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Lynn Margulis

Early Life: Evolution on the PreCambrian Earth Paperback – January 13, 2002

by Lynn Margulis (Author), Michael Dolan (Author)

6 customer reviews

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Early Life: Evolution on the PreCambrian Earth, Second Edition offers an informative and compelling analysis of microbial evolution, often overlooked as the opening chapter of life's history. With this long-awaited new edition, Lynn Margulis and Michael Dolan integrate new discoveries from the past two decades, such as the enormous contribution of molecular biology, especially the accumulation of protein and DNA sequence information upon which the Woese three-domain system is based. Yet the prokaryotic-eukaryotic distinction remains the largest evolutionary discontinuity in life on Earth. Are the well-formed filaments found so recently in the Warrawoona Series of northwestern Australia really evidence of the oldest life on the planet?

Do the fossils found in the great Gunflint Iron Formation of Ontario tell that bacteria were instrumental in the accumulation of the most important iron reserves in the world?

These questions are not solved here, but they are raised for students, scientists, and general readers interested in the most basic evolution and its consequences. No special scientific background is required of the reader, only a lively interest.

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About the Author

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts

Paperback: 168 pages
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2 edition (January 13, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0763714631
ISBN-13: 978-0763714635
Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 0.4 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 6 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,890,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2110 in Genetics (Books)
- #925 in Paleontology (Books)
- #1245 in Biotechnology (Books)

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Great first book on the most poplar theory of how life began on earth

November 18, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a seminal book about one theory of the origin of life on earth (there are at least 4 other credible theories). Lynn Margulis was the first to propose the theory of endo-symbiosis which gave every cell mitochondria. Now, >30 years later, we know the vital role of the micro-organisms in our gut, they are also symbionts, that enable us to extract nutrition from food and who likely perform other functions that are vital to good health. This short, illustrated book is easy to read and understand.

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Barry D. Brown

Great, well worth the Price-But Non Biology Techies Beware

May 13, 2007

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book follows the Margulis tradition of clarity. Margulis, ably co-authored by Dolan begins in the Archean Eon, 3.9 billion years ago and explains how first, bacteria and then, nucleated cells evolved into the multitude of complex plants and animals that first appear in the Cambrian period and whose descendants continue to today. The evolution process from simple bacterial prokaryotic (no nucleus) cell to complex eukaryotic (with a nucleus) cell is explained mainly by symbiogenesis and less so by spontaneous mutations and the Darwinian "survival of the fittest"--a theory Margulis has championed for years and which I fervently believe is correct, but which is still disputed by many orthodox biologists. The text and diagrams are clear but this book is definitely college level.
Barry D. Brown

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Frank Deis

Margulis at her best -- but a missed opportunity

April 3, 2000

Format: Paperback

I wish this book were available as a normal paperback. I really like nearly everything about it. Understanding Margulis on the origin of Meiosis is so much easier with line drawings! If you are interested in Margulis's ideas about the serial endosymbiont theory and how the eukaryotic cell arose, it's hard to do better than "Early Life." The clarity of this book is wonderful. Why a "missed opportunity"? Despite the fact that this is a new edition with Michael F. Dolan, the science appears not to have been updated. For example, Margulis thought an "aggressive" bacterium such as Bdellovibrio might have invaded cells to form mitochondria. Genomic research has shown that mitochondria came from a Rickettsia species. In illustrations, Bdellovibrio is still shown and the Rickettsia connection is not mentioned. Does Margulis completely reject evidence from nucleic acid sequencing?
Evidently -- because the biggest "hole" in this book is a complete lack of recognition that the Archaea are something completely different from Bacteria. Margulis makes a friendly mention of Carl Woese in the introduction of the new edition, as if his research were the only stone in the massive structure that shows Archaea are a separate domain of life. It is not just the rRNA's that are different (as Woese showed) -- the membrane lipids are different, the Archaea have histones (like eukaryotes) and some have multiple chromosomes (like eukaryotes). Lumping them with other "prokaryotes" in spite of the current state of science is nothing less than a willful act of ignorance, and it's too bad that this book is damaged by her prejudices. I hope some day that a third edition will include modern scientific discoveries. And I hope that some day her "Five Kingdoms" will be updated to "Six." But somehow I doubt it will happen.

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penname

Simply written, short, informative book

April 16, 2006

Format: Paperback

I wanted to give 4.5 since it becomes too technical here and there. But otherthan that full points to Lynn.

Hinting that mitochondria was a prokaryote, and that symbiosis resulted in its incorporation is provocative idea, backed by the evidence of its inactivity in presence of bacteria-killing antibiotics.

The turning point in life, switching from anerobic to aerobic metbolism is neatly explained. Sure its a turning point, there is 18 times more energy(ATP) in aerobic metabolism!.

The evolution of eukaryotes, and the evolution of sex are nicely presented.

Anyway, to find more of such interesting things better to read the book.

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Dorion Sagan

I have to say, since I am Dorion Sagan

March 22, 2002

Format: Paperback

that that last reviewer did not know what the bleep they were talking about. Yes, this is a very good book but, listen, my mum, Lynn was the one who put the idea of "seme" in Microcosmos! Where people (and Richard Dawkins was one!) get off "mind-reading" who writes which part of a co-authored book is beyond me. The writer was correct, however, that this is a very good book, perhaps the best, for a nuts-and-bolts overview of early life. Now for some fluff: Check out our new book Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species--if you like it, Frank (or whatever your name is) be sure to credit the good parts to me! Also check out Up From Dragons: The Evolution of Human Intelligence and Into the Cool: The Thermodynamics of Life (forthcoming) if you are curious...

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S. Murrell

Useless to a biologist

September 16, 2008

Format: Paperback

This book provided nothing that wasn't already obvious in biology. I read this book on my own initiative, being in a microbial ecology class, with the expectation that I would gain some terrific insights into the development of the basic metabolic processes that make life function today. Instead, I received a long-winded retrospective narrative that commented on events already evident in life today. "One day, bacteria developed glycolysis, and it has been popular ever since." Thanks, Margulis, for such keen insight. Want to inform me that bacteria somehow use lipids in their membranes?

Absurdly general and simplistic, that tells a reader things he/she already knows. Is there no speculation about how photosynthesis *might* have developed?

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