alt Hacker NewsNo, because conditions have changed markedly. For metals to act as catalysts, and replace some metabolic enzymes, they need to be in highly reduced conditions. This was true in early Earth, but about 2.5 billion years ago, we had the great oxygenation event, and over the next billion years free oxygen has gone up enough that you won’t find the reduced conditions where metal can take over the job of metabolic enzymes in much of Earth anymore.
That is, what sustains today’s life prevents new proto-life for forming. You need to have the fancy gadgets life has today to continue to survive and replicate on Earth.
Note though, it was other life forms that contributed to the great oxygenation event, too. This is all a continuous web.
Just curious, are there lifeforms today that rely on these metals to live in anaerobic environments? Maybe the hydrothermal vents that are talked about?
Do you think complex life could develop (perhaps by moving backwards) in a way that they rely on an anaerobic metal-rich environment?
I guess the oxidation event maybe was necessary for life to develop enzymes (since there wasn't sufficient evolutionary advantage for it to develop in an anaerobic environment?) but maybe something could go backwards? I'm just curious if there might be advantages for live in that sort of environment.