Life on a Young Planet (42 page)

Madigan, M. T., J. M. Martinko, and J. Parker. 1999.
Brock Biology of Microorganisms
, eighth edition. Prentice Hall, New York. (A good place to learn about the biology and diversity of Bacteria and Archaea.)

Miller, R. V. 1998. Bacterial gene swapping in nature.
Scientific American
278 (1): 67–71. (A primer on the lateral transfer of genes by bacteria.)

Nealson, K. H. 1997. Sediment bacteria: Who’s there, what are they doing, and what’s new?
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science
25: 403–434. (A superb introduction to microbial metabolism and ecology.)

Ochman, H., J. G. Lawrence, and E. A. Grossman. 2000. Lateral gene transfer and the nature of bacterial innovation.
Nature
405: 299–304. (An up-to-date review of our growing knowledge of the role played by lateral gene transfer in bacterial evolution, more advanced treatment than Miller 1998.)

Pace, N. R. 1997. A molecular view of microbial diversity and the biosphere.
Science
276: 734–740. (A fine summary of how molecular biology has reshaped our understanding of microbial evolution and ecology.)

Stetter, K. O. 1996. Hyperthermophiles in the history of life.
Ciba Foundation Symposium
202: 1–18. (Review of archaeal diversity and ecology by one of the pioneers in research on these organisms.)

Woese, C. R. 1987. Bacterial evolution.
Microbiological Reviews
51: 221–271. (A comprehensive summary of Woese’s pioneering views on bacterial phylogeny, based on sequence comparison of genes for small-subunit ribosomal RNA.)

Chapter 3. Life’s Signature in Ancient Rocks

Key References to the Precambrian Paleontology of Spitsbergen

Butterfield, N. J., A. H. Knoll, and K. Swett. 1994. Paleobiology of the Neoproterozoic Svanbergfjellet Formation, Spitsbergen.
Fossils and Strata
34: 1–84. Harland, W. B. 1997.
The Geology of Svalbard
. Geological Society Memoir 17, 521 pp.

Knoll, A. H., J. M. Hayes, A. J. Kaufman, K. Swett, and I. B. Lambert. 1986. Secular variation in carbon isotopic ratios from upper Proterozoic successions of Svalbard and East Greenland.
Nature
321: 832–838.

Knoll, A. H., and K. Swett. 1990. Carbonate deposition during the late Precambrian era: An example from Spitsbergen.
American Journal of Science
290A: 104–131.

Knoll, A. H., K. Swett, and J. Mark. 1991. Paleobiology of a Neoproterozoic tidal flat/lagoonal complex: The Draken Conglomerate Formation, Spitsbergen.
Journal of Paleontology
65: 531–570.

Selected General References on Precambrian Paleobiology

Des Marais, D. J. 1997. Isotopic evolution of the biogeochemical carbon cycle during the Proterozoic eon.
Organic Geochemistry
27: 185–193. (A demanding but rewarding essay on the use of isotopic data to reconstruct ancient biogeochemical systems.)

Grotzinger, J. P., and A. H. Knoll. 1999. Precambrian stromatolites: Evolutionary milestones or environmental dipsticks?
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences
27: 313–358. (Detailed arguments on how to interpret ancient stromatolites.)

Knoll, A. H. 1996. Archean and Proterozoic paleontology, pp. 51–80 in J. Jansonius and D. C. MacGregor, editors,
Palynology: Principles and Applications
, volume I. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Press, Tulsa. (An up-to-date, well-illustrated review of Precambrian microfossils.)

Knoll, A. H., and D. E. Canfield. 1998. Isotopic inferences on early ecosystems.
The Paleontological Society Papers
4: 211–243. (A primer on the integration of isotopic, paleontological, and phylogenetic information in Precambrian research.)

Schopf, J. W. 1999.
Cradle of Life
. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. (A first-person account of the early development of Precambrian paleontology.)

Schopf, J. W., and C. Klein, editors. 1992.
The Proterozoic Biosphere: A Multidisciplinary Study
. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. (A massive and authoritative, if, by now, somewhat dated review covering all aspects of Precambrian paleobiology.)

Summons, R. E., and M. R. Walter. 1990. Molecular fossils and microfossils of prokaryotes and protists from Proterozoic sediments.
American Journal of Science
290A: 212–244. (An accessible and expert introduction to biomarkers in Precambrian sedimentary rocks.)

Walter, M. R., editor. 1976.
Stromatolites
. Elsevier, Amsterdam. (More than two decades old, but still the Bible of Precambrian stromatolite studies.)

Chapter 4. The Earliest Glimmers of Life

Key References on Warrawoona Geology and Paleobiology

Barley, M. E., and S. E. Loader, editors. 1998. The tectonic and metallogenic evolution of the Pilbara Craton.
Precambrian Research
88: 1–265. (A compendium of tectonic and geochronological data on the Warrawoona Group and related rocks, including the paper by Nijman and colleagues on barite mounds and other features of Warrawoona geology.)

Brasier, M. D., O. R. Green, A. P. Jephcoat, A. K. Kleppe, M. J. van Kranendonk, J. F. Lindsay, A. Steele, and N. V. Grassineau. 2002. Questioning the evidence for Earth’s oldest fossils.
Nature
416: 76–81.

Buick, R., J.S.R. Dunlop, and D. I. Groves. 1983. Stromatolite recognition in ancient rocks: An appraisal of irregularly laminated structures in an early Archaean chert-barite unit from North Pole, Western Australia.
Alcheringa
5: 161–181.

Buick, R., J. R. Thornett, N. J. McNaughton, J. B. Smith, M. E. Barley, and M. Savage. 1996. Record of emergent continental crust ~3.5 billion years ago in the Pilbara Craton of Australia.
Nature
375: 574–577.

Groves, D. I., J.S.R. Dunlop, and R. Buick. 1981. An early habitat of life.
Scientific American
245 (10): 64–73.

Hofmann, H. J., K. Grey, A. H. Hickman, and R. I. Thorpe. 1999. Origin of 3.45 Ga coniform stromatolites in Warrawoona Group, Western Australia.
Geological Society of America Bulletin
111: 1256–1262.

Kerr, R. A. 2002. Reversals reveal pitfalls in spotting ancient and E.T. life.
Science
296: 1384–1385.

Lowe, D. R. 1983. Restricted shallow water sedimentation of early Archaean stromatolitic and evaporitic strata of the Strelley Pool chert, Pilbara Block, Western Australia.
Precambrian Research
19: 239–248.

Lowe, D. R. 1994. Abiological origin of described stromatolites older than 3.2. Ga.
Geology
22: 387–390.

Schopf, J. W. 1993. Microfossils of the early Archean Apex Chert: New evidence of the antiquity of life.
Science
260: 640–646.

Schopf, J. W., A. B. Kudryavtsev, D. G. Agresti, T. Wdowiak, and A. D. Czaja. 2002. Laser-Raman imagery of Earth’s earliest fossils.
Nature
416: 73–76.

Schopf, J. W., and B. Packer. 1987. Early Archean (3.3-billion to 3.5-billion-year-old) microfossils from Warrawoona Group, Australia.
Science
237: 70–73.

Shen, Y., D. Canfield, and R. Buick. 2001. Isotopic evidence for microbial sulphate reduction in the early Archaean ocean.
Nature
410: 77–81.

Walter, M. R., R. Buick, and J.S.R. Dunlop. 1980. Stromatolites 3,400–3,500 Myr old from the North Pole area, Western Australia.
Nature
284: 443–445.

Key References on Barberton Paleobiology

Byerly, G. R., D. R. Low, and M. M. Walsh. 1986. Stromatolites from the 3,300–3,500-Myr Swaziland Supergroup, Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa.
Nature
319: 489–491.

Knoll, A. H., and E. S. Barghoorn. 1977. Archean microfossils showing cell division from the Swaziland System of South Africa.
Science
198: 396–398.

Lowe, D. R., and G. R. Byerly, editors. 1999. Geological evolution of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa.
Geological Society of America Special Paper
329.

Walsh, M. M. 1992. Microfossils and possible microfossils from the early Archean Onverwacht Group, Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa.
Precambrian Research
54: 271–293.

Walsh, M. M., and D. R. Lowe. 1999. Modes of accumulation of carbonaceous matter in the early Archean: A petrographic and geochemical study of the carbonaceous cherts of the Swaziland Supergroup.
Geological Society of America Special Paper
329: 115–132.

Westall, F., M. J. de Wit, J. Dann, S. van der Gaast, C.E.J. de Ronde, and D. Gerneke. 2001. Early Archean fossil bacteria and biofilms in hydrothermally influenced sediments from the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa.
Precambrian Research
106: 93–116.

Selected General References on the Early Archean Earth

Bowring, S. A., and T. Housh. 1995. The Earth’s early evolution.
Science
269: 1535–1540. (A summary of how recently acquired geochemical data are changing views about early Earth history.)

Fedo, C. M., and M. J. Whitehouse. 2002. Metasomatic origin of quartz-pyroxene rock, Akilia, Greenland, and implications for Earth’s earliest life.
Science
296: 1448–1452. (Argues that putative biosignatures claimed in Akilia rocks by Mojzsis and colleagues—see below—actually originated by physical processes during metamorphism.)

Kasting, J. F. 1993. Earth’s early atmosphere.
Science
259: 920–926. (A good review that uses geochemical data and atmospheric modeling to draw inferences about Archean air.)

Mojzsis, S. J., G. Arrhenius, K. D. McKeegan, T. M. Harrison, A. P. Nutman, and C.R.L. Friend. 1996. Evidence for life on Earth before 3,800 million years ago.
Nature
384: 55–59. (Advances the case, now disputed, for an isotopic biosignature in very old rocks.)

Mojzsis, S. J., T. M. Harrison, and R. T. Pidgeon. 2001. Oxygen-isotope evidence from ancient zircons for liquid water at the Earth’s surface 4,300 Myr ago.
Nature
409: 178–181. (Insights into the early earth, based on the chemistry of mineral grains in ancient sandstone.)

Rasmussen, B. 2000. Filamentous microfossils in a 3,235-million-year-old volcanogenic massive sulphide.
Nature
405: 676–679. (Perhaps the oldest convincing fossils of microorganisms.)

Rosing, M. T., 1999. C-13-depleted carbon microparticles in > 3700-Ma sea-floor sedimentary rocks from west Greenland.
Science
283: 674–676. (An ancient isotopic record.)

Schopf, J. W., editor. 1983.
Earth’s Earliest Biosphere
. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 543 pp. (A gold mine of information on the early Earth and life—dated but stimulating.)

Van Zuilen, M., A. Lepland, and G. Arrhenius. 2002. Reassessing the evidence for the earliest traces of life.
Nature
418: 627–630. (A second argument that putative biosignatures claimed in Akilia rocks by Mojzsis and colleagues—see above—actually originated by physical processes during metamorphism.)

Chapter 5. The Emergence of Life

Brack, A., editor. 1999.
The Molecular Origins of Life: Assembling Pieces of the Puzzle
. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. (An excellent volume that gathers together essays by leading figures in origins-of-life research.)