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Thermosynthesis model for the origin of life extended to include the emergence of animals

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a.w.j....@uva.nl

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Jul 11, 2009, 9:54:25 AM7/11/09

Hi everyone,

In the thermosynthesis theory for the origin of life the primordial
free energy generator was thermal cycling driven by convection in a
volcanic hot spring. The theory has been extended to incorporate the
emergence of the animals during the late-Proterozoic Snowball Earths;
at that time, when photosynthesis may have been absent, the free
energy generator would have been the thermal gradient between
submarine hydrothermal vents and the cold ocean:

Abstract ISSOL 2008 conference:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11084-009-9164-7

2008: “Emergence of animals from heat engines. Part 1. Before the
Snowball Earths”
http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.1375

2009: “Animal emergence during Snowball Earths by thermosynthesis in
submarine hydrothermal vents”
http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3333/version/2

These publications may be of interest to paleontologists as well as
biochemists and molecular biologists, or, more generally, anyone
interested in the emergence of the animals after the Snowball Earths.

Enjoy thermosynthesis,
Anthonie Muller

Earlier publications in which thermosynthesis is applied in modeling
the origin of life can be found at:
1996: “Were the first organisms heat engines? A new model for
biogenesis and the early evolution of biological energy conversion”
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0079-6107(95)00004-7

2006 (with Dirk Schulze-Makuch): “Thermal energy and the origin of
life”
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11084-005-9003-4

2005: “Thermosynthesis as energy source for the RNA World: a model for
the bioenergetics of the origin of life“
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2005.06.003

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