Life on a Young Planet Quotes

“Most new species arise not from the insensibly gradual transformation of large populations but rather by the rapid differentiation of small, isolated populations at the periphery of the main group.”
― Andrew H. Knoll, Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth

“One clear theme of evolutionary history is the cumulative nature of biological diversity. Individual species (of nucleated organisms at least) may come and go in geological succession, their extinctions emphasizing the fragility of populations in a world of competition and environmental change. But the history of guilds—of fundamentally distinct morphological and physiological ways of making a biological living—is one of accrual. The long view of evolution is unmistakably one of accumulation through time, governed by rules of ecosystem function. The replacement series implied by the Generations of Abraham approach fails to capture this basic attribute of biological history.”
― Andrew H. Knoll, Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth

“The cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic bacteria tinted blue-green by chlorophyll and other pigments, harvest sunlight and fix CO2 much like eukaryotic algae and land plants. However, when hydrogen sulfide (H2S, well known for its “rotten egg” smell) is present, many cyanobacteria use this gas rather than water to supply the electrons needed for photosynthesis. Sulfur and sulfate are formed as by-products, but oxygen is not.”
― Andrew H. Knoll, Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth

“can only conclude that the appearance of age and order in stratigraphic successions is an elaborate ruse, part of a great cosmic charade set up to trap the unfaithful. What sort of God would do that? One who can be petty and vengeful, who may love His creation but doesn’t trust it. A God, in other words, much like ourselves. In his zeal to know the mind of God, the creationist finds only a mirror.”
― Andrew H. Knoll, Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth