Harvard’s acclaimed geologist “charts Earth’s history in accessible style� (AP) “A sublime chronicle of our planet." –Booklist, STARRED review How well do you know the ground beneath your feet?  Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roamed by fearsome monsters. Probably most or even all of the above.  The story of our home planet and the organisms spread across its surface is far more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster, filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller. But only recently have we begun to piece together the whole mystery into a coherent narrative. Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing twenty first-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going. Features original illustrations depicting Earth history and nearly 50 figures (maps, tables, photographs, graphs).

Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites--such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, presenting a compelling new explanation for the emergence of biological novelty. The very latest discoveries in paleontology--many of them made by the author and his students--are integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science to forge a broad understanding of how the biological diversity that surrounds us came to be. Moving from Siberia to Namibia to the Bahamas, Knoll shows how life and environment have evolved together through Earth's history. Innovations in biology have helped shape our air and oceans, and, just as surely, environmental change has influenced the course of evolution, repeatedly closing off opportunities for some species while opening avenues for others. Readers go into the field to confront fossils, enter the lab to discern the inner workings of cells, and alight on Mars to ask how our terrestrial experience can guide exploration for life beyond our planet. Along the way, Knoll brings us up-to-date on some of science's hottest questions, from the oldest fossils and claims of life beyond the Earth to the hypothesis of global glaciation and Knoll's own unifying concept of "permissive ecology." In laying bare Earth's deepest biological roots, Life on a Young Planet helps us understand our own place in the universe--and our responsibility as stewards of a world four billion years in the making. In a new preface, Knoll describes how the field has broadened and deepened in the decade since the book's original publication.

This text reference examines how photosynthesis evolved on Earth and how phytoplankton evolved through time - ultimately to permit the evolution of complex life, including human beings. The first of its kind, this book provides thorough coverage of key topics, with contributions by leading experts in biophysics, evolutionary biology, micropaleontology, marine ecology, and biogeochemistry.
This exciting new book is of interest not only to students and researchers in marine science, but also to evolutionary biologists and ecologists interested in understanding the origins and diversification of life. Primary Producers of the Sea offers these students and researchers an understanding of the molecular evolution, phylogeny, fossil record, and environmental processes that collectively permits us to comprehend the rise of phytoplankton and their impact on Earth's ecology and biogeochemistry. It is certain to become the first and best word on this exhilarating topic.
* Discusses the evolution of phytoplankton in the world's oceans as the first living organisms and the first and basic producers in the earths food chain
* Includes the latest developments in the evolution and ecology of marine phytoplankton specifically with additional information on marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles
* The only book to consider of the evolution of phytoplankton and its role in molecular evolution, biogeochemistry, paleontology, and oceanographic aspects
* Written at a level suitable for related reading use in courses on the Evolution of the Biosphere, Ecological and Biological oceanography and marine biology, and Biodiversity

Acclaimed Harvard geologist Andrew Knoll delivers a sweeping and definitive new narrative history of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion year history and placing our current environmental crisis in deep context. The story of our planetary home and the organisms spread across its surface is far grander and more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster, filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller. More than four billion years ago, a small planet accreted out of rocky debris circling a modest young star. In its early years, Earth lived on the edge of cataclysm, frequently bombarded with comets and meteors, while roiling magma oceans covered the surface and toxic gases choked the atmosphere. With time, however, continents formed, only to be ripped apart and later collide, throwing up spectacular mountain ranges, most of which have been lost to time. Volcanoes a million times larger than anything ever witnessed by humans. Cycles of global glaciation. Dramatic change and violent extremes. Countless lost worlds we are only beginning to piece together. Somehow on this dynamic stage, life established a foothold and eventually transformed our planet's surface, paving the way for trilobites, dinosaurs, and a species that can speak, reflect, fashion tools and, in the end, change the world again. Earth's story helps us to understand how the mountains, oceans, trees, and animals around us came to be, as well as gold, diamonds, coal, oil, and the very air we breathe. And in so doing, it provides the context needed to understand how human activities are transforming the world in the twenty-first century. For most of its history, our home was inhospitable to humans, and indeed, among the enduring lessons of Andrew Knoll's essential and timely book, is a recognition of how fleeting and fragile our present moment is. Placing twenty first-century climate change in the context of the vast history of our home, A Brief History of Earth is a gripping and essential look at where we've been and where we're going.

Harvard's acclaimed geologist "charts Earth's history in accessible style" (AP) "A sublime chronicle of our planet." -Booklist, STARRED review How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? Odds are, where you're standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roamed by fearsome monsters. Probably most or even all of the above. The story of our home planet and the organisms spread across its surface is far more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster, filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller. But only recently have we begun to piece together the whole mystery into a coherent narrative. Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing twenty first-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we've been and where we're going. Features original illustrations depicting Earth history and nearly 50 figures (maps, tables, photographs, graphs).