Interview Questions - Origins, Ancestors and Relations

When did life begin on earth? How do we know?
What is the evidence all living organisms share a common ancestor?
How could we, at least in theory, discover whether the spontaneous formation of life is difficult or relatively easy?
Eukaryotes (animals, plants and fungi and protozoa) are are considered hybrid organisms -- why?
How scientists study model organisms. such as worms, flies and frogs, and then draw conclusions about humans -- how is this possible?
What is the difference between a primitive and a degenerate organism?
When scientists classify organism, what criteria do they use and how is evolutionary theory used to resolve issues involving therelationship between organisms?
 
Concept
statements
Emphasis in
your teaching
General importance
1. There is a continuous uninterrupted line of descent from the first organisms that arose ~3.5-billion years ago, and all living organisms.
2. The spontaneous generation of organisms does not occur in the modern world, but did occur on the early earth.
3. Based on a number of structural and molecular traits, organisms can be divided into three distinct ‘kingdoms’: bacteria, archaea and eukarya.
4. All modern organism shared a common ancestor that lived some billions of years ago.
5. Modern eukarya are hybrid organisms, formed by the combination of a bacterial and a non-bacterial cell.
6. Modern multicellular plants (metaphyta), fungi, and animals (metazoa) arose independently from eukaryotic ancestors.
7. All metazoa appear to share a common ancestor that lived around ~1.5 billion years ago.
8. The original hierarchical classification system of organisms, the Linnaean system) was based on structural similarities, not evolutionary relationships. 
9. Evolutionary theory explains the relationships between organisms, based on common ancestry. 
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Where do you teach?
I do not teach I teach, but not biology
I am researcher in the private sector
I teach elementary secondary college level biology
    
I would add the following statement to the list:
 

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