Life in Deep Time: Darwin’s “Missing” Fossil Record

Book Description

When Darwin wrote his Origin of Species, one of his main concerns was with the perceived shortness of the fossil record of life. Until the work of J. William Schopf and his colleagues, much of this history was thought to be unknowable. This book, through a memoire of Schopf’s personal recollections, documents astonishing discoveries revealing the first 85% of the history of life. These earliest periods of life on Earth emerge as a tale of individual and internationally collaborative exploration told by a scholar whose 60 years of research contributed to the recognition of the richness and diversity which forms the foundation of today’s biodiversity.

Key Features

• Documents, through personal narrative, a paradigm shift is the study of the earliest life
• Summarizes a fossil record largely unknown until relatively recently
• Addresses one of Darwin’s most troubling concerns about his theory of natural selection
• Predicts future developments in the study of first life

中文：

书名：生命在深处：达尔文“失踪”的化石记录

当达尔文写下他的 物种的起源，他的主要担忧之一是生命化石记录的短小精悍。在J.William Schopf和他的同事的工作之前，这段历史的大部分被认为是不可知的。这本书通过一本关于肖普夫个人回忆的回忆录，记录了揭示生命历史前85%的惊人发现。地球上这些最早的生命时期是一个关于个人和国际合作探索的故事，由一位学者讲述，他60年的研究有助于认识到构成今天生物多样性基础的丰富性和多样性。

主要特点

• 文献，通过个人的叙述，范式的转变是对最早生命的研究
• 总结了直到最近才为人所知的化石记录
• 解决了达尔文对其自然选择理论最令人担忧的问题之一
• 预测第一生命研究的未来发展