Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

imafrk t1_j8hwpb6 wrote

It's completely possible that abiogenesis (or Panspermia) did occur many times, but whatever organisms emerged as a result became extinct early on or are not preserved in the fossil record.

The places on earth right now (that we know about) where sterile but minimal materials for self replication machinery are available are very rare, and only on very specific parts of the Earth. Given that, whatever primordial soup pocket that does pop up now has to compete with any loose complex organic matter around it, so good luck to my little progenitors....

8

Gamma_31 t1_j8iscjt wrote

Your first point reminds me of the Ediacaran biota, which appears to contain the earliest forms of multi-cellular life - before even the Cambrian Explosion. What's fascinating is that probably 99.9% of these species died out 600 million years ago, with that small fraction surviving into the Cambrian to establish the forms we know today.

2

imafrk t1_j8kog2g wrote

Agreed, the Ediacaran period was a frontrunner for MCL. Shame we know so little about the transition from that period

2