Hypothesis: All Organisms Evolved from the Sea

[dmarion]

I am in a gifted and talented class at school. I am on a project that attempts to prove that all organisms evolve from the sea.

If anyone can provide some links or advice that can either prove or disprove this hypothesis, I would be greatful for your assistance.

[James]

It truly does take a gifted and talented individual to go straight to an internet forum for help. Anyway, try out some research on hydrothermal vents.

[conkers321]

If you want to have a look at the emergence of land vertebrates you would want to look at lungfish, lobe-finned fish and acantheostega.

Also you can use molecular phylogenies to retrace the ancestry of pretty much anything back in time to the nearest common ancestor. And for vertebrates and invertebrates, the neasrest common ancestor is marine.

[kotoreru]

Hmm. Like all things, this depends what you mean. There werent always oceans, and what do you class as life? Amino acids?

[mith]

Proof? All organisms? Good luck. You might want to talk to your teacher about scope...

[robertkernodle]

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I think that it is my sworn duty to start messing with your mind at the earliest possible stage of your intellectual development.

He he he!

Ask your teacher what restraints he wants to put on the word, "sea".

Does he mean "sea", as in "liquid water"? Why should we stop there?

Could he mean "sea", as in "sea of cosmic plasma", which comprises 99% of the known (NON-dark matter) universe?

Could he mean "sea", as in "sea of atomic particles"? "Sea", as in "sea of quantum foam"?

See................. what I mean?

There's no denying that all things come from the sea.

RK

[James]

Im pretty sure its obvious that sea in this context is the sea of cosmic plasma, which comprises 99% of the known (NON-dark matter) universe. Lets not waste forum space debating these things when its so obvious.

[kotoreru]

This kind of thing reminds me of when I was at GCSE doing 'Home Economics' (cooking). James should recall - being English.

I once said that my final project should be a chocolate gateaux. The teacher just laughed at me and made some comment about knowing one's limitations.

Perhaps our topic starter could learn something from this.

[robertkernodle]

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Hi dmarion,

Well we just are not being too helpful, at this point, are we?

Of course, the most probable limitation on the word "sea" implied by your teacher is good ol' terrestrial H2O.

There's a book I myself would like to get around to reading, and maybe I can suggest it here for you too,.... as a source of insights:

Panno, Joseph Ph.D., THE CELL: Evolution of the First Organisms.

RK

[James]

You do realise thats a biology book right?

[robertkernodle]

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Well, I guess I could lower myself to read it anyway.

RK

[pez123]

A good place to start is by looking at the defining features of a tetrapod: 4 limbs, 5 digits, etc.... You could talk about the early tetrapod "experiments" such as acanthostega and ichthyostega which have 6 or 7 digits. Basicly anything conserved across all tetrapods would have evolved from a common ancestor that left the ocean sometime during the late Ordivician.