Weeks 7 & 8:

Early Life on Earth and Evolution

Jakosky: Ch. 3, 4 and 5

Recommended Readings: (all are on reserve at the BioScience Library)

Walter: Chapters 2, 3, 4
Wills and Bada: Chapters 2-6.
Schopf: Chapter 2 by Davidson on dating in geology and
paleontology. Especially the part about radiometric dating.

Required Websites:

Darwin and evolution

Meteorites

• Panspermia.com
• The Nature and Origin of Chondrules
• Meteorite Classification
• CNN.com - Primordial meteorite
• Chemists Find Primordial Clues In New Meteorite
• Meteorites Under a Microscope

Early Life on Earth

• The University of California Museum of Paleontology has an excellent collection of sites detailing this period of Earth's history:

  • The Hadean period
  • The Archaen period
  • The Proterozoic Era

• National Museum of Natural History Virtual Tour - Early Life
• The Origins and Early Evolution of Life
• Life of the Proterozoic Era - University of California Museum of Paleontology
• Nearctica - Paleontology Page
• From Chemical to Biological Evolution
• Royal Tyrrell Museum
• RNA, DNA, PNA
• The Origins and Early Evolution of Life
• Stanley Miller Homepage
• Exobiology: An Interview with Stanley Miller
• Life Deep in the Rocks and the Deep Fossil Record
• CNN News - Australian Fossil to Help in Search for Life on Mars
• CNN News - NASA's Search for Space Life Begins on Earth
• Scientific American: Explorations: "Life, Life, Everywhere."
• The Origin of Life on Earth
• American Scientist: The Beginnings of Life on Earth
• RNA World: A Critique
• Nature: Special Feature: The Origin of Life
• The Scientist: Scientists Debate RNA's Role

Evolution Links:

• The Tree of Life
• Dawn of Animal Life Exhibit
• The Origin of Life - a personal page comparing different scientific views
• Introduction to Evolutionary Biology - from the Talk Origins site.
• Evolution FAQs - also from the Talk Origins site.
• Evolution links - from Harvard University's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
• The Tree of Life - a phylogenetic project from the University of Arizona.
• Principia Cybernetica - a website dealing with evolution, complexity and social evolution. Good stuff on the inevitability of complexity.
• The History of Evolutionary Thought - an authoritative collection from our own UC Museum of Paleontology.
• UCMP Web Time Machine - take a trip through the geologic time scale.
• Precambrian Time Scale
• Molecular Biology - a graphics gallery showing a huge array of topics in molecular biology.
• Punctuated Equilibrium - from Talk Origins.
• Punctuated Equilibrium - an article from Scientific American.
• Macroevolution - from Talk Origins.
• Macroevolution, the Fossil Record and Systematics - includes some info on Adaptive Radiations.