Scientists name primary metal that explains origin of life on Earth 00:10

American scientists from the University of Michigan, the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Los Angeles have discovered that iron is the oldest and only metal that has influenced the development of life on Earth. The research was published in the scientific journal magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“We argue that life relied solely on metals with which it could interact, and that the iron-rich early ocean essentially rendered other transition metals invisible,” said Jena Johnson, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan.

According to the researchers, iron dominated the Earth’s oceans during the Archean Eon (geological period), which began about 4 billion years ago and lasted about 1.5 billion years.
The end of the Archaean era was marked by what is called the Great Oxygenation Event.

During this time, life developed the ability to photosynthesize to produce oxygen. Scientists believe that over the next billion years, Earth’s oceans transformed from an iron-rich, anoxic sea to a modern, oxygenated body of water. It also oxidized iron oxide Fe(II) to Fe(III) oxide, making it insoluble.

To examine potential impacts, the team developed a model that updated estimates of the concentrations of certain metals, including iron, manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper and zinc, that would have been present in Earth’s oceans when life began.

After scientists determined what metals were present in the early oceans, they examined which metals simple biomolecules could bind to. It turned out that the molecules interacted only with iron.

When iron oxidized and became unavailable for bioavailability, ancient organisms were forced to reorient themselves to other metals, which later gave rise to a variety of life forms.

Earlier scientists clarified The mystery of the origin of the first living cells on Earth.