Life in Deep Time: Darwin's "Missing" Fossil Record

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 FeaturesDocuments, through personal narrative, a paradigm shift is the study of the earliest lifeSummarizes a fossil record largely unknown until relatively recentlyAddresses one of Darwin's most troubling concerns about his theory of natural selectionPredicts future developments in the study of first life