The Earth’s surface during the early development of life could heat up to 75 degrees Celsius before dropping to 35 degrees.
In a study just published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA suggest that the Earth’s surface about 3 billion years ago , when life first appeared, was hot. to 75 degrees Celsius , according to Livescience. The temperature only dropped to 35 degrees Celsius around 420 million years ago.
To figure out the early Earth’s temperature, paleontologist Amanda Garcia and her colleagues “revived” ancient enzymes by studying an enzyme called NDK . These forms of proteins exist in nearly all living organisms, most likely in extinct organisms.
Earth graphics in the early stages of formation. (Photo: NASA).
By comparing multiple molecular sequences of NDK forms in many species today, the researchers reconstructed versions of NDK that may have been present in their common ancestor.
From these ancient versions of the enzyme, scientists were able to determine the ambient temperature when early life forms formed. Previous research has found a correlation between the temperature that helps maintain protein stability and the growth of living tissues.
Garcia chose to replicate the NDK of terrestrial plants and photosynthetic bacteria living in the sun-drenched sea floor to eliminate the possibility of organisms living near thermal environments falsifying the research results.
“We need to understand more about not only the early evolution of life on Earth but also the co-evolution of life and Earth’s environment billions of years ago,” Garcia said. “Because that also seems to be the way for life to develop elsewhere in the universe.”
Scientists previously said geological evidence indicated that 3.5 billion years ago, Earth’s oceans were between 55 and 85 degrees Celsius, then cooled down to an average temperature of 15 degrees Celsius as the day now.