RNP world

The RNP world is a hypothesized intermediate period in the origin of life characterized by the existence of ribonucleoproteins. The period followed the hypothesized RNA world and ended with the formation of DNA and contemporary proteins. During this time, RNA molecules continued to perform many essential functions, but began to synthesize peptides, which eventually assumed most of the function of those RNA molecules (i.e. became "proteins"), leading to life as we know it.