Continuing abiogenesis may very well be occuring (in the very few locations that may still resemble the beginning), but at what complexity are we defining "life" when asking this question? Simple spontaneous assembly of RNA precursors? Something more fully fledged?
In any case, the problem isn't even competitors that have evolved since then - it's the existence of complex metabolism. All of the "ingredients" you would need for abiogenesis to occur are now consumed by established organisms, ripping down the molecules for their own energy needs before they can catalyze into a more complex form.
Life as we know it doesn't have room for the earliest products of abiogenesis anymore. Whatever form our earliest genetic ancestors may have taken, Earth's present-day micro-biosphere is simply too ubiquitous and too ravenous.
Continuing abiogenesis may very well be occuring (in the very few locations that may still resemble the beginning), but at what complexity are we defining "life" when asking this question? Simple spontaneous assembly of RNA precursors? Something more fully fledged?
In any case, the problem isn't even competitors that have evolved since then - it's the existence of complex metabolism. All of the "ingredients" you would need for abiogenesis to occur are now consumed by established organisms, ripping down the molecules for their own energy needs before they can catalyze into a more complex form.
Life as we know it doesn't have room for the earliest products of abiogenesis anymore. Whatever form our earliest genetic ancestors may have taken, Earth's present-day micro-biosphere is simply too ubiquitous and too ravenous.