History of life

339 Pages·2005·10.636 MB·English

by  Richard Cowen

F O U RTH E D ITI O N
H I STO RY O F L I F E
RICHARD COWEN
University of California, Davis

HISTORY OF LIFE

F O U RTH E D ITI O N
H I STO RY O F L I F E
RICHARD COWEN
University of California, Davis
© 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 by Richard Cowen
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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First edition published 1990 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Second edition published 1995
Third edition published 2000
Fourth edition published 2005
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cowen, Richard, 1940–
History of life / Richard Cowen.—4th ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-4051-1756-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Paleontology. I. Title.
QE711.2.C68 2005
560—dc22
2003027993
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
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Contents
Preface viii CHAPTER FOUR:
The Evolution of Metazoans 42
CHAPTER ONE:
The Origin of Life on Earth 1 Proterozoic Protists 42
Evolving Metazoans from Protists 43
How Geology Works 1 Evolution and Development in Metazoans 47
How Paleontology Works 2 The Variety of Metazoans 49
The Origin of Life 3 Snowball or Slushball Earth 50
Where Did Life Evolve? 11
Energy Sources for the First Life 12 CHAPTER FIVE:
The Cambrian Explosion 54
CHAPTER TWO:
Earth’s Earliest Life 16 Ediacaran (Vendian) Animals 54
The Evolution of Skeletons 56
How Do We Know the Age of a Fossil? 18 The Burgess Fauna 58
Life Alters a Planet 19 Solving the Cambrian Explosion 59
Earth’s Oldest Rocks 21
Earth’s Oldest Cells 22 CHAPTER SIX:
Earth’s Early Atmosphere and Climate 24 Changing Life in a Changing World 64
Banded Iron Formations 25
The Oxygen Revolution 26 Diversity Patterns in the Fossil Record 64
Global Tectonics and Global Diversity 65
CHAPTER THREE:
Changing Faunas Through Time 69
Sex and Nuclei: Eukaryotes 29 Increase in Global Diversity 73
Extinction and Mass Extinctions 73
Symbiosis and Endosymbiosis 29 The Permo-Triassic (P–T) Extinction 75
Eukaryotes in the Fossil Record 32 Evolutionary Radiations 80
Evolution and Natural Selection 33
The Evolution of Sex 34 CHAPTER SEVEN:
The Classification of Eukaryotes 36 The Early Vertebrates 84
Cladistics 37
Vertebrate Origins 84
The Evolution of Jaws 88
Bony Fishes 91
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER EIGHT: Were Dinosaurs Warmblooded? 164
Leaving the Water 95 Dinosaurs with Feathers 166
Doubts about Endothermy? 169
The Origin of Land Plants 95
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
The Earliest Land Floras 98
The Evolution of Flight 176
Comparing Plant and Animal Evolution 101
The First Land Animals 102
Air Breathing 104 Flight in Insects 177
Limbs and Feet: Why Become Tetrapod? 107 Parachuting Vertebrates 179
The First Tetrapods 110 Pterosaurs 181
Birds 185
CHAPTER NINE: Bats 192
Tetrapods and Amniotes 113
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
The Modernization of Land
Early Tetrapods 113
Amniotes and Amniota 117 and Sea 196
Carboniferous Land Ecology 121
Mesozoic Ocean Ecosystems 196
CHAPTER TEN: The Modernization ofLand Plants 203
Early Amniotes and Mesozoic Plants and Pollination 204
Thermoregulation 124 Mesozoic Plants and Seed Dispersal 206
Angiosperms and Mesozoic Ecology 209
The Amniote Radiation 124
CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Pelycosaurs 125
The Origin of Mammals 213
Pelycosaur Biology and Ecology 126
Vegetarian Pelycosaurs 128
How Does Herbivory Evolve in Tetrapods? 129 Evolving Mammalian Characters 214
Thermoregulation in Living Reptiles 130 Mammalian Reproduction 218
Permian Changes 132 Early Mammals 220
The Invasion of Gondwana 133 Therian Mammals 223
Therapsid Evolution 134 The Inferiority of Mammals 225
CHAPTER ELEVEN: CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
The Triassic Takeover 139 The End of the Dinosaurs 228
Diapsids 139 An Asteroid or Cometary Impact? 229
The Triassic Diapsid Takeover: The Pattern 141 A Giant Volcanic Eruption? 231
Respiration, Metabolism, and Locomotion 143 Did a Catastrophe Cause the Extinctions? 231
Rhynchosaurs 146 Paleontological Evidence From the K–T Boundary 232
Locomotion and Triassic Archosauromorphs 146
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Dinosaur Ancestors 149
Cenozoic Mammals: Origins,
CHAPTER TWELVE: Guilds, and Trends 238
Dinosaurs 151
The Evolution of Cenozoic Mammals 239
Theropods 151 Ecological Replacement: The Guild Concept 244
Ornithischians 156 The Savanna Story 248
Sauropodomorphs 157 Evolution by Improvement 250
Dinosaur Paleobiology: Life at Large Size 159
Dinosaur Behavior 161
Dinosaur Eggs and Nests 163
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Homo erectus: the First “Real” Homo? 286
Geography and Evolution 255 The Origin of Homo sapiens 289
The Neanderthals 290
Evolution Among Humans Today 293
Australia 255
New Zealand 258
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
South America 259
Life in the Ice Age 297
Africa 262
Islands and Biogeography 264
Ice Ages and Climatic Change 297
CHAPTER NINETEEN: The Present Ice Age 299
Primates 267 Life and Climate in the Ice Ages 300
Continental Changes 301
The Americas 304
The Living Prosimians 268
Australia 307
Earliest Primates 268
Island Extinctions 308
The Origin of Anthropoids 271
Experienced Faunas 310
Emergence of the Hominoids 274
The World Today 312
CHAPTER TWENTY:
Index 316
Evolving Toward Humans 278
Australopithecines 279
The Appearance (or Not) of Homo 283