Gizmorama - November 6, 2013
Good Morning, Watch the skies! According to the article, "A Texas Tech University paleontologist says the beginning of life on Earth may have rained from the skies and been "cooked" in impact craters." Life on this planet is like frying an egg in a pan.
Learn about this and other interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
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Visit and Enjoy: EVTV1.com****-- Paleontologist says life on Earth rained from the sky in meteorites --*LUBBOCK, Texas - A Texas Tech University paleontologist says the beginning of life on Earth may have rained from the skies and been "cooked" in impact craters. Sankar Chatterjee said the suggestion comes from connecting theories on chemical evolution with evidence related to our planet's early geology. Regular and heavy bombardment of Earth's surface by comets and meteorites during its formative years 4 billion years ago left behind large craters that not only contained water and the basic chemical building blocks for life, but also became the perfect crucible to concentrate and "cook" these chemicals to create the first simple organisms, he suggested. "When the Earth formed some 4.5 billion years ago, it was a sterile planet inhospitable to living organisms," Chatterjee said. "It was a seething cauldron of erupting volcanoes, raining meteors and hot, noxious gasses. "One billion years later, it was a placid, watery planet teeming with microbial life -- the ancestors to all living things." Chatterjee said his study of three sites containing the world's oldest fossils suggests the first single-celled organisms formed in hydrothermal crater basins. Meteorites punching through the Earth's crust created volcanically driven geothermal vents and also brought the basic building blocks of life that could be concentrated and polymerized in the crater basins, he said. "The emergence of the first cells on the early Earth was the culmination of a long history of prior chemical, geological and cosmic processes," he said.
*-- Human impact on sea turtles shows up in studies of genetic diversity --*ADELAIDE, Australia - DNA studies of endangered sea turtles point to loss of genetic diversity caused by recent human exploitation, Australian scientists say. Researchers at Flinders University in Adelaide say their study demonstrates the significant consequences human over-exploitation can have on marine life. The work used DNA samples from 334 turtles collected across 18 nesting sites along 1,800 miles of Mexico's Pacific coast. Between 1960 and 1990, more than 2 million olive ridley turtles --as many as 350,000 in 1968 alone -- and their eggs were commercially harvested along the coast of Mexico, the researchers said. "We not only found signal associated with recent loss of genetic diversity but two other interesting results: first, the intensive exploitation of a few nesting sites caused a reduction in genetic diversity in olive ridley turtles along the entire coastal region," Flinders doctoral student Jimena Rodriguez-Zarate said. "Second, the harvesting of individuals and nests had led to a change in the behavior of nesting females who no longer nest in synchronized and massive mode with other females," she said. "Instead, they now seek a solitary nest." Although olive ridley turtle numbers are recovering since the introduction in 1990 of a prohibition on harvesting, the study findings have important implications for marine conservation policy, the researchers said. "The results serve as a guide to where to set up marine reserves, for instance," ecologist Luciano Beheregaray said. "Genetic diversity is fundamental for the persistence of species. Keeping species with high levels of genetic diversity is what is needed to ensure long-term maintenance of biodiversity," he said.
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