
15/08/2025
Earth and Life Science Quarter 2 – Module 1:
Evolving Concept of Life Based on Emerging Pieces of Evidence
What I Know
Directions: Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Dinosaurs are reptiles that existed for a very long time. Which era did these organisms evolve?
a. Cenozoic Era
b. Mesozoic Era
c. Paleozoic Era
d. Proterozoic Era
2. What are the first photosynthetic organisms that grew well on earth?
a. bryophyllum
b. cyanobacteria
c. stromatolites
d. zircon crystal
3. The oxygen revolution changed Earth’s environment dramatically. Which of the following adaptations took advantage of the presence of free oxygen in the oceans and atmosphere?
a. The evolution of cellular respiration, which used oxygen to help harvest energy from organic molecules.
b. The evolution of chloroplasts after early protists incorporated photosynthetic cyanobacteria
c. The evolution of multicellular eukaryotic colonies from communities of prokaryotes.
d. The evolution of photosynthetic pigments that protected early algae from the corrosive effects of oxygen.
4. Why did it take millions of years for life to appear on Earth after the planet had formed?
a. It took millions of years for RNA to replace DNA.
b. The planet had warmed up enough to sustain life.
c. The planet had cooled down enough to sustain life.
d. Life on Earth could begin only when seedlings arrived on our planet from other worlds.
5. Which types of organisms developed first due to the early environmental conditions on Earth?
a. eukaryotic and aerobic
b. eukaryotic and anaerobic
c. prokaryotic and aerobic
d. prokaryotic and anaerobic
6. What are called the remains of living organism used in understanding the history of life on earth?
a. bone
b. fossils
c. seeds
d. shells
7. Which statement is NOT true of fossils?
a. Plants can form fossils.
b. Some bacteria can form fossils.
c. Most extinct organisms have been preserved.
d. A small percent of extinct organisms is preserved.
8. Which of the following can be considered as a fossil?
a. a billion-year old rock
b. a billion-year old piece of amber
c. a billion-year old amber with a primitive insect inside
d. the choices are all correct
9. What unique substance do researchers look after in their study of eukaryotes?
a. biomarkers
b. fossils
c. mitochondria
d. stromatolites
10. What is the evidence for a last universal common ancestor among life on earth?
a. They are all aerobic.
b. They all look the same.
c. They all have the same synthesis pattern.
d. They share the same underlying molecular biology.
11. Which statement best shows the main significance of studying the past?
a. The past is attractive to look back.
b. It will give jobs for many scientists and paleontologists.
c. It will allow them to think what they need to study.
d. Understanding the past allows us to predict the future and help in creating it.
12. One significance of knowing the history of life is to determine the origin of one living organism. According to researchers, which of the following are the only surviving species of the genus Homo and one of the living evidences that life has existed on Earth?
a. birds
b. dinosaurs
c. human beings
d. sponges
13. Over the past decades, there are challenges that the environment has faced. Pandemics affected the lives of various living organisms. What is the significance of knowing this history?
a. It will give them an income.
b. They will just be informed about it.
c. It will lead them to know the history of life.
d. It will give an idea on how medical world will seek for the treatment.
14. The following statements are challenges for the researchers in finding and identifying signs of early cells. Which is not part of the group?
a. Materials and testing laboratories are not available.
b. Cells are microscopic and most have no parts to fossilize
c. Slightly younger rocks have been heated up and undergone other processes
d. Tectonic plate movements have destroyed nearly all rocks older than about 4 billion years
15. The study of history of life is significant in many aspects. The stromatolites played a significant role as a source of evidence. What is stromatolite?
a. It is found in animals.
b. It is produced by endosymbiosis.
c. It formed during volcanic eruptions.
d. It consists of layered bacteria and sediment.
Lesson 1 Evolving Concept of Life
Based on Emerging Pieces of
Evidence
Have you been curious of when and where did life possibly start on Earth? During the 1800s, geologists and the naturalists found several forms of physical evidence that confirmed that Earth is very old. The evidence includes: fossils of ancient sea life on dry land far from oceans, this supported the idea that the Earth changed over time and some dry land today was once covered by oceans; the many layers of rock allowed the people to realize that rock layers represent the order in which rocks and fossils appeared, thus they were able to trace the history of Earth and life on Earth; lastly, the indications that volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and erosion that happened long ago shaped much of the Earth’s surface and supported the idea of an older Earth. This module will help you understand the historical development of the concept of life based on emerging pieces of evidence. This will trace back the events, processes, and living organisms existed on earth from the earliest time to present.
What is It
The universe is about 4.6 billion years old. Life on earth, probably began only between 3.5 and 4.0 billion years ago. Evidences from fossil records show the emergence of the different life forms. The common ancestor of all life was prokaryotic. Since, oxygen was scarce on the early Earth, so the ancestral cell must also have been an anaerobic. There are some challenges encountered in searching for the evidence of early life. Cells are microscopic and most have no parts to fossilize. The tectonic plate movements have destroyed nearly all rocks older than about 4 billion years, and most of the younger rocks have been heated or undergone processes that destroy the traces of biological material. At present, the oldest cell microfossils (microscopic fossils) are filaments from 3.5 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. The filaments resemble chains of modern photosynthetic bacteria and the rocks in which they occur are the remains of ancient stromatolites.
The researchers look for biomarkers specific to eukaryotes. It is a substance that occurs only or predominantly in cells of a specific type. Eukaryotes are organisms having true nucleus. The DNA is enclosed within the nucleus whereas DNA of most prokaryotes lies enclosed in the cell’s cytoplasm. The first eukaryotes were protists.
For life to evolve from simple single-celled organisms to many millions of species of prokaryotic species to simple eukaryotic species to all the protists, fungi, plants, and animals, took some time. The first life forms were very basic and this then allowed for the evolution of more complex life forms. Eukaryotic cells evolved from prokaryotic cells. The evolution of life is brought about the changes in the environment which are linked to changes in climate and geology. These Earth’s environmental changes made the Earth’s environment more suitable for a wider variety of life forms.