A potential survival strategy during the late heavy bombardment
The Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) represents a period of time in which an increased number of impactors collided with the Earth. While there were continuous collisions of impactors globally, these would be perceived by populations of life as locally infrequent, as they occurred at different...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Astronomical Observatory, Department of Astronomy, Belgrade
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Serbian Astronomical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-698X/2023/1450-698X2306009H.pdf |
| Summary: | The Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) represents a period of time in which an
increased number of impactors collided with the Earth. While there were
continuous collisions of impactors globally, these would be perceived by
populations of life as locally infrequent, as they occurred at different
times and locations across the planet. These impactions presented a severe
and unpredictable environmental pressure on life, as they could at any
moment destroy organisms and their local habitats. However, such an
environment could potentially lead to the selection of a particular
evolutionary strategy, bet hedging, which is an adaptation to
unpredictability itself. Thus, a model for analysing this has been put
forward in the form of a system of rings arising from an impact-consisting
of the inner primary and outer secondary rings, which demonstrates the
dynamic interplay between the external pressure from impact dynamics and
life's evolutionary response towards it. The model demonstrates that there
is a longer relaxed period where organisms thrive and a short violent period
where they must survive three violent events and respond to a potentially
different environment. This evolutionary strategy consistently results in a
higher number of surviving organisms compared to other evolutionary
strategies; thus, it may have played a crucial role in life's endurance
through the LHB-an insight relevant to astrobiology. |
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| ISSN: | 1450-698X 1820-9289 |