Life on a Young Planet (43 page)

Darwin, C. 1969.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
, volume 3. Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York. Originally published in 1887 by J. Murray, London. (Published source of Darwin’s letter to Hooker.)

Darwin, E. 1804.
The Temple of Nature
. Reprinted by Pergamon, Elmsford, New York. (The elder Darwin’s poetic outline of life’s origin and evolution.)

Fry, I. 2000.
The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview
. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J. (The best available one-volume account of life’s origins, by a philosopher of science.)

Gilbert, W. 1986. The RNA world.
Nature
319: 618. (A brief but influential essay on the implications of RNA enzymes for the origin of life.)

James, K. D., and A. D. Ellington. 1995. The search for missing links between self-replicating nucleic acides and the RNA world.
Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere
25: 515–530. (Thoughtful commentary on precursors to the RNA world.)

Joyce, G. F. 2002. The antiquity of RNA-based evolution.
Nature
418: 214–221. (An excellent review of RNA’s role in the emergence of life.)

Lee, D. H., J. R. Granja, J. A. Martinez, Kay Severin, and M. R. Ghadiri. 1996. A self-replicating peptide.
Nature
382: 525–528. (Presents experimental evidence that self-replication by simple protein-like molecules may figure in the origin of life.)

Miller, S. L. 1953. A production of amino acids under possible primitive Earth conditions.
Science
117: 527–528. (The pioneering experiment in origins-of-life research.)

Orgel, L. E. 1994. The origin of life on the Earth.
Scientific American
271 (10): 77–83. (An authoritative primer on chemical evolution.)

Pace, N., and T. Marsh. 1986. RNA catalysis and the origin of life.
Origins of Life
16: 97–116. (A good treatment of the discovery of ribozymes and its implications for prebiotic and early biological evolution.)

Wächtershäuser, G. 1992. Groundwork for an evolutionary biochemistry: The iron-sulphur world.
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
58: 85–201. (A detailed statement of Wächtershäuser’s metabolism-first view that life originated in hydrothermal vent systems.)

Szostak, J. W., D. P. Bartel, and P. L. Luisi. 2001. Synthesizing life.
Nature
409: 387–390. (An introduction to experiments on directed evolution of catalytic RNA molecules.)

Chapter 6. The Oxygen Revolution

Key References on Gunflint and Other Late Archean/Early Proterozoic Paleontology

Amard, B., and J. Bertrand-Sarfati. 1997. Microfossils in 2000 My old cherty stromatolites of the Franceville Group, Gabon.
Precambrian Research
81: 197–221.

Awarmik, S. M., and E. S. Barghoorn. 1977. The Gunflint microbiota.
Precambrian Research
20: 357–374.

Barghoorn, E. S., and S. M. Tyler. 1965. Microfossils from the Gunflint chert.
Science
147: 563–577.

Brocks J. J., G. A. Logan, R. Buick, and R. E. Summons. 1999. Archean molecular fossils and the early rise of eukaryotes.
Science
285: 1033–1036.

Cloud, P. 1965. The significance of the Gunflint (Precambrian) microflora.
Science
148: 27–35.

Golubic, S., and H. J. Hofmann. 1976. Comparison of Holocene and mid-Precambrian Entophysalidaceae (Cyanophyta) in stromatolitic algal mats: Cell division and degradation.
Journal of Paleontology
50: 1074–1082.

Hofmann, H. J. 1976. Precambrian microflora, Belcher Islands, Canada: Significance and systematics.
Journal of Paleontology
50: 1040–1073.

Knoll, A. H., E. S. Barghoorn, and S. M. Awramik. 1978. New organisms from the Aphebian Gunflint Iron Formation, Ontario.
Journal of Paleontology
52: 976–992.

Knoll, A. H., P. K. Strother, and S. Rossi. 1988. Distribution and diagenesis of fossils from the lower Proterozoic Duck Creek Dolomite, Western Australia.
Precambrian Research
38: 257–279.

Lanier, W. P. 1989. Interstitial and peloidal microfossils from the 2.0 Ga Gunflint Formation: Implications for the paleoecology of the Gunflint stromatolites.
Precambrian Research
45: 291–318.

Simonson, B. M. 1985. Sedimentological constraints on the origins of Precambrian iron-formations.
Geological Society of America Bulletin
96: 244–252.

Key References on the Early Proterozoic Oxygen Revolution

Canfield D. E. 1998. A new model for Proterozoic ocean chemistry.
Nature
396: 450–453. (Articulates the hypothesis that iron formations disappeared because of growing hydrogen sulfide production in early Proterozoic oceans—a key paper in thinking about the biosphere’s redox history.)

Catling, D. C., K. J. Zahnle, and C. P. McKay. 2001. Biogenic methane, hydrogen escape, and the irreversible oxidation of early Earth.
Science
293: 839–843. (Proposes a solution to the mystery of why oxygen concentrations began to increase early in the Proterozoic Eon.)

Cloud, P. E. 1968. A working model of the primitive Earth.
American Journal of Science
272: 537–548. (Key summary of traditional views on atmospheric history by one of the pioneers who developed them.)

Des Marais, D. J. 1997. See references to
chapter 3
.

Farquhar J., H. M. Bao, and M. Thiemens. 2000. Atmospheric influence of Earth’s earliest sulfur cycle.
Science
289: 756–758. (Introduces mass-independent fractionation of sulfur isotopes to the debate about atmospheric history.)

Habicht K. S., and D. E. Canfield. 1996. Sulphur isotope fractionation in modern microbial mats and the evolution of the sulphur cycle.
Nature
382: 342–343. (A key paper that uses measurements of S-isotopic fractionation by living bacteria to constrain interpretations of the geochemical record.)

Ohmoto, H. 1996. Evidence in pre-2.2 Ga paleosols for the early evolution of atmospheric oxygen and terrestrial biotas.
Geology
24: 1135–1138. (An approachable articulation of the minority view that oxygen was relatively abundant in Archean air and seawater.)

Rasmussen, B., and R. Buick. 1999. Redox state of the Archean atmosphere: Evidence from detrital heavy minerals in ca. 3250–2750 Ma sandstones from the Pilbara Craton, Australia.
Geology
27: 115–118. (An important paper that documents detrital siderite and other minerals in late Archean sedimentary rocks, placing constraints on the oxygen content of the early atmosphere.)

Rye, R., and H. D. Holland. 1998. Paleosols and the evolution of atmospheric oxygen: A critical review.
American Journal of Science
298: 621–672. (Reviews data on ancient weathering horizons, used by Holland and his collegaues to delve into atmospheric evolution.)

Chapter 7. The Cyanobacteria, Life’s Microbial Heroes

Key References on Fossils and Geology of the Bil’yakh Group

Bartley, J. K., A. H. Knoll, J. P. Grotzinger, and V. N. Sergeev. 1999. Lithification and fabric genesis in precipitated stromatolites and associated peritidal dolomites, Mesoproterozoic Billyakh Group, Siberia.
SEPM Special Publication
67: 59–74.

Golubic, S., V. N. Sergeev, and A. H. Knoll. 1995. Mesoproterozoic
Archaeoellipsoides
: Akinetes of heterocystous cyanobacteria.
Lethaia
28: 285–298.

Knoll, A. H., and M. A. Semikhatov. 1998. The genesis and time distribution of two distinct Proterozoic stromatolite microstructures.
Palaios
13: 408–422.

Sergeev, V. N., A. H. Knoll, and J. P. Grotzinger. 1995. Paleobiology of the Mesoproterozoic Billyakh Group, Anabar Uplift, northern Siberia.
Paleontological Society Memoir
39, 37 pp.

Veis, A. F., and N. G. Vorbyeva. 1992. Riphean and Vendian microfossils of the Anabar Uplift.
Izvestia RAN, Seria geologocheskaya
1: 114–130. (In Russian.)

Selected References on Cyanobacteria and Stromatolites

Giovannoni, S. J., S. Turner, G. L. Olsen, S. Barns, D. J. Lane, and N. R. Pace. 1988. Evolutionary relationships among cyanobacteria and green chloroplasts.
Journal of Bacteriology
170: 3584–3692. (An important paper in which molecular sequence data are used to infer evolutionary relationships among cyanobacteria.)

Golubic, S. 1973. The relationship between blue-green algae and carbonate deposits, pp. 434–472 in N. G. Carr and B. A. Whitton, editors,
The Biology of Blue-Green Algae.
Oxford University Press, Oxford. (Basic reading for those interested in how cyanobacteria affect carbonate rocks and vice versa.)

Grotzinger, J. P., and A. H. Knoll. 1999. See references to
chapter 3
.

Knoll, A. H., and S. Golubic. 1992. Living and fossil cyanobacteria, pp. 450–462 in M. Schidlowski, S. Golubic, M. M. Kimberley, and P. A. Trudinger, editors,
Early Organic Evolution: Implications for Mineral and Energy Resources
. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. (Summarizes how detailed comparisons of fossil and living cyanobcteria have bolstered our understanding of cyanobacterial evolution.)

Lenski, R., and M. Travasiano. 1994. Dyanmics of adaptation and diversification: A 10,000 generation experiment with bacterial populations.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA
91: 6808–6814. (A key paper exploring the tempo of bacterial evolution in a long-term laboratory experiment.)

Niklas, K. J. 1994. Morphological evolution through complex domains of fitness.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
,
USA
91: 6772–6779. (A thoughtful inquiry into the reasons why some adaptive landscapes are steep while others are relatively smooth.)

Province, W. B. 1986.
Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology
. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. (Wright and his work, including the concept of adaptive landscapes.)

Raaben, M. E., and M. A. Semikhatov. 1994. Dynamics of the global diversity of the suprageneric groupings of Proterozoic stromatolites.
Doklady, Russian Academy of Sciences
349: 234–238. (A comprehensive synthesis of stromatolite diversity through time—best read as a “one, two, many” quantification unless you think you know what a “species” of stromatolite really is.)

Schopf, J. W. 1968. Microflora of the Bitter Springs Formation, late Precambrian, central Australia.
Journal of Paleontology
42: 651–688. (A pioneering documentation of cyanobacteria in Proterozoic cherts.)

Walter, M. R. 1994. Stromatolites: The main source of information on the evolution of the early benthos, pp. 270–286 in S. Bengtson, editor,
Early Life on Earth
. Columbia Univeristy Press, New York. (A personal update of the classic 1976 volume edited by Walter—see
chapter 3
references.)

Whitton, B. A., and M. Potts, editors. 2000.
The Ecology of Cyanobacteria: Their Diversity in Time and Space
. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands. (An up-to-date guide to cyanobacterial biology.)