RNA world hypothesis

The thought that RNA was the first form of life.

This hypothesis is supported by RNA's ability to participate in the storage, transmission, and duplication of genetic information, similarly to DNA, coupled with it's ability to to act as an enzyme, catalyzing certain reactions.

At first glance, the RNA world hypothesis seems implausible given that in today's world large RNA molecules are especially fragile, subject to hydrolysis? that degrades these long biopolymers into their constituent monomeric nucleotides. However, in today's world enzymes capable of catalyzing this hydrolysis called RNAses ("ar-en-ases") are ubiquitous, contributing to this fragility. In a pre-biotic world absent any protein, including RNAses, a given RNA molecule might have "lived" longer then than it can today.