Cradle of life
the discovery of earth's earliest fossils
by J. William Schopf
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.
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| Edition | Availability |
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Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils
March 20, 2001, Princeton University Press
Paperback
in English
0691088640 9780691088648
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Cradle of life: the discovery of earth's earliest fossils
1999, Princeton University Press
in English
0691002304 9780691002309
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Includes bibliographical references (p. [349]-355) and indexes.
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First Sentence
"Over the last three decades, the evolutionary Tree of Life has been extended sevenfold."
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| July 16, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
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