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ES 2-7: Early Life
Early life on Earth
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| outgassing of water | When water vapor is released from inside the Earth through volcanoes or cracks in the ground, adding moisture to the atmosphere. |
| weathering rates | How fast rocks break down into smaller pieces due to wind, water, or temperature changes. |
| Coastal erosion | When waves, wind, or storms wear away land along the coast, changing the shape of the shoreline. |
| Coastal deposition | When sand, rocks, or other materials are dropped off along the coast, building up new land like beaches or sandbars. |
| asexual reproduction | one parent cell makes a copy of itself (daughter cell) |
| life processes | The basic activities that all living things do to stay alive. |
| evolution | The slow change in living things over a long time. It explains how simple life forms changed into more complex ones and how species adapt to their environment. |
| cells | The basic building blocks of all living things. They are the smallest units that can carry out life processes. |
| prokaryote | A simple cell without a nucleus. Bacteria are prokaryotes. |
| heterotrophic life | Early life forms that couldn’t make their own food. They had to eat other things to get energy. |
| Reef-building organisms | Sea creatures like corals that build large underwater structures (reefs) that provide homes for many ocean animals. |
| photosynthetic life | Living things, like plants and algae, that use sunlight to make their own food and release oxygen. |
| Sexual reproduction | Combining eggs and sperm to create a new organism with unique genetic material |
| eukaryote | A more complex cell that has a nucleus and organelles. Plants, animals, and fungi are made of eukaryotic cells. |
| formation of soil | The process of making soil from broken-down rocks, dead plants, and tiny organisms over time. |
| multicellular organisms | Living things made up of many cells, like humans, animals, and plants. |
| Animal life | All living creatures that move and eat other organisms for energy, like insects, birds, fish, and mammals. |
| Plant life | All types of plants, from tiny mosses to tall trees, that use sunlight to make food and provide oxygen and shelter. |
| Co-evolution | When two or more species change over time because they interact closely with each other, like bees and flowers evolving together. |
| geoscience factors | natural Earth processes like volcanoes, earthquakes, and erosion that shape the land and affect life on Earth. |
| habitat formation | The creation of natural homes for plants and animals, like forests, wetlands, or coral reefs. |
| protocells | Simple cell-like structures that may have been the first step toward real living cells. |
| stromatolites | Rock-like structures made by ancient bacteria that lived in shallow water. They are some of the oldest evidence of life on Earth. |
| endosymbiosis | A theory that explains how some organelles (like mitochondria and chloroplasts) were once free-living bacteria that got inside another cell and started working together. |
| microbial life | Tiny living things like bacteria and fungi that are too small to see without a microscope. They help with things like breaking down waste and making soil. |
| cell membrane | A thin, flexible layer that surrounds the cell. It controls what goes in and out, like a gatekeeper. |
| cytoplasm | A jelly-like fluid inside the cell where all the parts (organelles) float and work. |
| ribosome | Tiny structures in the cell that make proteins, which help the cell grow and do its job. |
| chromosome | Long strands of DNA found in the nucleus. They carry the instructions (genes) that tell the cell what to do. |
| organelle | Small parts inside a cell that each have a special job, like tiny organs in a body. |
| nucleus | The control center of the cell. It holds the chromosomes and tells the cell what to do. |
| vacuole | A storage space in the cell. It holds water, food, or waste. Plant cells usually have one big vacuole. |
| mitochondria | The “powerhouse” of the cell. They turn food into energy the cell can use. |
| chloroplast | Found only in plant cells, these organelles use sunlight to make food through photosynthesis. |
| cell wall | A stiff outer layer found in plant cells. It gives the cell shape and support. |
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