Two
hundred and fifty million years ago a Cosmic Catastrophe occurred
that nearly ended all life on planet Earth. An asteroid thirty miles
wide struck the Earth near a rift in the crust in present day
Antarctica, creating a crater big enough to hold the state of Ohio.
This asteroid was five times as wide as the asteroid that made the
Chicxulub crater in the Caribbean 65 million years ago and ended the
reign of the dinosaurs. Ninety percent of life in the Ocean was
exterminated by the tremendous impact and subsequent ruin of the
ecosystem. This is known as the Permian-Triassic extinction event.
Within a few million years living organisms, so tiny that one
thousand could fit across the span of a centimeter, proliferated and
changed Life on planet Earth. These are known today as
Coccolithophores.
Ancient
cyanobacteria (blue green algae) thriving in the the Triassic Ocean
trapped the Sun's energy inside thylakoid membranes. Cyanobacteria
have been found in fossils dating to 2.8 Billion years ago. A battle
of supremacy of the shallow seas was waged for nearly two billion
years before the advent of eukaryote algae around 1 billion years
ago. The evidence of their victory is in the proliferation of
Prochlorococcus, a unicellular cyanobacteria (less than 1 micron
size) that lives throughout the euphotic to oxycline depths (150-200
meters) of the Ocean today. For the first time in the history of the
Earth, Ocean would be oxygenated to the regions of the deep. But
where once victory is achieved competition comes along to snatch the
prize. Who would claim dominance over the Earth?
The
atmosphere of ancient Earth of the Archean Era 3.8 billion years ago
was toxic to animal life, consisting of merely 75% Nitrogen and 15%
Carbon dioxide (0.039% today).Vulcan ruled the planet that cooled in
the fire of Creation. Volcanoes spewed gases to fill the atmosphere
with a toxic brew of hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, methane,
carbon monoxide, ammonia, ash, heavy metals and also life giving
water but no oxygen. Icy comets may have also shed water passing
through the atmosphere. The crust of the Earth solidified and water
condensed from the atmosphere to fill the voids of the deep and make
an Ocean planet. Ultraviolet and Cosmic Rays bombarded the surface of
the Ocean on the planet and dissociated water to create a thin Ozone
layer. Primitive prokaryotes developed from the thermal vents, pools
and ooze of early Earth. These developed mitochondria to utilize
energy from minerals and thyllakoid membranes to capture energy from
the intense radiation. Primitive purple sulfur bacteria of this type
photosynthesized sugars from hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide but
evolved sulfur instead of oxygen in this simplified reaction: 2H2S +
CO2 → (CH2O) + H2O + 2S. These creatures ruled the anoxic Earth for
another billion years until their upset by the upstart Cyanobacteria.
For
it take another billion years that prokaryotes to develop thyllakoid
membranes and pigments to capture visible light and photosynthesize
sugar from water and carbon dioxide and evolve oxygen. These were the
ancestors of tiny marine bacteria like prochlorococcus that provide
at least 20 % of the oxygen from the Ocean today. Yet in the
Paleoproterozoic Era 2500 million years ago the autotrophic
cyanobacteria penetrated only the shallows of the great Ocean. Within
a hundred million years oxygen began to accumulate in the Ocean and
the atmosphere poisoning the anaerobic bacteria. The sulfur bacteria
began their retreat into the depths of the Ocean and inhabited
hydrothermal vents , volcanic pools, swamps and marshes where they
are found today. Galactic Cosmic rays (GCR) from stars forming and
exploding across the universe bombarded the barren rocks of Earth
relentlessly. Under these extreme conditions the first bacteria that
resemble mitochondria and chloroplasts found in eukaryotes developed.
It is thought that the intense GCR flux stimulated the development
of new life forms as fullerenes are found in rocks associated with
deep sea hydrothermal vents. The cold harsh winds swept the ancient
seas against the continental shelves upwelling nutrients which fed
colonies of cyanobacteria basking in the Sun. Perhaps the fullerene
carbon provided plenty of electromagnetic potential for the new
communities. And fullerene is one substance that can be a conduit of
intense cosmic rays.
With
the advent of cyanobacteria that could photosynthesize sugar and
oxygen from water and carbon dioxide, the oxygenation of the seas and
atmosphere began. Cyanobacteria transformed the world as the
chemobacteria retreated to the depths of the Ocean and the anoxic
regions of marshes. Most of the Oxygen evolved was consumed by iron
deposits. It would take another two billion years for oxygen levels
to reach present levels. This revolution of the cyanobacteria
diminished carbon dioxide levels and oxygen peaked to nearly 5
percent. Undoubtedly this hurtled the world into its first Ice Age
covering much of the land in glaciers. During these cold times
heterotrophic predators were busy feasting on smaller aerobic
bacteria and the first organisms with mitochondria appeared. At
least the smaller of the two would not have the misfortune of being
eaten again but was now in the belly of the beast. This engulfing
event was the first primary endosymbiosis in the history of Earth's
evolution. Such a being would be classified as a Protist for it would
have a cell wall with its own nucleus and mitochondria contained
separately in vesicles. It was the harbinger of animals, heterotrophs
which prey and engulf other beings.
Within
a billion years from origin of the cyanobacteria, eukaryotes with
chloroplasts appeared. The first step was the advent of unicellular
bacteria with thyllakoid membranes capable of photosynthesis.
For
another billion years protists (heterotrophic) attacked cyanobacteria
for food energy to supply their mitochondria energy needs. The next
stage in evolution occurred when a predatory protist with a
mitochondria engulfed a cyanobacteria which became a chloroplast
within the new being as the nucleic acids recombined within the
nucleus. However the marine bacteria were not digested but lived
within trapped and used to gather the Sun's energy as the bacteria
had thyllakoids to produce sugars. The larger organisms which hunted
them were heterotrophic without the ability to photosynthesize sugars
from carbon dioxide and water. But with the algae trapped within
their cell walls, the hunter could gain energy from these sugars.
Instead of engulfing other organisms and diverting energy to digest
them, by trapping an autotroph they would have a photosynthetic
engine as well. So this was the beginning of alga which would soon
dominate the sea and creep onto land to evolve into plants and
animals.
The
atmosphere of the Proterozoic era (2500 – 542 Mya) was much more
intense than today with Ultraviolet and Cosmic Rays bombarding the
surface of the Ocean on the planet. Ultraviolet rays dissociated
water into hydrogen and oxygen to provide only 1 to 2 % Oxygen
levels. Eukaryotes developed with chloroplasts and nuclei. Green and
red alga were abundant in the Ocean. Snowball Earth developed as the
globe became glaciated and 70% of life in Ocean died.
Our
present eon (Phanerozoic 542 Mya) began with the Cambrian Age and an
abundance of multicellular life. With the end of the last Ice Age the
Ocean was oxygenated to the seafloor. Animals of most groups appear
along with the first animals with shells. The evolution of
Coccolithophores was underway in the Ocean, tiny spherical cells only
5-100 micrometers across or about 1000 to 20,000 per centimeter.
These are photosynthetic protists that float near the surface of
seawater. They are covered with calcium carbonate discs that reflect
much of the incident ultraviolet light. Three more mass extinctions
occurred in the Ocean as Ice Ages came and went, the first forests
appeared and vertebrates appeared on land, mountains rose and eroded.
Coccolithophores first appeared in the fossil record 220 Mya in the
sediments of copepod ooze on the seafloor. The indomitable tiny
creatures survived Ice Ages and the great Permian- Triassic event
that killed off 90% of life in the Ocean. A meteor impacting
Antarctica left a 300 mile wide crater may have been the cause.
Oxygen levels in the atmosphere dropped from from 30 to 12%, Carbon
dioxide levels at 2000 ppm.
Haplophyte
evolution
A
revolution occurred after the Permian-Triassic extinction event. An
extraterrestrial code was sent via the stars in the form of cosmic
radiation signaling the evolution of new life forms. These galactic
cosmic rays with an intense pulsed code devastated life forms not
selected for life. A new form of life called Haptophytes had been
developing for a billion years or so with protective plates of
calcite (calcium carbonate). Calcite is a mineral that is known to
polarize light and deflect its course. On the outside of
coccolithophores these calcite plates are arranged to form a geodesic
dome similar to that found in an even more miniscule world.
Coccolithophores are on the order of 6-20 microns in diameter whereas
fullerene is only 1 nanometer across. Mathematicians must marvel at
the magnitude and scope of these designs. Fullerene is a very rare
form of carbon shaped like a geodesic dome or soccer ball. Usually
carbon shares only two to four of its bonds with atoms like hydrogen,
oxygen or nitrogen. Fullerene shares its bonds with 60 other carbon
atoms to form a globe. It is a component of stardust along with the
magnetic wavefront of cosmic radiation. A shape such as a geodesic on
calcite plates could deflect any radiation from its surface any
radiation into the surrounding seawater where hydrogen would saturate
the electrical energy. Could it be that the organism had taken in
this fullerene in photosynthesis and used it as a template to
construct a shell against cosmic radiation? I propose that fullerene
is used during the dark reactions of the Calvin cycle when the Sun is
down and the organism is respiring and using sugar for energy. This
is an example of a unicellular organism achieving a feat of
engineering in deflecting GCR at night and Ultraviolet during the
day, also transferring that energy to a lower frequency between cells
that can be used in photosynthesis. The angles of the plates can
explain the deflection and refraction through water will lower the
frequency of the radiation.
This
was the beginning of a symbiosis between two distinct organisms both
of whom would benefit by this unique relationship.
These
haptophytes were developed from protists that were predatory on other
protists with the organelles of chloroplasts and mitochondria. As was
mentioned earlier in the eons of life on Earth, a heterotrophic
protist engulfed a cyanobacteria to become a eukaryote, a secondary
endosymbiosis. The Haptophyte revolution involved the engulfing of
autotrophic protists with added machinery of Golgi apparatus and
endoplasmic reticulum to make flagella, plates and most important two
phases of growth. The haploid phase was larger with plates and lived
primarily near the nutrient rich coastlines, free floating lacking
mobility. The diploid phase was tiny in comparison without plates and
a haptonema used for motility, lived in the open ocean. This tiny
phase may resemble the original organism engulfed by a larger
predator.
These
ancient heterotrophs were covered with calcium carbonate shells to
protect them from larger mobile predators such as ancient krill and
copepods. These shells also protected the algae from the intense
short wave radiation from the Sun and distant stars. Together they
are known as Coccolithophores. With calcite discs to reflect
Ultraviolet rays they could live near the surface and gather sunlight
for photosynthesis. The predatory Zooplankton would be harmed by
mutagenic rays from the Sun and distant stars. So zooplankton such
as copepods and krill with no such armor to reflect Ultraviolet rays
migrated into the depths of the Ocean hundreds of meters until night
time. The atmosphere of the early Triassic era moderated with Oxygen
climbing to near 20% and Carbon dioxide dropping below 5 % (1000ppm).
Coccolithophores diverged into many families and species through
succeeding periods of Jurassic, Cretaceous and survived two more mass
extinctions to reinvent itself in our age.
But
what had caused this evolution, this change, this mutagenesis of the
nucleus containing DNA? What was the primary agent that caused this
symbiosis to occur? Cyanobacteria did not migrate into
Coccolithophoress to go on a vacation. Neither did Coccoliths eat the
algae with the intention of having a new friend or boarder. How did
it happen? That is a mystery.
We
know one thing that causes mutagenesis, the breakage of DNA inside
the nucleus of these organisms. GCR (Galactic Cosmic Rays) have been
studied for the past hundred years as agents of mutation. GCR are a
very high frequency form of Light or Electromagnetic Energy which of
course can not be seen. It is thought that GCR originate from
exploding stars many light years away from planet Earth. GCR is like
a pulsed digital waveform that is pushed by an electromagnetic wave
across the universe. Such a pulse can be thought of as a code or a
message just as a digital code in electronics. So this Code is
sending a message that changes the development of Life on Earth. In
fact Plant Physiologists know that different frequencies of Light
make plants behave differently like a code.
A
few stray Cosmic Rays will probably not affect a change but the
probability increases with increased bombardment. Such a term is GCR
flux. This flux is impeded by the electromagnetic field of the Sun.
As it has a large gravity field due to its size and proximity to
Earth,the Sun has a flux of radiation that is propelled toward the
Earth in a Solar wind. The Solar flux is cyclical due to its inner
dynamo and gravity fields around the Milky Way. The 11 year cycle
governs the Sunspot cycle. When the Sun is active and its surface is
turbulent,there are many Sunspots and the Solar flux is greater. At
this time the Solar wind diverts the GCR away from Earth. Thus GCR
flux is less when the Sun is turbulent. When the Sun is quiet there
are few Sunspots and more GCR flux reaches the Earth. So at this time
mutations are more likely to occur due to GCR mutagenesis. This
strong GCR flux will have a dramatic effect on organisms living near
the surface of the Ocean. At this intensity GCR will damage the
nuclear strands of DNA in unprotected marine viruses, bacteria and
zooplankton. To survive these organisms must migrate to depths of
hundreds of meters away from the phytoplankton on the surface. GCR
arrives at night and to a lesser extent during the day. Predation of
the phytoplankton is decreased to a great degree resulting in more
blooms of phytoplankton. Delicate cellular material such as DNA
stored in the nucleus inside the Coccolithophores are protected by
the shells which reflect much of the radiation.
Coccolithophores release DMSP a foul smelling compound that repels to
some extent Zooplankton from feeding on them. This organic compound
is also an energy source for marine bacteria that use the carbon in
DMSP as an energy source. So what repels Zooplankton attracts
scavenging heterotrophic bacteria. Next viruses attack the weakened
phytoplankton being eaten by Zooplankton. Ehux (Emiliania huxleya), a
Coccolith is well known for DMSP production. Marine bacteria convert
some of the DMSP into DMS and other methylated compounds for direct
use. DMS quickly is released into the air above the surface. The
other compounds are used by the bacteria as they cluster near the
Ehux colonies. The Ehux are tiny globes that look like little planets
floating in the Ocean. With their life cycle ending as Coccolith
globes they divide and disperse as even smaller mobile creatures with
flagella. This is how they avoid the viruses which cling onto the
shells and attack the Coccoliths. Later the haploid Emiliania mate
and form new Coccoliths.
The
life cycle of Ehux is shortened by the stress of attack by
Zooplankton, bacteria and viruses. The haploid form is not protected
by the shells of Coccoliths and must mate to form a new generation.
When the Sun is turbulent, the Zooplankton have the upper hand and
blooms of phytoplankton decrease.
This
also means that less DMS and Oxygen is released into the atmosphere,
less Carbon is fixed by the Coccoliths. It is thought that DMS
released by blooms of phytoplankton is the cause of cloud formation
above the square miles they occupy. Even the course of Hurricanes is
changed by these tiny organisms. After all they make the clouds and
the climate. There is a direct correlation between low cloud
formation and galactic cosmic ray flux. As GCR flux particles are too
small to form CCN (Cloud condensation nuclei), this is a possible
explanation. Though the correlation may be direct in mathematical
terms, in reality it takes a living organism to make the organic
chemicals to change the climate. Making clouds will effectively
change the circulation patterns of winds thus prevailing easterly
winds are lessened. Water vapor is transported to the poles in a
pattern by which ice and snow accumulates, this cause the planet to
accelerate and the length of day decreases. Global temperatures
overall decrease and a wetter climate predominates until the next
cycle begins in 30 years.
When
the Sun is quiet the winds change in favor of the phytoplankton.
Westerly winds predominate with increased Ekman forces as the winds
move the surface waters and upwelling of deep minerals occurs. Less
Sunspots result in less Solar wind and greater GCR flux. A
bombardment of Cosmic Rays lessen the predation cycle of Zooplankton
as they move to depths. Without predation on their colonies the
Coccolithophores thrive on the surface and spread across the entire
Ocean in blooms covering hundreds of square miles.
Blooms
of Phytoplankton increase as predation drops, so DMSP production
increases. Marine bacteria also have to migrate to depths but some
remain hiding behind the shells for protection. These bacteria
convert DMSP into DMS which cause more to be released into the
atmosphere. So this results in more clouds being formed. GCR also
kills viruses so greater flux removes the viral threat from the
Coccoliths. As the phytoplankton thrive under these conditions, the
food chain is increased for the fish to feed on a larger food
pyramid. The dynamics of diurnal migration can explain how the
zooplankton continue to feed on the phytoplankton. The phytoplankton
initially bloom profusely covering many more hundreds of square miles
until their population drops from predation. When the Sun is
turbulent and GCR flux is decreased populations never recover from
predation long enough for blooms to last long and cover as many
square miles as when GCR flux is great. It is a study of Ecology and
the dynamics of organisms competing for energy near the surface of
the Ocean, the eutrophic zone.
The vital link in the relationship between starlight and climate is
twofold. First GCR flux is directly correlated to 60 year cycles of
climate and the ACI (atmospheric circulation index).
During
a 30 year cycle Zonal circulation is dominant during a period of
increased solar activity and auroras. The next 30 year cycle the Sun
becomes quiet with increased GCR flux, meridional circulation is
dominant. Westerlies become stronger and upwelling occurs due to
Ekman forces. More water is evaporated from tropical regions and
transported to the poles. Ice and snow accumulate at the poles and
this added weight gives inertia to drive the planet into a faster
spin decreasing the length of day. The increased wind causes
upwelling and phytoplankton migration to coastal areas to bloom in
profusion. The question is: how does the process start? Another
factor is needed to create the necessary cloud cover over the
tropical regions. GCR can not by itself initiate cloud condensation
as the dust is too small.
That
is where the Gaia Hypothesis provides the answer. The tiny
coccolithophores make DMSP which is degraded by bacteria to form DMS.
It has been shown that clouds form over blooms of coccolithophores.
Not merely clouds but hurricanes have been shown to form and follow
the blooms of these phytoplankton. So it is clear that phytoplankton
make the climate happen on planet Earth. By their ancient engineering
feat of the geodesic plate design, they have used GCR to their
advantage. Now clouds formed over the ocean are transported in cycles
determined by the cycles of the Sun.
Starlight has been shown to be a code that changes the course of life
by exerting evolutionary pressure on organisms and ecosystems.
