《The10BookstoUnderstandHistoryofEarth.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《The10BookstoUnderstandHistoryofEarth.docx（10页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、The 10 Books You Absolutely Must Read to Understand the History of EarthAnnalee NewitzThe Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and life began oozing across its boiling, methane-saturated surface about a billion years after our planet was born. But how did that happen? In just a few billion years, a helli
2、sh ball of melted rock, smashed up by meteorites, became the gorgeous Blue Marble covered in plants, animals, and sparkling ocean waters we know today. Heres our list of ten books you must read if you want to understand this transformation, from the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere to the mass death
3、s of the dinosaurs.Illustration byDoug Henderson.1.Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Evolution from Our Microbial Ancestors, by Lynne Margulis and Dorion SaganFamed evolutionary biologist Lynne Margulis is known for demonstrating that bacteria should be classified as their own branch on the tree of
4、 life, and her classification of these tiny species is now part of every school kids biology lessons. She was also an expert on symbiosis, the process by which two species form a mutually beneficial unit and also, many believe, a process that was integral to the evolution of cells and multicellular
5、life. So shes the perfect person to give you a tour of how life evolved on Earth from the first scribbles of chemicals in the global ocean. Readable and fascinating,Microcosmoswill help you understand what it really means when scientists say that all life evolved from bacterial slime.2.Life on a You
6、ng Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth, by Andrew H. KnollHarvard earth scientist Knoll is one of the few people on the planet who has devoted his career to determining the dates on ancient pieces of rock in order to understand the origins of life. This book explores Earth as
7、 a young planet, meaning in the years before the Cambrian Explosion that led to the development of multicellular life that could breathe oxygen. But there were billions of years of evolution before that time, in which single celled creatures lived in a world whose oceans and atmosphere were very dif
8、ferent from today. Knoll does a terrific job showing you this lost world, and explaining how he and other scientists use evidence to speculate about what life would have been like billions of years ago.Full size3.When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time, by Michael BentonOne o
9、f the dirty little secrets of evolution is mass extinction. In fact, most of the life you see around you on Earth only exists because, periodically, most species on Earth are wiped out by catastrophic events that kill off so many species that the worlds food webs are left with huge gaps that new spe
10、cies can evolve to fill. Many people know about how mammals evolved in the wake of the mass extinction of dinosaurs, but that event was nothing compared to the Great Dying, a mass extinction 250 million years ago that took out 95 percent of species on the planet. Here, geologist Benton describes thi
11、s mass extinction an event hes studied for decades and explains how it happened, and why it took millions of years for the planet to recover. This is an incredible book, full of mega-volcanoes and weird life forms who disappeared eons ago.4.The Medea Hypothesis Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destr
12、uctive?by Peter WardIf you dont get enough mass death reading Bentons book, this should be the next book on your list. Ward is a geologist who believes that mass extinction may be the most important force shaping our planets past and future. Here he describes several mass extinctions in fantastic de
13、tail, and explains how they happened. Are we doomed to go through another one? Absolutely, he argues. Then, with alarming clarity, he describes how todays planet is ripe for another mass extinction and along the way, he introduces you to key concepts in climate change, one of the major causes for ex
14、tinctions throughout geological time.Full size5.Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, by Oliver MortonEnough with mass death. In this book, Morton introduces us to the single most important life form on Earth: plants. This is a brilliant and fun exploration of how plants evolved, and why phot
15、osynthesis (eating sunlight) is one of the greatest inventions of the last 3 billion years. If youve ever wondered why its important to preserve plant life, this book will provide answers. Plants are crucial to the lifecycles of many other creatures on Earth, and they literally help create the very
16、air that we breathe.6.Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World, by Nick LaneSpeaking of the air we breathe, Nick Lanes book about a humble molecule that transformed the planet is a must-read for anybody who wants to know how Earth got to be so cool. Literally. Without early algae generating oxygen, the planet would never have developed a cooler climate whose atmosphere was conducive to multicellular life. Oxygen was respon
