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摘要
摘要
One of the greatest mysteries in reconstructing the history of life on Earth has been the apparent absence of fossils dating back more than 550 million years. We have long known that fossils of sophisticated marine life-forms existed at the dawn of the Cambrian Period, but until recently scientists had found no traces of Precambrian fossils. The quest to find such traces began in earnest in the mid-1960s and culminated in one dramatic moment in 1993 when William Schopf identified fossilized microorganisms three and a half billion years old. This startling find opened up a vast period of time--some eighty-five percent of Earth's history--to new research and new ideas about life's beginnings. In this book, William Schopf, a pioneer of modern paleobiology, tells for the first time the exciting and fascinating story of the origins and earliest evolution of life and how that story has been unearthed.
Gracefully blending his personal story of discovery with the basics needed to understand the astonishing science he describes, Schopf has produced an introduction to paleobiology for the interested reader as well as a primer for beginning students in the field. He considers such questions as how did primitive bacteria, pond scum, evolve into the complex life-forms found at the beginning of the Cambrian Period? How do scientists identify ancient microbes and what do these tiny creatures tell us about the environment of the early Earth? (And, in a related chapter, Schopf discusses his role in the controversy that swirls around recent claims of fossils in the famed meteorite from Mars.) Like all great teachers, Schopf teaches the non-specialist enough about his subject along the way that we can easily follow his descriptions of the geology, biology, and chemistry behind these discoveries. Anyone interested in the intriguing questions of the origins of life on Earth and how those origins have been discovered will find this story the best place to start.
评论 (4)
出版社周刊评论
Until the mid-1950s, biologists, geologists and paleontologists seeking early life's traces had to make do with fossils from the Phanerozoic periods, which represent only 15% of the time that life has existed on Earth. The first 85%Äthe Precambrian EraÄremained obscure. But since the discovery of "microfossils" in Canada's Gunflint rocks, "Precambrian studies have boomed": these fossil microbes constitute our direct evidence about primordial life. Schopf, a professor at UCLA's Institute of Geophysics, adopts an unusually informal first-person style for this rangy exploration of how Precambrian fossils came to light and what they've taught us. The author covers the history of evolutionary thought and the exploits of field paleontologists, as well as the trajectory of his own career. The casual prose brings both rewards and perils. Most readers will want to know, for example, that in 1924 Aleksandr Oparin explained how simple molecules with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen might have "given rise to the first cells." Few, however, will care that Schopf once lunched with Oparin ("It was thrilling!") or that a limestone slab Schopf found in China "is now embedded in the entry way at our home." What reader needs to be told that, "in science, technical terms are simply shorthand notations for ideas"? Subtract the self-referential elements and Schopf's book is a very clear introduction to the first living things. Final chapters tie these early organisms to the photosynthetic cyanobacteria on today's earth, digress into the history of paleontological frauds and explain what Schopf thinks is right and wrong in NASA's search for fossilized life on Mars. 80 b&w illustrations. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
One of the newest scientific specialties has as its subject the oldest living things: the unbelievably ancient fossils of the Pre-Cambrian period. Until very recently, the record of fossil life began with the Cambrian period, roughly 550 million years ago. But the fossils of that era were already complex, the remains of organisms far more advanced than the simple cells that scientists believed must have been the earliest living things. Were the more ancient forms too fragile to survive the fossilization process or had they simply gone unrecognized? As Darwin already recognized, the apparent absence of truly primitive forms in the fossil record might be counted an argument against evolution. One pioneer, J.T. Dawson of Canada, did use his claimed discovery of a ``dawn animal'' over 1.1 billion years old to raise questions about the missing links in the long stretch between it and the first Cambrian fossils. Dawson's claims were refuted, but other scientists took up the search. The strongest candidates were stromatolites, cabbage-like structures first identified in upstate New York in the 1870s. But their biological origin was controversial until the 1950s, when microscopic examination of fossil stromatolites, and the discovery of living stromatolites near Australia, clinched the case. Schopf, who as a graduate student contributed to the breakthrough, goes on to describe more recent research in the field'almost all of which has been done in the last 35 years. Now a professor of paleobiology at UCLA, he was part of the team that identified the oldest fossils thus far known: the 3,465-million-year-old Apex Chert microbes of Western Australia. Schopf combines his often entertaining personal story with an introduction to the discipline of paleobiology, with asides on the chemical makeup of life, questions still to be answered, and a skeptical look at the purported ``fossils'' from Mars. A good introduction to the history of a science on the cutting edge.
Choice 评论
The public is most familiar with paleontology through dinosaurs and human fossils, but most paleontologists study the remains of small boneless animals or single-celled organisms. These creatures mainly derive from rocks dated to only the most recent eighth of Earth's life span. The search for evidence of life in far older rocks is the subject of this popular work by one of its leading protagonists. This field combines research in biochemistry, zoology, botany, geology, and paleontology, all of which must be introduced to the nonspecialist reader. Moreover, the search for the most ancient life has been jumpy, with heroic innovators and grumpy naysayers. Schopf (Univ. of California, Los Angeles) is moderately successful in combining all of these topics and actors into a smoothly flowing narrative. He perhaps provides a bit too much detail, as is often true of scientists who popularize their own work, but Schopf also offers a number of insider "nuggets": the story of how he and his graduate adviser held up review of a colleague's paper until they could throw together a long-delayed manuscript on the same topic is almost as amazing as the fact that the colleague allowed them to publish first in the same journal! A good introduction to a quickly evolving topic. General readers; undergraduate and graduate students. E. Delson; CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Schopf, the world's leading expert on Precambrian fossils (0.5 to 4.5 billion years old), has written an exceptional description of the field that is accessible to any educated lay reader. As a graduate student, he helped Harvard biologist Elso Barghoorn prepare the landmark Science article on the famous Canadian Gunflint chert, a seminal Precambrian discovery. His candid description of the competition over who would have the honor of publishing the first major paper is worth the price of the book. Schopf's chapter on the evolution of biochemical pathways is a fascinating and wonderfully clear exposition of a difficult topic. The chapter on fraud in paleontology seems oddly out of place, but descriptions of the meeting between Schopf, Aleksandr Oparin, and Salvador Dali and of Schopf's critical analysis of the Mars rock for indications of early life more than make up for this. Recommended for all libraries.ÄLloyd Davidson, Seeley G. Mudd Lib. for Science & Engineering, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
目录
Prologue | p. xi |
Acknowledgments | p. xv |
Chapter 1. Darwin's Dilemma | p. 3 |
Breakthrough to the Ancient Past | p. 3 |
The Nature of Geologic Time | p. 4 |
The "Schoolbook" History of Life | p. 10 |
Darwin's Dilemma | p. 13 |
Denouement | p. 34 |
Chapter 2. Birth of a New Field of Science | p. 35 |
The Floodgates Crack Open | p. 35 |
Famous Figures Enter the Field | p. 48 |
A Youngster Joins the Fray | p. 52 |
The Floodgates Open Full Bore | p. 61 |
Chapter 3. The Oldest Fossils and What They Mean | p. 71 |
"Trust but Verify" | p. 71 |
"Real World Problems" in the Search for Early Life | p. 71 |
Questions and Answers about the Oldest Records of Life | p. 75 |
The Oldest Fossils Known | p. 99 |
Chapter 4. How Did Life Begin? | p. 101 |
The Basics of Biology | p. 101 |
The Universal of Life | p. 107 |
How Did Monomers of CHON Arise on the Lifeless Earth? | p. 108 |
Organic Monomers beyond the Earth | p. 131 |
How Did Monomers Become Linked into Polymers? | p. 134 |
From Monomers to Polymers toward Life | p. 138 |
Chapter 5. Metabolic Memories of the Earliest Cells | p. 139 |
How Did Cells Begin? | p. 139 |
The Essentials of Life | p. 143 |
Life's Earliest Way to Make a Living | p. 150 |
Air and Light: A New Source of Glucose | p. 155 |
Why Do We Breathe Oxygen? | p. 158 |
The Four-Stage Development of Modern Metabolism | p. 161 |
Chapter 6. So Far, So Fast, So Early? | p. 164 |
How Old Is the Modern Ecosystem? | p. 164 |
When Did Life Begin? | p. 166 |
How Did Evolution Proceed So Far, So Fast, So Early? | p. 168 |
Paleobiology: Fossils, Geology, and Geochemistry | p. 169 |
Isotopic Evidence of Ancient Metabolisms | p. 173 |
Paleobiology: Direct Evidence of Early Evolution | p. 181 |
Chapter 7. Stromatolites: Earth's First High-Rise Condos | p. 183 |
Nature Is Not Compartmentalized | p. 183 |
Stromatolites: Earth's First High-Rise Condos | p. 184 |
Stromatolites of the Geologic Past | p. 195 |
What Are Stromatolites Good For? | p. 201 |
Chapter 8. Cyanobacteria: Earth's Oldest "Living Fossils" | p. 209 |
Modes and Tempos in the Evolution of Life | p. 209 |
The Status Quo Evolution of Cyanobacteria | p. 215 |
Evolution's Most Successful Ecologic Generalists | p. 231 |
Chapter 9. Cells Like Ours Arise at Last | p. 236 |
Life Like Us Has Cells Like Ours | p. 236 |
DNA and Development: Keys to Eukaryotic Success | p. 237 |
How Old Are the Eukaryotes? | p. 240 |
Eukaryotes Perfect the Art of Cloning | p. 243 |
Sex: A New Lifestyle Brings Major Change | p. 246 |
The Wax and Wane of Precambrian Acritarchs | p. 252 |
Prelude to the Phanerozoic | p. 259 |
Chapter 10. Solution to Darwin's Dilemma | p. 264 |
The Adventure of Science | p. 264 |
Take-Home Lessons | p. 269 |
Solution to Darwin's Dilemma | p. 269 |
Epilogue Extraordinary Claims! Extraordinary Evidence? | p. 279 |
Chapter 11. Fossils, Foibles, and Frauds | p. 281 |
Chapter 12. The Hunt for Life on Mars | p. 304 |
Glossary | p. 327 |
Further Reading | p. 349 |
Index of Geologic Units and Genera and Species | p. 357 |
Subject Index | p. 361 |