The textbooks for Ge 11b and Ge 104 are C

Reading list for Ge 11b: Earth and the Biosphere and Ge 104: Introduction to Geobiology

Winter Term 2006

Professor Joe Kirschvink / TAs: Bob Kopp and Cody Nash

The textbooks for Ge 11b and Ge 104 are C. Emiliani (1995), Planet Earth, and A. H. Knoll (2003), Life on a Young Planet. Additional readings are listed below.

I. Ordering Principles in Earth History

1. P. Cloud, (1970), Intro to Ordering Principles in Earth History (in Cloud, 3-8; 6 pp.)

2. N. Steno (1669), An Early Statement of Ordering Principles in Earth History (in Cloud, 21; 1 p.)

3. J. Playfair (1822), James Hutton Observes the Great Unconformity at Siccar Point (in Cloud, 22-23; 2 pp.)

4. A. H. Knoll et al. (2004), A new period for the geologic time scale (Science 305, 621-622: 2 pp.)

5. National Academies Space Studies Board, Assessment of Mars Science and Mission Priorities (2003). Ch. 4: Stratigraphy and Chronology (pp. 26-33; 8 pp.)

6. C. Patterson (1956), Age of Meteorites and the Earth (GCA 10, 230-237; in Cloud, 172-177; 8 pp.)

Also read: Emiliani, ch. 18

PART ONE: PRECAMBRIAN EARTH

II. Early Earth

1. E.G. Nisbett & N. H. Sleep (2001), The Habitat and Nature of Early Life (Nature 409, 1083-1091; 9 pp.)

2. J. L. Kirschvink & B. P. Weiss (2001), Mars, Panspermia, and the Origin of Life (Paleolontogia Electronica 4, 8-15; 8 pp.)

3. S. Simpson (2003), Questioning the Oldest Signs of Life (Scientific American, April 2003; 8 pp.)

Also read: Knoll, ch. 1-5 and 13

Emiliani, ch. 19

III. Glaciations, Snowball Earths, and the Rise of Oxygen

1. P. F. Hoffman & D. P. Schrag (2000), Snowball Earth (Scientific American, Jan. 2000; 8 pp.)

2. R. E. Kopp, J. L. Kirschvink, I. A. Hilburn, and C. Z. Nash. (2005), The Paleoproterozoic snowball Earth: A climate disaster triggered by the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis (PNAS 102, 11131-11136; 6 pp.)

Also read: Knoll, ch. 6-7 and 12

Emiliani, ch. 20

PART TWO: PHANEROZOIC EARTH

IV. The rise of animals and the start of the Phanerozoic

1. J. L. Kirschvink & T. D. Raub (2003), A methane fuse for the Cambrian explosion (C.R. Geoscience 335, 65-78; 14 pp.)

Also read: Knoll, ch. 8-11

Over units IV-V, also read: Emiliani, ch. 21-22

V. Population genetics and the fossil record

1. S. J. Gould & N. Eldridge (1993), Punctuated Equilibrium Comes of Age (Nature 366: 223-227; 5 pp.)

2. R. Dawkins (2004), The Host’s Return (in The Ancestor’s Tale, 582-614: 33 pp.)

VI. Extinctions

1. D. M. Raup and J. J. Sepkoski (1982), Mass extinctions in the marine fossil record (Science 215: 1501-1503; 3 pp.)

2. L. W. Alvarez et al. (1980), Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction (Science 208: 1095-1108; 14 pp.)

3. M. J. Benton and R. J. Twitchett (2003), How to kill (almost) all life: the end-Permian extinction event (Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18: 358-365; 8 pp.)

Also read: Emiliani, ch. 23

VII. Plate Tectonics

1. J. T. Wilson (1966), Did the Atlantic close and then re-open? (Nature 211: 676-681; 6 pp.)

2. A. Cox et al. (1967), Reversals of the Earth's Magnetic Field (Scientific American 216, 44-54; in Cloud, 323-334; 11 pp.)

3. P. M. Hurley (1968), The Confirmation of Continental Drift (Scientific American 218, 52-64; in Cloud, 335-350; 13 pp.)

Also read: Emiliani, section 11.8 and ch. 12

VIII. Climate and the Human Impact

1. C. Emiliani (1958), Ancient Temperatures (Scientific American 198, 54-63; in Cloud, 891-900; 10 pp.)

2. J. Zachos (2001), Trends, Rhythms, and Aberrations in Global Climate 65 Ma to Present (Science 292, 686-693; 8 pp.)

3. W. F. Ruddiman (2003), The Anthropogenic Greenhouse Era Began Thousands of Years Ago (Climatic Change 61, 261-293; 33 pp.)

4. S. B. Carroll (2003), Genetics and the making of Homo sapiens (Nature 422, 849-857; 9 pp.)

Also read: Emiliani, ch. 24

Additional recommended readings

R. Fortey (1999), Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth. A well-written popular overview of the history of life on Earth.

J. McPhee (1998), Annals of the Former World. A beautifully written, Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of geologists and the geology of North America.

P. D. Ward and D. Brownlee (2000), Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe. Ward and Brownlee explain the circumstances that make the Earth special.