Natural History (13.8 billion years BC – 3.3 million BC)

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Fossil bones from the largest penguin that ever lived unearthed in New Zealand
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-fossil-bo ... rthed.html
by Sarah Collins, University of Cambridge

Fossil bones from two newly described penguin species, one of them thought to be the largest penguin to ever live—weighing more than 150 kilograms, more than three times the size of the largest living penguins—have been unearthed in New Zealand.

An international team, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, reported the discovery in the Journal of Paleontology. The paper's senior author, Alan Tennyson from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, discovered the fossils in 57 million-year-old beach boulders in North Otago, on New Zealand's South Island, between 2016 and 2017.

The fossils were then exposed from within the boulders by Al Manning. They have been identified as being between 59.5 and 55.5 million years old, marking their existence as roughly five to 10 million years after the end-Cretaceous extinction which led to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs.

The team used laser scanners to create digital models of the bones and compare them to other fossil species, flying diving birds like auks, and modern penguins. To estimate the size of the new species, the team measured hundreds of modern penguin bones and calculated a regression using flipper bone dimensions to predict weight.

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Ancient Proteins Offer New Clues About Origin of Life on Earth
February 27, 2023

Introduction:

(EurekAlert) By simulating early Earth conditions in the lab, researchers have found that without specific amino acids, ancient proteins would not have known how to evolve into everything alive on the planet today—including plants, animals, and humans.

The findings, which detail how amino acids shaped the genetic code of ancient microorganisms, shed light on the mystery of how life began on Earth.

“You see the same amino acids in every organism, from humans to bacteria to archaea, and that’s because all things on Earth are connected through this tree of life that has an origin, an organism that was the ancestor to all living things,” said Stephen Fried, a Johns Hopkins chemist who co-led the research with scientists at Charles University in the Czech Republic. “We’re describing the events that shaped why that ancestor got the amino acids that it did.”

The findings are newly published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

In the lab, the researchers mimicked primordial protein synthesis of 4 billion years ago by using an alternative set of amino acids that were highly abundant before life arose on Earth.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/980966

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Scientists Identify Chemical Reaction That May Have Triggered Life on Earth
by David Nield
March 14, 2023

Introduction:

(Science Alert) There was a critical point early in Earth's history when chemical reactions among the mix of organic molecules began to be powered from within, forming something we might start to think of as biological.

Just what this first metabolic reaction might have looked like remains an area of speculation. It had to have been simple enough to emerge from the assorted components likely to be present already, yet still efficient enough to serve as a catalyst for changes in its environment.

Now a team of researchers from Rutgers University and The City College of New York in the US have identified a protein that may have played a crucial role in getting life as we know it started – a simple peptide they're calling nickelback.

This isn't a tribute to the well-known Canadian rock band, but rather a reference to the protein's backbone, consisting of a chain of amino acids and two nitrogen atoms bonded to a pair of nickel atoms.

Not only could this discovery shed more light on the way that life began here on Earth, it could also give astronomers another clue in the search for life on other planets where these essential chemical ingredients are just beginning to form.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientist ... -on-earth

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Earliest Evidence of A Meteorite Hitting Earth May Have Been Found
by Dr Alfredo Carpineti, PhD.
March 17, 2023

Introduction:

(IFL Science) Researchers might have uncovered what is believed to be the earliest evidence of a meteorite's impact on Earth. In rocks from 3.48 billion years ago, researchers have discovered structures consistent with a collision from the heavens. These are rock spherules whose structure and chemical composition indicate that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is most likely the correct one.

Finding evidence of ancient impacts is difficult here on Earth. Tectonic plates and erosion have wiped out the evidence of these events that shaped the early history of our planet. The oldest known impact crater is the Yarrabubba crater in Western Australia, which dates from 2.23 billion years ago.

But there are regions on Earth with much older rocks, so researchers have been looking for indirect evidence of these impacts – such as the spherules. But rock spherules are not meteorite impact-exclusive. Geologists are aware of a few ways for them to come into being.

The analysis, led by graduate researcher Michaela Dobson from the University of Auckland, is consistent with the melting of rock following a high-speed impact. Basically, the space bolide struck the ground and melted rocks that flew into the air as tiny splashes, before landing back down and solidifying into these rocky droplets.

The way they are shaped, looking like teardrops and dumbbells, and with bubbles inside them, is a big indication that they formed following an impact. They look like other impact spherules that have been discovered in the same location at the Pilbara Craton in Australia and in the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa, although these are slightly younger, ranging between 3.4 to 3.2 billion years old.

Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/earliest-ev ... nd-68026