Fundamental Properties of Life
* Cellular organization
* Sensitivity
* Growth
* Development
* Reproduction
* Regulation
* Homeostasis
* Heredity
Cambrian - Ordovician Period
* 500-450 MYA
* Increase in diversity
* First land plants
* Invertebrates dominate
Sillurian - Early Devonian Period
* 450-400 MYA
* Early vascular plant diversity
* Bony fish, tetrapods, seed plants, and insects appear
Cretaceous Period
* 150-50 MYA
* First flowering plants, birds, marsupial mammals
* Diversification of flowering plants
* Pollinating insects
* Mammal radiation
* Bird radiation
Kingdoms
* Animalia
* Plantae
* Viridiplantae (not Linnaean)
* Fungi
* Protista
* Archaea (Prokaryotes)
* Bacteria (Prokaryotes)
Archaean Characteristics
* Cell walls lack peptidoglycan (present in bacteria)
* Lipids in cell membranes have a different structure from those in all other organisms
* Distinctive rRNA sequences
Methanogens
* Obtain their energy by using H2 (g) to reduce CO2 to CH4 (g)
* Are anaerobes that are poisoned by the slightest traces of O2
* Live in swamps, marshes, and intestines of mammals releasing CH4 (g)
Extremophiles
* Able to grow under conditions that seem extreme to us
* Thermophiles - live in extreme hot
* Cold-adapted - live in extreme cold
* Halophiles - live in very salty environments
* pH-tolerant - live in highly acidic or highly basic environments
* Pressure-tolerant - live in the depths of the ocean at a minimum of twice the depth humans can survive (300m)
Bacteria
* More numerous than any other organism
* Play critical roles throughout the biospheres, such as extracting N2 from the air
* Highly diverse and blurred evolutionary links between species
* 12-15 major groups of bacteria
* Only living organisms with peptidoglycan in their cell walls