Why did animal life originate in the oceans rather than on the land?
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best/simplest answer is because of how useful water is. it was just the best place for life to start.
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it allows exchange of particles or elements like oxygen much easier than on land, is fairly stable, and protected things from radiation when the earth couldnt do it alone.
small not quite life started there. small things grew from chains of chemicals that then mixed and got more complicated, eventually being able to move and reproduce in better and more efficient ways. land didnt provide such a perfect situation as quickly or easily – plants were the only thing on land for eons.
plants and algae were doing their own thing. bacteria started forming and getting more advanced. viruses and similar were doing the same, they got bigger and/or stronger.
an egg is just a giant cell that cant move on its own, so it relies on its parents for safety. cells getting more complicated created animals that could lay eggs; those eggs were in the water, and animals got so diverse and different that some stayed in the water, and some headed to land to find new food and space. legs and gills were a major upgrade there, including adapting to being dry with thick skin/scales.
eggs needed the water still, but being closer to land meant that they could eventually leave, return, lay their eggs, and go back onto land again. an egg allows a creature to use less resources to reproduce and allows them to leave them behind when needed.
over time the shells hardened and could hold water, and allow air to pass through; these are the eggs we know today. this change alone let animals spread further and develop faster from the new resources and space available. the new arms race starts again but on land.
water allowed things to mix and grow in a much faster rate than land could ever do. the arms race in the ocean is a whole story in itself and would make this comment 10x longer.
i hope this is a good answer lol
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