My Theory on the Origins of Humans

Please keep in mind that this entire post is my opinion, it is not necessarily the truth about how life evolved on Earth. It is my theory, so please read this post with that in mind.

Go look at a mirror. No, not to adore yourself for hours on end, but to ask questions. CURIOSITY. We go to school everyday, attend clases, eat lunch, play sports, and do homework; but step back for a moment. Where did we come from? Have you ever wondered? It is a question that drives people mad and creates lots of controversy in society. Some people believe God created everything and other believe in the theory of evolution. Why can we not believe in both?

During the very beginning of our planet, Earth was not a fun place to be in. Bits of rocks and other materials flying together and violently smashing to create a spherical and burning hot planet. Many years later, things started to cool down and form. One of the possible formations were sulfur pits, composed mostly of H2S. As all this formation was taking place, hundreds of meteorites were still entering Earth and changing the shape of the planet. Findings by NASA have proven that meteorites contain nucleobases (such as adenine and guanine) and amino acids. What might've happened was that a meteorite containing such molecules entered Earth and entered near or in a sulfur pit. This would create a big soup of H2S, nucelobases, ATP, and amino acids. ATP would've been present because the extremely high energy level of the Earth and things in the Earth could have produced ATP or a similar energy carrier molecule. Now, with all theses essential-to-life molecules, something or someone might have caused things to happen. Possibly, these self-replicating nucleotides might have replicated in these sulfur pits by using energy from ATP. A membrane composed of oil drops could have formed to protect the DNA. These partial cells would've been fine at the time, they had large amounts of ATP and could easily replicate. A problem could've rose with the diffusion of H2S form the sulfur pits into the cells, causing the cells to burst. Based on the formula 8H2S ----> H+ ions + S8, something similar to the proton pump in the electron transport system might have evolved. ATP would be used to break down H2S, which would create protons and S8. Protons would be trapped inside the cell, and a proton pump could use diffusion to pump them out. At the time, there was most likely no ATP synthetase. The next problem these cells would encounter would be running out of ATP. Meteorites would provide ATP, but not an unlimited supply that the cells could use to replicate DNA. This could have caused the evolution of the current proton pump. Protons would travel through ATP synthetase or a similar protein to synthesis ATP from ADP and P. The ADP and P would be available because after using energy from ATP, ADP and P are left around in this sulfur pit. As with all species at a certain point, overpopulation would occur. There wouldn't be enough resources to allow everyone in the sulfur pits to survive. This might have caused the evolution of autotrophs such as plants and other cells, which could escape the sulfur pits and survive. Another possibility would be that the cells in the sulfur pits might have evolved to break down water into protons and O2, as plants do now, to help decrease the amount of H2S in the sulfur pits. With a high amount of oxygen in the pits, the cells could have gotten poisoned by all the oxygen. Separate independent mitochondria cells could have entered these cells to consume oxygen and produce CO2 and ATP, as it does now. This could be the reason why mitochondria still have their on DNA. Whatever happened to solve overpopulation worked. Many years later, more complex organisms and eukaryotes evolved, and slowly, dinosaurs would have evolved. The three principles of evolution, according to Stephen Jay Gould, give insight to how certain organism evolved. The three principles are pre-adaptation, neoteny, and sexual selection vs. natural selection. Pre-adaptation is the idea that traits evolve for one application but become useful for another. A great examples of this are feathers, originally used to conserve heat, but then became useful for flight.  Neoteny is retaining juvenile characteristics. Finally, there is sexual selection vs. natural selection. According to Darwin, evolution is driven by natural selection, a process in which organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive. There are many examples that contract this theory. The best example is the male species of the bird of paradise. The male form of this organism has a huge 6in tail which is extremely bright, making the bird of paradise easy prey. This is where the concept of sexual selection comes in. The physical appearance of the male bird of paradise makes it attractive to females. This bird wasn't made to survive, but rather to mate.

(Male of The Bird of Paradise Shown Above)

Anyways, back to dinosaurs. About 200 million years later, a huge meteor destroyed the dinosaurs. This is considered a catastrophic event, but without it, humans might have not come to existence. According to punctuated equilibrium, after a major disaster occurs, there is a time period after which allows for many new organisms to evolve. Because there is little competition when the majority of life on Earth has been wiped, these new organisms don't have to be extremely well designed. The better designed organisms kill off the other organisms and the cycle repeats again. In the history of Earth, there have been a total of 5 catastrophic events that have occurred. Some type of primate or maybe even humans might have evolved after one of these. Slowly after time, neanderthals and humans came into existence. After interbreeding with neanderthals, humans slowly killed off the neanderthals and other competitors. Now, we have finally arrived to present day. Hopefully you have found my theory interesting. Not all these ideas are mine, so sources will be listed below. I suggest you read them.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/dna-meteorites.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny
http://cairnarvon.rotahall.org/2007/01/27/neoteny-in-humans/
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/