A proposal concerning the origin of life on the planet earth (original) (raw)

Summary

The widely accepted Oparin thesis for the origin and early evolution of life seems sufficiently far from the true state of affairs as to be considered incorrect. It is proposed that life on earth actually arose in the planet's atmosphere, however an atmosphere very different from the present one. Because of an extremely warm surface, the early earth may have possessed no liquid surface water, its water being partitioned between a molten crust and a fairly dense atmosphere. Early preliving systems are taken to arise in the droplet phase in such an atmosphere. The early earth, which resembled Venus then and to some extent now, underwent a transition to its present condition largely as a result of the evolution of methanogenic metabolism.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Genetics and Development, University of Illinois, 61801, Urbana, IL, USA
   C. R. Woese

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Woese, C.R. A proposal concerning the origin of life on the planet earth.J Mol Evol 13, 95–101 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01732865

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• Received: 12 March 1979
• Issue Date: June 1979
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01732865

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