Early Life on Earth

Leading chemists, geologists, palaeontologists and biologists contribute to this study of the most basic origins of life on Earth. They explore the origin of life during the Archean Eon, the maturation of life during the Proterozoic and the diversification of life that marks the Phanerozoic.

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This study is organized around three themes: the origin and early diversification of life during the Archean Eon; the maturation of life and the Earth during the long Proterozoic Eon; and the explosive diversification of multicellular life that marks the dawn of the Phanerozoic Eon. The contributors discuss the coherence of history, the combinatorial generation of taxonomic diversity, early Metazoan evolution, and the Cambrian explosion.