Some researchers have speculated that Earth may have been seeded by organic compounds early in its development by tholin-rich comets, providing the raw material necessary for life to develop (see Miller–Urey experiment for discussion related to this). Tholins do not exist naturally on present-day Earth due to the oxidizing properties of the free oxygen component of its atmosphere ever since the Great Oxygenation Event around 2.4 billion years ago.
Laboratory experiments suggest that tholins near large pools of liquid water that might persist for thousands of years could facilitate the formation of prebiotic chemistry to take place, and has implications on the origins of life on Earth and possibly other planets. Also, as particles in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, tholins affect the light scatter and act as a screen for protecting planetary surfaces from ultraviolet radiation, affecting habitability. Laboratory simulations found derived residues related to amino acids as well as urea, with important astrobiological implications.
On Earth, a wide variety of soil bacteria are able to use laboratory-produced tholins as their sole source of carbon. Tholins could have been the first microbial food for heterotrophic microorganisms before autotrophy evolved.