> You'd then have two environments where life could evolve completely independently.
Earth definitely has places where evolution happened in a more-or-less isolated environment for a long time, though probably not from "zero".
For example Movile Cave: Life in the cave has been separated from the outside for the past 5.5 million years and it is based completely on chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movile_Cave
Look up pictures from that cave at your own risk. Personally I think those critters are the stuff of nightmares.
I don't doubt there's an uncountable amount of ecosystems on Earth we haven't even found, much less understood. We (literally) have hardly scratched the surface of this planet.
Earth definitely has places where evolution happened in a more-or-less isolated environment for a long time, though probably not from "zero".
For example Movile Cave: Life in the cave has been separated from the outside for the past 5.5 million years and it is based completely on chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movile_Cave
Look up pictures from that cave at your own risk. Personally I think those critters are the stuff of nightmares.
I don't doubt there's an uncountable amount of ecosystems on Earth we haven't even found, much less understood. We (literally) have hardly scratched the surface of this planet.