Driving evolution forward, the Earth's physical environment has challenged the very survival of organisms and ecosystems throughout the ages. This book shows how these physical realities and hurdles shaped the primary phases of life on the planet. It features original material solicited from the leading minds in evolutionary biology and geology.

Driving evolution forward, the Earth's physical environment has challenged the very survival of organisms and ecosystems throughout the ages. With a fresh new perspective, "Evolution on Planet Earth" shows how these physical realities and hurdles shaped the primary phases of life on the planet. The book's thorough coverage also includes chapters on more proximate factors and paleoenvironmental events that influenced the diversity of life. A team of notable ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and paleontologists join forces to describe drifting continents, extinction events, and climate change - important topics that continue to shape Earth's inhabitants to this very day. In a world where global change has become an international issue, this book provides a several billion-year evolutionary perspective on what the environment and environmental change means to life. It provides thorough background information on each topic while introducing cutting-edge research. It features original material solicited from the leading minds in evolutionary biology and geology today. It emphasizes the influence of massive geological forces - continental drift, volcanic activity, sea and tides.

The Physical Setting for Early Life An Evolutionary Perspective of Nitrogen Fixation The Coupled Evolution of Life and Atmospheric Oxygen Chemistry of the Early Oceans The Role of Carbon Dioxide in Plant Evolution Solar Energy and Life Could Life Travel across Interplanetary Space? Genome Evolution and the Impact of the Physical Environment The Impact of Gravity on Life Gravity, the Atmosphere and the Evolution of Animal Locomotion Evolution and Low Temperatures Temperature, Tectonics, and Evolution The Interplay of Physical and Biotic Factors in Macroevolution The Causes of Phanerozoic Extinctions Drifting Continents and Life on Earth Land-Sea Relations and Speciation in the Marine and Terrestrial Realms Tectonics, Climatic Change, and the Evolution of Mammalian Ecosystems Ice Ages, Species Distributions, and Evolution Environmental Variability and Its Impace on Adaptive Evolution, with Special Reference to Human Origins The Younger Dryas, Climatic Change, and the Beginnings of Agriculture
The Physical Constraints on Extraterrestrial Life