A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters

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Early Earth lacked oxygen, so there was no ozone layer in the upper atmosphere to block the sun’s ultraviolet rays, which sterilized everything above the surface of the sea. With few references to genes and genomes, the book lacks an appreciation of the mechanisms by which the genes—the ultimate replicators (2, 3)—both constrain morphological change and enable incredible diversifications. His previous books include The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution; Across The Bridge: Understanding the Origin of the Vertebrates; Deep Time: Cladistics, the Revolution in Evolution; Jacob’s Ladder: The History of the Human Genome; The Science of Middle-Earth, and (with Luis V.

Stromatolites—as we have seen, the first visible signs of life on Earth—were colonies of different kinds of bacteria. This adaptation, which enabled a one-way system of air flow, also doubled as an efficient cooling system for internal organs.Drawing on the very latest scientific understanding and writing in a clear, accessible style, he tells an enlightening tale of survival and persistence that illuminates the delicate balance within which life has always existed. Finally, after 4 1/2 billion years of mindless tumult, the Earth gave birth to a species that has become aware of itself. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Or the beautiful description of the land-dwelling amphibian Eryops 'which looked like a bullfrog imagining itself as an alligator.

And I'm a little doubtful of the assertion 'Within the next few thousand years Homo sapiens will have vanished. We can often tell the surroundings that the animals lived on in the past through the teeth that we find in animals.

I am a Paleoanthropology Student, so far with two degrees, in Anthropology and Human Behavioral Science, pursuing my B. We explore ideas and continue on through time, viewing it all like a window passing by, we see the dinosaurs die.