Microbial Life Found in Hydrocarbon Lake

How strange.

This really speaks of the tenacity of life, the ability to adapt in extreme conditions and the absurdity of thinking that life was created.
 
Kennyc said:
"Thursday, April 15, 2010
Microbial Life Found in Hydrocarbon Lake
Scientist find life in a lake of asphalt that is the closest thing on Earth to the hydrocarbon seas on Titan "

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25051/
Click to expand...

Bacteria came first right? I understand they reproduce, consume and have DNA so they are classed as living things. What I'm asking is, before cellular life came along, what did bacteria dine on? Rocks? Certain elements? What? Other bacteria?

So doesn't it seem natural for bacteria to evolve or is it develop life that provides an endless bounty and an easier way for bacteria to survive. Could cellular life be an adaptation in itself? These asphalt consuming bits of DNA, are they ancient, representative of an earlier time prior to life fully encompassing the globe?

It's strange to think that bacteria is here to consume the world to their heart's content, return the world in the form of a byproduct or waste, and then eat it again? It's like a non-stop eating binge. Other than the bacteria world, could life merely be the result of natural selection?
 
PsychoticEpisode said:
Bacteria came first right? I understand they reproduce, consume and have DNA so they are classed as living things. What I'm asking is, before cellular life came along, what did bacteria dine on? Rocks? Certain elements? What? Other bacteria?

So doesn't it seem natural for bacteria to evolve or is it develop life that provides an endless bounty and an easier way for bacteria to survive. Could cellular life be an adaptation in itself? These asphalt consuming bits of DNA, are they ancient, representative of an earlier time prior to life fully encompassing the globe?

It's strange to think that bacteria is here to consume the world to their heart's content, return the world in the form of a byproduct or waste, and then eat it again? It's like a non-stop eating binge. Other than the bacteria world, could life merely be the result of natural selection?
Click to expand...

A popular theory is that life started near hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean. Recently there has been a model that showed that the structure of hydrothermal vents would encourage the evolution of membranes and the ATP synthase that is so essential to respiration.

The first microbes evolved when the earth was young, and it was much hotter and did not have an oxygen atmosphere. They did in fact eat 'rocks' (bacteria that are now known as lithotrophs), or rather the high energy mineral compounds spewed from deep within the earth at these vents.

Such anaerobic, thermophilic, lithotrophic organisms still exist on earth, and genetic evidence points to the fact that they are very closely related to the first organisms that lived on earth, ie these are the 'least' evolved organisms on earth! IE they did not have to adapt to these new environments since those are the conditions in which they originally came to existence.
 
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