also ask here. I am not an expert in biology in any means :)

What type of organism was thought to be among the first on earth? I am not sure if this is the right way to ask this :)

Lets say if I wanted to see, or do tests on an organism, and my tests were related to doing tests on the first organism on earth, or the first life on earth, what would it be?

For some reason I thought algee was among the first on Earth after the heavy volcanic period, and when it started to first rain.

Thanks guys!

 

[NobodySpecial]

What type of organism was thought to be among the first on earth? I am not sure if this is the right way to ask this :)

Single celled creatures were the first organisms - sort of by definition of organism.
They are similar to the modern group Archaea = single celled things with no cell nucleas

For some reason I thought algee was among the first on Earth after the heavy volcanic period, and when it started to first rain.

Archaea used to be called blue-green algae in spite of them being neither blue, green nor algae.

 

[nukeman]

Great, thanks for the reply!

Ok so Archaea was thought to be the first "organism" to have started life on Earth?

Is there any research that shows how it Archara was created?, and how a single celled organism turned into the next phase of life, multiple celled organisms ?

Again, thanks!

Single celled creatures were the first organisms - sort of by definition of organism.
They are similar to the modern group Archaea = single celled things with no cell nucleas


Archaea used to be called blue-green algae in spite of them being neither blue, green nor algae.

 

[NobodySpecial]

Is there any research that shows how it Archara was created?

A bunch of chemical reactions worked better when close together, then with more chemicals forming a cell around them they worked even better. Those reactions then monopolized all the others and became single celled life.

, and how a single celled organism turned into the next phase of life, multiple celled organisms

A couple of cells got together and liked it?
ps bacteria today might argue about the 'next phase of life' bit

 

[GeorgeRaetz]

...Is there any research that shows how Archara was created

Speaking generally on the subject, Richard Dawkins suggests a "Replicator" molecule which "had the extradordinary property of being able to create copies of itself" was "formed by accident"(The Selfish Gene chapter 1)) and that's what started it all.

 

[venton]

As soon as you get a 'replicator' - something that can reproduce itself - there becomes a competition for resources (resources in this case would be the required chemicals needed to create another copy). If then by chance a slightly different arrangement of chemicals occurs which is better at getting the resources, that arrangement dominates. Keep this train of thought up for a few million years and better and better replicators evolve. Eventually we end up with a single cell. But that isn't the end, competition for resources goes on, and cells which group together survive in a certain environment...

 

[Lame One]

First, a bit of semantics for clarities sake. I just want to make sure that you understand Archaea is not a species, but a Domain. It was a broad answer, but the best one we could give. Next, replication is a requirement of life. Is something cannot reproduce, it is not considered alive. That said, there may have very well been other 'life', although incredibly basic, before archaea appeared, but it would not have been able to reproduce, so just died out. I do love Venton's explanation for evolution itself, however. Compounds that manage to stay together, and somehow create duplicate compounds out of certain chemicals may have appeared at one time or another. Then, there was a 'mutation' that allowed one compound to catch the required materials to 'reproduce' better. This chain just goes on and on and on until you get humans. (And that's where babies come from!)