Origin And Early Evolution Of Life, The

Description:
'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 per cent since this time. Increase in complexity beyond the microbial level took place only very late in the history of life.

Review:
The classical, recurrent themes are treated in a clear and interesting style of writing. The scope of the book is broad enough to be useful to advanced undergraduate or graduate students as well as to any reader possessing a college scientific background ... The book contains a lot of helpful information as well as personal indepth reflections. BioEssays

Table of Contents:
1: Introduction. 2: The Geological Time Frame. 3: Early Ideas on the Origin of Life. 4: What is Life?. 5: Origin of Life. 6: From the RNA-World to the First Cell. 7: The Evolution of Metabolism. 8: The Eukaryotic Cell. 9: Multicellular Organisms - Origins as Cell Colonies. 10: Sex, Species Concepts, and Evolution. 11: Our Anaerobic Inheritance. 12: The Molecular Tree. 13: Evidence from Geology. 14: Transitions During the Evolution of Life