Biological Innovations that Built the World: A Four-billion-year Journey through Life and Earth History

498 Pages·2019·17.358 MB·English

by  Roberto Ligrone

Roberto Ligrone
Biological
Innovations
that Built the
World
A Four-billion-year Journey through Life
and Earth History
Biological Innovations that Built the World
Roberto Ligrone
Biological Innovations that
Built the World
A Four-billion-year Journey through Life and
Earth History
RobertoLigrone
DepartmentofEnvironmental,Biologicaland
PharmaceuticalSciencesandTechnologies
UniversityofCampania“LuigiVanvitelli”
Caserta,Italy
ISBN978-3-030-16056-2 ISBN978-3-030-16057-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16057-9
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2019
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionor
informationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar
methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
fromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
Thepublisher,theauthors,andtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthisbook
arebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublishernortheauthorsorthe
editorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrors
oromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaims
inpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations.
ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG.
Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland
Frontcovercredit:ByNASA/GoddardSpaceFlightCenter/ArizonaStateUniversity–http://www.
nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/lro-earthrise-2015, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.
org/w/index.php?curid=45729896
Nothinginscienceisacceptedonthegrounds
of authority, revelation, faith, or longevity.
Heresy is not hostile to science; it is the very
process of science.
Paul M. Bingham and Joanne Souza (2009)
To Gabriella and Stefano, the best part of my
life, with love
Preface
Allorganismsliving onEarth, however different,sharehundredsofcomplextraits
inherited from a common ancestor. The grand unification of biological sciences
performed by the molecular revolution in the last decades has crystallized this
notion, pointing to life as a unitary phenomenon. Quite paradoxically, in the same
timeinterval,thelevelofspecializationofbiologicalscienceshasrisentothepoint
where researchers working in different areas have few occasions for cultural inter-
action and, sadly, know little biology outside their own field. This is a particularly
serious problem for human biology, which has primarily become a domain of
medicine, while biological anthropology has disappeared from Departments of
Anthropologyatmanyuniversities.
Themaingoalofthisbookistoguidethereadertowardanunderstandingofthe
continuityoflifeacrossdiversityandofitsdeeplinkswithEarth.Theroutechosenis
an analysis of ten fundamental transitions from the very beginning to the present,
eachpivotaltofurtherchange.
LifemostlikelyappearedonEartharound4billionyearsago.Resumingthemain
eventsofthiskindoftimescaleinabooknotsobigastodiscouragehurriedreaders,
but informative enough to meet the expectations of more demanding ones, is no
easytask.
Thefirst,perhapsgreatest,difficultyarisesfromourincompleteunderstandingof
key events such as the origin of life itself, the genesis of the eukaryotic cell, and
evolutionaryinterrelationshipsofmajortaxonomiclineages.AsIusedtosaytomy
first-yearundergraduatestudentswhileintroducingthemtothebeautifulintricacyof
biology, the challenge is not in complex topics but in those yet to be fully
understood.
Rathersurprisingly,consideringthethemeofthebook,aseconddifficultycomes
fromthefactthatlife,whileadaptingtoEarth,alsoproduceddramaticchangesinthe
geochemistry and morphology of the planet, at least in the superficial part now
knownasthebiosphere.TheglobalnetworkofinteractionsbetweenlifeandEarth
resemblesthesystemofinternalregulationofalivingorganism.Thisideaunderpins
theGaiamodelproposedbyBritishchemistJamesLovelockin1972,accordingto
xi
xii Preface
which Earth and its living communities form a highly integrated system with
feedback mechanisms that maintain conditions suitable to life across time. Pruned
from teleological nuances, the Gaia model is now widely accepted as a property
spontaneously emerging from interaction of life and environment. Thus, even if
restrictedtomajorevents,ahistoryoflifeneedstoincludeessentialfactsaboutthe
planet.
Athirddifficulty,ofamorecontingentnature,liesinthenecessityofusingterms
and concepts that cannot always be exhaustively explained in the text, given the
rangeofthetopicscovered.Thus,thebookrequiresabasicknowledgeofchemistry,
physics,andbiologyandincludesaglossaryforlesscommontechnicalterms.
Choosingfundamentaltransitionsinthehistoryoflifeisnotasstraightforwardas
one might initially believe. Some transitions are obligate; for example, nobody
would deny that the appearance of life was by itself a fundamental biological
transition.Thesameprobablyappliestotheevolutionofphotosynthesisandofthe
eukaryoticcell.Thehistoryoflife,however,encompassessolargeanumberoflong-
ranginginnovationsthatthereisplentyofspaceforsubjectivechoice.Thecriterion
adoptedinthisbookisenvironmentalimpact,withthegoaltoproduceanintegrated
accountofmajorbiologicalchangesthatcontributedtocreatetheworldinwhichthe
humansevolved.Byattemptingtobridgethegapbetweentopicstraditionallytreated
separately,thisbookadmittedlyfollowstheBigHistoryapproachadvocatedbyFred
SpierinhisfascinatingbookBigHistoryandtheFutureofHumanity(2010).
Independently of the methodological approach, the present work distinguishes
itselffromNickLane’sbeautifulbookLifeAscending:TheTenGreatInventionsof
Evolution(2012)inthechoiceoftheeventsandconstantreferencetophylogeny.I
have chosen a number of transitions not covered in Lane’s book, namely, the
oxygenationoftheplanet,thetransferofphotosynthesisfrombacteriatoeukaryotes,
theappearance ofanimals and land plants, andthe emergence ofhumans, whereas
others such as the evolution of movement, sight, warm blood, or awareness have
beenomittedassecondarymanifestationsofthe“animalinnovation.”
A second book with a similar title is the scholarly masterpiece The Major
TransitionsinEvolutionpublishedbyJohnMaynardSmithandEörsSzathmáryin
1995and,inasimplifiedversion,in2000(TheOriginsofLife:FromtheBirthofLife
totheOriginofLanguage).ThemainfocusofTheMajorTransitionsinEvolutionis
on changes and recurrent patterns in the way biological information is transferred
across generations. Although sharing four topics with The Major Transitions in
Evolution(theoriginoflife,eukaryoticcells,sex,andmulticellularity),thepresent
bookcouldnotbemoredivergentinstyle,contents,andobjectives.Nottheleast,it
incorporates a large body of information not available in 1995, especially from
genomics and phylogenomics. Thus, despite similar titles, the three books deal
withdifferenttopicsorofferdifferentperspectivesonsharedtopics,beinginseveral
respectscomplementarytoeachother.
The present book was primarily planned as a textbook for graduate courses of
Integrative Biology and as a reference text for university lecturers and high-school
teachers;thebook,however,isaccessibletoanyonewithanundergraduatetraining
in biology. Inevitably, some readers will be more familiar with certain topics than
Preface xiii
with others. They can obviously skip parts, each chapter being self-standing, with
referencestootherpartsofthebookhelpingtraceconnectedtopics.Thereaderwill
probablyfindthebookstylesomewhatmingled,combiningobvious,almosttrivial
information with cutting-edge data sometimes of considerable complexity; this
approach has an explanation in the need to reframe long-established notions into a
morewidelyintegratedperspective.Alistofmostrelevantpublicationsisincluded
at the end of each chapter for further coverage. In order to keep the number of
references within limits, reviews have generally been preferred to research papers,
and, with some exceptions, priority has been given to most recent publications;
because of this, references to specific primary work are often retrievable only
indirectly. Topics relevant to but not quite homogeneous with the main text have
beentreatedinseparateboxes.Aconstanteffortwasmadetocoveressentialpoints.I
willbeindebtedtoanybodyforsuggestionsandforsignallingerrorsoromissions,a
likelycontingencyinviewofthevastrangeofthiswork.
IthankDr.MarcoVigliotti(DepartmentofCivilEngineering,Design,Building
andEnvironment,UniversityofCampaniaLuigiVanvitelli,Italy)forthehelpinthe
choiceandpreparationofthefiguresandthreeanonymousrefereesfortheirinsight-
ful comments. I also express appreciation to the Department of Environmental
Sciences of the Second University of Naples (now a part of the Department of
Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies at the
UniversityofCampaniaLuigiVanvitelli)forencouragingmetotakecharge,inthe
last 15 years of my university career, of courses not strictly related to my own
academic area, an experience that enabled me to see connections I had long
overlookedbefore.
RobertoLigrone