Early Life on Earth Evolution, Diversification, and Interactions

About this book

Early Life on Earth comprehensively explores the early evolution of life and the Archean environment. Topics include the differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, variations in metabolisms, concepts of ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles (nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous), Archean geology and environments, and the widely accepted early evolutionary history of life. The text addresses controversies regarding early life and its environment, particularly the unusual microfossil assemblages from the 3.4 Ga Strelley Pool Formation and the 3.0 Ga Farrel Quartzite of Western Australia. Readers will get a fuller picture of the Archean world, and an appreciation of many still unresolved questions.

Contents

Preface
1. Space, solar system and the Earth
2. Solid Earth
3. Life on the Earth 1
4. Life on the Earth 2
5. Topics of the Archean (and Hadean) Earth 1
6. Topics of the Precambrian Earth 2
7. Biosignatures in ancient rocks and related issues
8. Early (Paleo- to Meso-) Archean cellularly-preserved biosignatures
9. Overview of the Pilbara Microstructures 1: the Farrel Quartzite assemblage
10. Overview of the Pilbara Microstructures 2: the Strelley Pool Formation assemblage
11. Biogenicity of the Pilbara Microstructures
12. Lifecycle and mode of life of the Pilbara microfossils
13. Facts and problems of the Pilbara Microfossils and related issues
Index

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Biography

Kenichiro Sugitani is a Professor in the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya. He has published over 70 scientific papers and received the 1995 Geochemical Society of Japan encouragement award for contributions to the understanding of geochemistry and the origin of ancient siliceous sediments including Archean cherts. He has undertaken fieldwork in the Pilbara Craton and mapped the Goldsworthy greenstone belt, and discovered microfossils from the 3.0 Ga Farrel Quartzite. He is an associate member of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales, serves as regional editor of Astrobiology and is a member of the editorial advisory board of Geobiology.