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The origin and early evolution of life / Tom Fenchel.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Fenchel, Tom.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Life--Origin.
- Life.
- Evolution (Biology).
- Physical Description:
- viii, 171 pages, 7 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
- Other Title:
- Origin & early evolution of life
- Place of Publication:
- Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.
- Summary:
- Origin and Early Evolution of Life draws on evidence from molecular genetics, the structure and function of extant organisms, and geology. It covers the period from about 4 billion years ago, when life is thought to have originated, to about 600 million years ago when multicellular organisms first arose. There are significant gaps in our understanding of the earliest evolution of life forms, but an insight into the topic leads to a more profound understanding of life itself. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that although life arose very soon after the origin of the Earth, it was represented only by simple microbial life forms for approximately 85% of this time. Increase in complexity beyond the microbial level took place only very late in the history of life.
- Contents:
- 2 The geological time frame 6
- 3 Early ideas on the origin of life 10
- Spontaneous generation 10
- The Panspermia hypothesis 12
- The Oparin-Haldane hypothesis
- the primordial soup 13
- Other models for prebiotic chemistry 18
- Coacervates 19
- 4 What is life? 22
- Equipment in a space probe
- exobiology 22
- Life
- chemical composition 26
- A couple of other properties of life 28
- from the viewpoint of thermodynamics 30
- Autocatalytic cycles 34
- Life as replicators 36
- Structure and function of a bacterial cell 39
- 5 Origin of life 45
- The RNA world 45
- Origin of life
- chance or necessity 51
- 6 From the RNA world to the first cell 54
- What are the problems? 54
- The nature of genetic information 59
- The cell membrane 60
- 7 The evolution of metabolism 63
- Energy metabolism in bacteria 63
- The earliest evolution of energy metabolism 70
- Some general considerations on assimilatory metabolism
- the origin of carbohydrate catalysis and fermentation 72
- Syntrophy 75
- 8 The eukaryotic cell 78
- Properties of the eukaryotic cell 78
- The origin of the eukaryotic cell 83
- The origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts 84
- Models for evolution from symbionts to organelles 86
- 9 Multicellular organisms
- origins as cell colonies 92
- 10 Sex, species concepts, and evolution 98
- Species concepts for microbes
- evolution without sex 103
- 11 Our anaerobic inheritance 109
- 12 The molecular tree 112
- Principles, assumptions, and problems
- the molecular clock 112
- The universal tree: archaebacteria, eubacteria, and eukaryotes 117
- The universal ancestor 123
- 13 Evidence from geology 125
- Earth's active surface 125
- Speculations on properties of the primordial atmosphere 127
- The nature of geological evidence for early life 129
- Precambrian fossils and Precambrian microbial communities 131
- Extant stromatolitic microbial mats 134
- The rise of atmospheric oxygen 137
- The development of biogeochemical cycling 141
- Precambrian glaciations 148
- The Gaia hypothesis as pseudo-science 149
- 14 Transitions during the evolution of life 151.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [157]-159) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0198525338
- 0198526350
- OCLC:
- 50334006
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