Early Life: Evolution on the PreCambrian Earth

This new edition offers an informative and compelling analysis of microbial evolution, including new discoveries from the past two decades.

Lynn Margulis, Ph.D., recipient of a National Medal of Science, is Distinguished University Professor in the Geosciences Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Michael F. Dolan, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

List of Figures

ix

List of Tables

xv

Foreword

xvii

Antonio Lazcano

Preface to the First Edition

xxi

Preface to the Second Edition

xxiii

Evolution and Cells

1

(24)

Two Kinds of Life

4

(4)

Kingdoms of Organisms

8

(3)

Living Clues to the Past

11

(6)

Reconstructing the Ancient World

17

(8)

Life without Oxygen

25

(32)

The Beginning of Life

28

(7)

The First Metabolism

35

(6)

Electron-Transport Chains and Porphyrin Rings

41

(5)

Photoautotrophy

46

(3)

New Dangers

49

(2)

First Sex

51

(2)

Ecology without Oxygen

53

(4)

Life with Oxygen

57

(20)

The First Oxygen Producers

59

(4)

The Transformation of the Atmosphere

63

(3)

Stromatolites

66

(3)

Learning to Breathe

69

(4)

A Modern Environment

73

(4)

A New Kind of Cell

77

(32)

The First Eukaryotes

79

(2)

Biological Partnerships

81

(2)

The Nucleus

83

(2)

Eukaryotes without Mitochondria

85

(4)

Undulipodia

89

(7)

Movement within Cells

96

(2)

Mitochondria

98

(5)

Plastids

103

(6)

The Evolution of Sex

109

(20)

Chromosomes and Mitosis

111

(5)

The Mitotic Spindle

116

(3)

Meiosis

119

(3)

The Evolution of Meiosis

122

(7)

The Modern Era

129

(18)

Clones, Colonies, and Differentiation

131

(4)

Cells in Multicellular Organisms

135

(4)

``Everywhereness of Life''

139

(8)

Glossary

147

(12)

Index

159

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Early Life: Evolution on the PreCambrian Earth

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials