Home / Evolution & Extinction / Focussed on the Fossil Record

H. Agic (2016): Fossil Focus: Acritarchs. In PDF, Palaeontology Online, 6: 1-13.

! J.F. Allen and W.F.J. Vermaas (2010): Evolution of Photosynthesis. PDF file, In: Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (ELS), John Wiley & Sons.

J. Alroy et al. (2001): Effects of sampling standardization on estimates of Phanerozoic marine diversification. In PDF, PNAS, 98: 6261-6266.

S.M. Awramik (2006): Respect for stromatolites. In PDF, Nature, 441.

K.D. Baets et al. (2021): The fossil record of parasitism: Its extent and taphonomic constraints. In PDF, The Evolution and Fossil Record of Parasitism, pp. 1-50. See also here.

! Anna K. Behrensmeyer (1992; Google books): Terrestrial ecosystems through time.

S. Bengtson et al. (2017): Three-dimensional preservation of cellular and subcellular structures suggests 1.6 billion-year-old crown-group red algae. Open Access, PLoS Biol., 15: e2000735.

! M.J. Benton and F. Wu (2022): Triassic revolution. Free access, Frontiers in Earth Science, 10. See also here.
Note figure 9: Novel physiological and functional characteristics, new tetrapod, insect and plant groups in the Triassic on land.
"... On land, ongoing competition between synapsids and archosauromorphs through the Triassic was marked by a posture shift from sprawling to erect, and a shift in physiology to warm-bloodedness, with insulating skin coverings of hair and feathers. Dinosaurs, for example, originated in the Early or Middle Triassic, but did not diversify until after the CPE [Carnian Pluvial Episode]. ..."

! M.J. Benton et al. (2022): The Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution and the origins of modern biodiversity. Free access, New Phytologist, 233: 2017–2035.
Note fig. 1: Evolution of hyperdiverse terrestrial life.
Fig. 3: Key stages in Earth history and angiosperm evolution through the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution.
Also worth checking out:
Flowering plants: an evolution revolution. (Univ. of Bristol, November 17, 2021).
How 'Flower Power' Quite Literally Transformed Earth Millions of Years Ago (by T. Koumoundouros, January 08,2022).

M. J. Benton et al. (2014): Review Models for the Rise of the Dinosaurs. In PDF, Current Biology 24. See also here.

Michael J. Benton (2010): The origins of modern biodiversity on land. In PDF, Transactions of the Royal Society, B.

! M.J. Benton (2010): Studying Function and Behavior in the Fossil Record. Free access, PLoS Biol, 8: e1000321.

Michael Benton, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, UK: Accuracy of Fossils and Dating Methods (an ActionBioscience.org original interview, American Institute of Biological Sciences).
Still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

M.J. Benton (2001): Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol: Biodiversity on land and in the sea. PDF file, Geological Journal 36, 211-230.
See also here.

M.J. Benton and D.A.T. Harper: Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record. Go to:
! Companion Website: Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record. On this website you can download the figures in jpeg format at standard resolution (96 dpi) for viewing on screen and at a higher resolution (300 dpi) for downloading. They can also be downloaded as a Powerpoint file for each chapter.
! See also here (in PDF).
For better navigation note the table of contents (in PDF).

M.J. Benton and P.N. Pearson (2001): Speciation in the fossil record. PDF file, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 16.

M.J. Benton et al. 2000): Quality of the fossil record through time. Nature, 403: 534-537.
See also here.
"... new assessment methods, in which the order of fossils in the rocks (stratigraphy) is compared with the order inherent in evolutionary trees (phylogeny), provide a more convincing analytical tool: stratigraphy and phylogeny offer independent data on history. ..."

! H. Beraldi-Campesi (2013): Early life on land and the first terrestrial ecosystems. In PDF, Ecological Processes, 2. See also here.
Note figure 1: Suggested chronology of geological, atmospheric, and biological events during the Hadean, Archean, and Paleoproterozoic eons.

! Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), University of California, Berkeley (sponsored in part by Shell Offshore Inc.): Learning from the Fossil Record. This is a hypertext version of a book originally published by the Paleontological Society.

University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley: Explorations Through Time. A series of interactive modules (curriculum and classroom resources) that explore the history of life on Earth, while focusing on the processes of science. Each module contains suggested lesson plans and an extensive teacher’s guide.

A.C. Bippus et al. (2022): The Role of Paleontological Data in Bryophyte Systematics. Abstract, Journal of Experimental Botany.
"... Paucity of the bryophyte fossil record, driven primarily by phenotypic (small plant size) and ecological constraints (patchy substrate-hugging populations), and incomplete exploration, results in many morphologically isolated, taxonomically ambiguous fossil taxa. Nevertheless, instances of exquisite preservation and pioneering studies demonstrate the feasibility of including bryophyte fossils in evolutionary inference. ..."

B. Blonder et al. (2014): Plant Ecological Strategies Shift Across the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary. Open acces, PLoS Biol, 12.

Boston College: BC Scientist´s Fossil Discovery May Indicate Life on Land Evolved Earlier than Thought.
The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! M.D. Brasier et al. (2016): Changing the picture of Earth´s earliest fossils (3.5–1.9 Ga) with new approaches and new discoveries. PNAS, 112: 4859-4864. See also here (in PDF).

M. Brasier (2015): Deep questions about the nature of early-life signals: a commentary on Lister (1673) "A description of certain stones figured like plants". In PDF, Phil. Trans. R. Soc., A 373. See also here.

! M. Brasier et al. (2006): A fresh look at the fossil evidence for early Archaean cellular life. In PDF, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B, Biol Sci., 361: 887–902. See also here.

Brent H. Breithaupt (1992): The use of fossils in interpreting past environments. PDF file, Pages 147–158, in: Tested studies for laboratory teaching, Volume 13 (C. A. Goldman, Editor). Proceedings of the 13th Workshop/Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education.
This expired link is now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

J.C. Briggs (2014): Invasions, adaptive radiations, and the generation of biodiversity. In PDF, Environmental Skeptics and Critics, 3: 8-16.

! Derek Briggs and Peter Crowther (eds.), Earth Pages, Blackwell Publishing: Paleobiology: A Synthesis (PDF files). Series of concise articles from over 150 leading authorities from around the world. Excellent! Snapshot now taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
Navigate from the content file. There are no restrictions on downloading this material. Worth checking out:
Part 1. Major Events in the History of Life, Pages 1-92.
! Derek Briggs Part 2. The Evolutionary Process and the Fossil Record, Pages 93-210.
Part 3. Taphonomy, Pages 211-304.
Part 4. Palaeoecology, Pages 305-414.
Part 5. Taxonomy, Phylogeny and Biostratigraphy, Pages 415-490.

N. Brocklehurst et al. (2018): Physical and environmental drivers of Paleozoic tetrapod dispersal across Pangaea. Open access, Nature Communications, 9.

L.A. Buatois et al. (2016): The Mesozoic Lacustrine Revolution. Abstract, The Trace-Fossil Record of Major Evolutionary Events, Series Topics in Geobiology, 40: 179-263.
! See also here (in PDF).

G.E. Budd and S. Jensen (2020): A critical reappraisal of the fossil record of the bilaterian phyla. Abstract, Biological Reviews, 75_253-295.
"... Indeed, the combination of the body and trace fossil record demonstrates a progressive diversification through the end of the Proterozoic well into the Cambrian and beyond, a picture consistent with body plans being assembled during this time. ..."

G.E. Budd (2008): The earliest fossil record of the animals and its significance. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 363: 1425–1434. See here.

R.J. Burnham (2008): Hide and Go Seek: What Does Presence Mean in the Fossil Record. Abstract, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 95: 51-71. See also here (in PDF).

! C. Cai et al. (2022): Integrated phylogenomics and fossil data illuminate the evolution of beetles. Open access, R. Soc. Open Sci. 9: 211771.
Note figure 2: Timescale of beetle evolution displayed as a family-level tree.
! "... Our divergence time analyses recovered a late Carboniferous origin of Coleoptera, a late Palaeozoic origin of all modern beetle suborders and a Triassic–Jurassic origin of most extant families, while fundamental divergences within beetle phylogeny did not coincide with the hypothesis of a Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution ..."

E. Callaway (2015): Computers read the fossil record. Palaeontologists hope that software can construct fossil databases directly from research papers. In PDF, Nature Toolbox. See also here.

T. Cardona (2016): Reconstructing the Origin of Oxygenic Photosynthesis: Do Assembly and Photoactivation Recapitulate Evolution? Front. PlantSci., 7: 257.

! E.M. Carlisle et al. (2021): Experimental taphonomy of organelles and the fossil record of early eukaryote evolution. Open access, Science Advances, 7. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abe9487 See also here (in PDF).

B. Cascales-Miñana and C.J. Cleal (2012): Plant fossil record and survival analyses. In PDF, Lethaia, 45. See also here (abstract).

! B. Cascales-Miñana and C.J. Cleal (2013): The plant fossil record reflects just two great extinction events. Abstract. See also here (in PDF).

B. Cascales-Miñana and J.B. Diez (2012): The effect of singletons and interval length on interpreting diversity trends from the palaeobotanical record. In PDF, Palaeontologia Electronica.

B. Cavalazzi et al. (2021): Cellular remains in a ~3.42-billion-year-old subseafloor hydrothermal environment. Sci. Adv. 7, eabf3963 (2021). See also here (in PDF).
"... they can be considered the oldest methanogens and/or methanotrophs that thrived in an ultramafic volcanic substrate. ..."

! J.T. Clarke et al. (2011): Establishing a time-scale for plant evolution. PDF file, New Phytologist. See also here.
! Note figure 2: A representative tree of relationships between model representatives of the major land plant lineages whose plastid or nuclear genomes have been fully sequenced.
Figure 7: Chronogram for land plant evolution.
Figure 8: Chronograms for the six molecular clock analyses conducted.
"... We reject both a post-Jurassic origin of angiosperms and a post-Cambrian origin of land plants. Our analyses also suggest that the establishment of the major embryophyte lineages occurred at a much slower tempo than suggested in most previous studies. ..."

! C.J. Cleal and B. Cascales-Miñana (2021, start on PDF-page 39): Evolutionary floras - revealing large-scale patterns in Palaeozoic vegetation history. Journal of Palaeosciences, 70: 31-42.

! C. Cleal et al. (2021): Palaeobotanical experiences of plant diversity in deep time. 1: How well can we identify past plant diversity in the fossil record? Abstract, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 576.
See also here (in PDF).

J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson (2005): Ecology and Behaviour of Mesozoic Reptiles, The Mesozoic Environment. In PDF. See also here,

J.C. Coates et al. (2011): Plants and the Earth system - past events and future challenges. In PDF, New Phytologist, 89: 370-373.

E.J. Chaisson (2014): The Natural Science Underlying Big History. In PDF, The Scientific World Journal.
Website saved by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! Eric J. Chaisson, Wright Center for Science Education: Cosmic evolution: from big bang to humankind. Based on a course taught at Harvard University. This site offers background information and resources to understand the origins of matter and life in our universe, known as cosmic evolution. Questions from how the universe began to how humans evolved are addressed, using an interdisciplinary approach between life, Earth, space, and physical sciences.
Website now publicly accessible by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! Matthew Cobb, whyevolutionistrue: Excellent open access articles on the evolution of life on Earth - UPDATE 2.

! Committee on the Geologic Record of Biosphere Dynamics, National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (The National Academies Press): The Geological Record of Ecological Dynamics: Understanding the Biotic Effects of Future Environmental Change. 216 pages, 2005. Produced by a committee consisting of both ecologists and paleontologists, the report provides ecologists with background on techniques for obtaining and evaluating geohistorical information, and provides paleontologists with background on the nature of ecological phenomena amenable to analysis in the geological record. The report can be read online for free!

! F.L. Condamine et al. (2020): The rise of angiosperms pushed conifers to decline during global cooling. Free access, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117: 28867–28875.
Note figure 1: An overview of hypothetical determinants of conifer diversification over time.
Figure 2: Global diversification of conifers inferred from a molecular phylogeny and the fossil record.
Figure 3: Drivers of conifer diversification dynamics.

! F.L. Condamine et al. (2013): Macroevolutionary perspectives to environmental change. In PDF, Ecology letters.

! Richard Cowen (web pages were first created by D.J. Eernisse for Biology 404: Evolution at CSUF): History of Life (4th Edition, 2005), Web Links by Chapter. This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Richard Cowen, Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, CA: History of Life, Third Edition.
Go to: Preservation and Bias in the Fossil Record.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

M.B. Cruzan and A.R. Templeton (2000): Paleoecology and coalescence: phylogeographic analysis of hypotheses from the fossil record. PDF file, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 15.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
See also here.

A. Currie (2019): Paleobiology and philosophy. Open access, Biology & Philosophy, 34.

K. De Baets and D.T.J. Littlewood (2015): The Importance of Fossils in Understanding the Evolution of Parasites and Their Vectors. Advances in Parasitology, 90: 1–51. ! See also here (in PDF).

O. De Clerck et al. (2012): Diversity and Evolution of Algae: Primary Endosymbiosis. In PDF, Advances in Botanical Research, 64.

! L.E.V. Del-Bem (2018): Xyloglucan evolution and the terrestrialization of green plants. Free access, New Phytologist, 219: 1150–1153.

! C.F. Demoulin (2019): Cyanobacteria evolution: Insight from the fossil record. In PDF, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 140: 206–223.
See also here.
Note table 1: Summary of microfossil morphological features, habitat, occurrences and their modern analogues.
Figure 3: Microfossils record of unambiguous, probable and possible cyanobacteria.
"... Cyanobacterial fossil record starts unambiguously at 1.89–1.84 Ga and the minimum age for the oxygenic photosynthesis starts with the GOE [Great Oxidation Event] around 2.4 Ga. ..."

Senatskommission für Zukunftsaufgaben der Geowissenschaften der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG):
Dynamische Erde – Zukunftsaufgaben der Geowissenschaften. 8.1 - Die Evolution von Atmosphäre und Ozeanen. In German
Still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Senatskommission für Zukunftsaufgaben der Geowissenschaften der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG):
Dynamische Erde – Zukunftsaufgaben der Geowissenschaften. 10.3 – Krisen der Evolution und Dynamik der Biodiversität. In German.
Still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! J. De Vries and J.M. Archibald (2018): Plant evolution: landmarks on the path to terrestrial life. Free access, New Phytologist, 217: 1428-1434.

J. de Vries et al. (2018): Embryophyte stress signaling evolved in the algal progenitors of land plants. In PDF, PNAS, 115. See also here (abstract), and there (in German).

Susan De Wolf (2010): Mass Evolution Events. PDF file, Harvard Science Review.

The Digital Atlas of Ancient Life (DAoAL), managed by the Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, New York.
The goal of the Digital Atlas of Ancient Life project is to provide a free resource to help individuals identify and better understand fossil species from particular regions and time intervals.
Note the resources for teachers: Classroom lesson plans, activities, and associated materials that relate to either the Neogene or Ordovician Atlas. All of these resources may be freely accessed and downloaded.

! W.A. DiMichele et al. (2008): The so-called "Paleophytic-Mesophytic" transition in equatorial Pangea. Multiple biomes and vegetational tracking of climate change through geological time. PDF file, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 268: 152-163. See also here (abstract), and there (still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine).
! "... the evidence for a global “Paleophytic” vs. “Mesophytic” “vegetation” is simply unsubstantiated by the fossil record.
[...] The vegetational changes occurring in the late Paleozoic thus can be understood best when examined as spatial–temporal changes in biome-scale species pools responding to major global climate changes, locally and regionally manifested. ..."

W.A. DiMichele et al. (2004): Long-term stasis in ecological assemblages: evidence from the fossil record. PDF file, Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst., 35: 285-322. This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

R. Dirzo and P.H. Raven (2003): Global state of biodiversity and loss. In PDF, Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour., 28.

! M. Dohrmann and G. Wörheide (2017): Dating early animal evolution using phylogenomic data. Open access, Scientific reports, 7.
! Note Figure 4: Time-calibrated phylogeny of animals.

! P.C.J. Donoghue et al. (2021): The evolutionary emergence of land plants. In PDF, Current Biology, 31: R1281-R1298.
See also here.
"... The oldest possible fossil evidence for land plants occurs as late Cambrian cryptospores, but their irregular arrangements and occurrence in ‘packets’ of multiple spore-like bodies surrounded by synoecosporal walls has led to algal interpretations ..."
! Note figure 4: Timescale of streptophyte phylogeny and the origin of land plant novelties.

! P.C.J. Donoghue and Z. Yang (2016): The evolution of methods for establishing evolutionary timescales. In PDF, Phil. Trans. R. Soc., B 371.See also here (abstract).

! P.C.J. Donoghue and M.J. Benton (2007): Rocks and clocks: calibrating the Tree of Life using fossils and molecules. In PDF, Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

A.M. Dunhill et al. (2016): Dinosaur biogeographical structure and Mesozoic continental fragmentation: a network-based approach. In PDF, Journal of Biogeography, 43: 1691-1704.
See also here.
"... dinosaur macro-biogeographical structure was influenced by continental fragmentation, although intercontinental exchange of dinosaur faunas appears to have continued up to the end of the Cretaceous. Macro-biogeographical patterns are obscured by uneven geographical sampling through time ..."

F.S. Dunn et al. (2022): A crown-group cnidarian from the Ediacaran of Charnwood Forest, UK. Open access, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6: 1095–1104.
"... Phylogenetic analyses recover Auroralumina as a stem-group medusozoan and, therefore, the oldest crown-group cnidarian. Auroralumina demonstrates both the establishment of the crown group of an animal phylum and the fixation of its body plan tens of millions of years before the Cambrian diversification of animal life. ..."
Worth checking out:
Lifting the veil on the oldest-known animals (by M. Laflamme, Nature News and Views, September 13, 2022).
"... Gaps in the fossil record mean that the origins of ancient animals such as jellyfish and corals have remained a mystery. Now, a long-awaited fossil discovery reveals key features of this group during the early stages of its evolution. A fossil from the Ediacaran period sheds light on early cnidarians. ..."

G. Escarguel et al. (2011): Biodiversity is not (and never has been) a bed of roses! In PDF, Comptes Rendus Biologies.

C. Faist, Geohorizon: Geochronologie (in German). All in a nutshell about Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic.

M.A. Fedonkin (2003): The origin of the Metazoa in the light of the Proterozoic fossil record. In PDF, Paleontological Research, 7: 9-41. See also here.

A.G. Fischer et al. (2004): Cyclostratigraphic approach to Earths history: An introduction. In PDF.

! W.W. Fischer et al. (2016): How did life survive Earth's great oxygenation? In PDF, Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 31: 166–178.

J.T. Flannery-Sutherland et al. (2022): fossilbrush: An R package for automated detection and resolution of anomalies in palaeontological occurrence data. Open access, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 13: 2404-2418.
Go to: cran.r-project.org: fossilbrush: Automated Cleaning of Fossil Occurrence Data. See also here.
! Access to the Paleobiology Database.

J.T. Flannery-Sutherland et al. (2022): Global diversity dynamics in the fossil record are regionally heterogeneous. Open access, Nature Communications, 13.

Museum of Natural History, University of Florence: The Origin of Life. Life through time, in a nutshell.
Available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

M. Foote and D.M. Raup (2010): Fossil preservation and the stratigraphic ranges of taxa. In PDF, Paleobiology, 22: 121-140.

David Ford, Canopy Dynamics Lab, School of Environmental and Forest Resources, University of Washington, Seattle, WA:
! Biol220 TAs. Botany lecture notes (Powerpoint presentations). See especially:
The Importance of Plants, their origins and ways of life.
Plant evolution timeline on Powerpoint slide 11, 18 and 22!

! F. Forrest (2009): Calibrating the Tree of Life: fossils, molecules and evolutionary timescales. Free access, Annals of Botany, 104: 789–794.
"... New methods have now been proposed to resolve potential sources of error associated with the calibration of phylogenetic trees, particularly those involving use of the fossil record.
[...] ! "...the fossil record remains the most reliable source of information for the calibration of phylogenetic trees, although associated assumptions and potential bias must be taken into account. ..."

J.M.R. Fürst-Jansen et al. (2020): Evo-physio: on stress responses and the earliest land plants. Free access, Journal of Experimental Botany, 71: 3254–3269.

! P.G. Gensel (2021): When did terrestrial plants arise? Abstract, Science, 373: : 736-737.
"... There has been a discrepancy in the time of land plant origination between molecular clock estimations (based on genes and RNA) and fossil record estimates (based on morphology). On page 792 of this issue, Strother and Foster (6) describe fossilized spores whose characteristics raise the possibility that land plants arose by co-opting algal genes, along with acquiring de novo genes, and that the former would account for the molecular clock predating the fossil record. ..."

! P.G. Gensel (2008): The earliest land plants. In PDF, The Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 39: 459-477.
See also here.

! P. Gerrienne et al. (2022): Earliest Evidence of Land Plants in Brazil. In PDF, In: Iannuzzi, R., Rößler, R., Kunzmann, L. (eds.): Brazilian Paleofloras. Springer.
See also here.
Note. fig. 3: Suggested life cycle of an early vascular plant from the early Devonian Rhynie Chert.
Fig. 4b: Suggested reconstruction of Cooksonia paranensis.
Fig. 5: Suggested life cycle of Cooksonia paranensis.

Stephen Jay Gould Archive (sponsored by Art Science Research Laboratory): Cyber Library, Harvard Course:
! B16: History of Earth and Life. A kittenish website. Difficult to set a link, click "Stephen Jay Gould" on the right hand side. Go to:
! Lab 1: The Invertebrate Phyla,
! Lab 2: The Fossil Record,
! Lab 3: Communities through Time, and
! Lab 4: Variation and Evolution (PDF files). See also:
B16: History of Earth and Life, Source Books.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

S.R. Gradstein and H. Kerp (2012): A Brief History of Plants on Earth. Google books, The Geologic Time Scale 2012. See also here (Table of contents, Elsevier).

L.E. Graham (2019): Digging deeper: why we need more Proterozoic algal fossils and how to get them. Free access, Journal of phycology, 55: 1–6.

J. Gray and W. Shear (1992): Early life on land. In PDF, American Scientist.

C.T. Griffin et al. (2022): Africa’s oldest dinosaurs reveal early suppression of dinosaur distribution. Abstract, Nature.
See also: here.
"... By the Late Triassic (Carnian stage, ~235 million years ago), cosmopolitan ‘disaster faunas’ had given way to highly endemic assemblages on the supercontinent.
[...] palaeolatitudinal climate belts, and not continental boundaries, are proposed to have controlled distribution. During this time of high endemism ..."

! S.B. Hedges and S. Kumar (2009): Discovering the Timetree of Life. PDF file, In: S.B. Hedges and S. Kumar (eds.): The Timetree of Life.
! See here.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! S.B. Hedges (2009): Life. PDF file, In: S.B. Hedges and S. Kumar (eds.): The Timetree of Life.
! See here.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! J.B. Hedges (2004): A molecular timescale of eukaryote evolution and the rise of complex multicellular life. BMC evolutionary biology.

! M.F. Hohmann-Marriott and R.E. Blankenship (2011): Evolution of Photosynthesis. In PDF, Annual Review of Plant Biology, 62: 515-548.
See also here.
Note figure 2: Evolution of life and photosynthesis in geological context, highlighting the emergence of groups of photosynthetic organisms.

S.M. Holland (2016): The non-uniformity of fossil preservation. In PDF, Phil. Trans. R. Soc., B 371. See also here (abstract).

S.B. Hedges and S. Kumar (2009): Discovering the Timetree of Life. PDF file, (see here).
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

S.B. Hedges (2009): Life. PDF file, In: S.B. Hedges and S. Kumar (eds.): The Timetree of Life (see here).
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

P.F. Hoffman et al. (2017): Snowball Earth climate dynamics and Cryogenian geology-geobiology. In PDF, Science Advances, 3. See also here.

B. Holgado and M. Suñer (2018): Palaeodiversity and evolution in the Mesozoic world. In PDF, Journal of Iberian Geology, 44: 1–5. See also here.

D. Jablonski and N.H. Shubin (2015): The future of the fossil record: Paleontology in the 21st century. In PDF, PNAS, see also here.

! D. Jablonski (2007): Scale and hierarchy in macroevolution. PDF file, Palaeontology, 50: 87-109.

D. Jablonski (2008): Biotic interactions and macroevolution: extensions and mismatches across scales and levels. PDF file, Evolution, 62: 715-739.

David Jablonski, Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago (hosted by aics research, inc., Lecture of the Week, Lectures and Conferences recorded in QCShow format): Part I: Planetary-scale Patterns; The Dynamics of Global Biodiversity: Insights from the Fossil Record. Lecture, 35 min., requires QCShow Player. Snapshot taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

David Jablonski, Committee on Evolutionary Biology, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Chicago: The interplay of physical and biotic factors in macroevolution. PDF file, In: A. Lister and L. Rothschild, eds., Evolution on Planet Earth: The impact of the physical environment. New York: Academic Press, 235-252; 2003.

JB.C. Jackson and D.H. Erwin (2006): What can we learn about ecology and evolution from the fossil record? PDF file, Trends in Ecology and Evolution. See also here.

J.B.C. Jackson and K.G. Johnson (2001): Measuring Past Biodiversity. In PDF, Science, 293.

E.J. Javaux and K. Lepot (2018): The Paleoproterozoic fossil record: Implications for the evolution of the biosphere during Earth's middle-age. Free access, Earth-Science Reviews, 176: 68-86.

Daniel Jeffares and Anthony Poole (an ActionBioscience.org original article): Were Bacteria the First Forms of Life on Earth? Human cells can reveal evolutionary history because they contain molecular fossils, exhibit mechanisms that were in development when life began, and indicate that ancient organisms may be more complex than first thought.
Website saved by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

J.A. Karr and M.E. Clapham (2015): Taphonomic biases in the insect fossil record: shifts in articulation over geologic time. In PDF, Paleobiology.

J.F. Kasting and J.L. Siefert (2002): Life and the evolution of Earth´s atmosphere. In PDF, Science.

! M. Alan Kazlev et al.: Palaeos. A website about the history of life on Earth. Snapshot taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine. Go to: Earth History.

B.P. Kear et al. (2016): An introduction to the Mesozoic biotas of Scandinavia and its Arctic territories. In PDF.

M. Kearney (2002): Fragmentary taxa, missing data, and ambiguity: mistaken assumptions and conclusions. PDF file, Systematic biology, 51: 369-381.

! P. Kenrick et al. (2012): A timeline for terrestrialization: consequences for the carbon cycle in the Palaeozoic. In PDF, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 367: 519-536.
Website saved by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

S.M. Kidwell (2013): Time-averaging and fidelity of modern death assemblages: building a taphonomic foundation for conservation palaeobiology. Free access, Palaeontology, 56: 487–522.

! S.M. Kidwell and S.M. Holland (2002): The Quality of the Fossil Record: Implications for Evolutionary Analyses. PDF file, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 33: 561-588. See also here.

Susan M. Kidwell and Karl W. Flessa: THE QUALITY OF THE FOSSIL RECORD: Populations, Species, and Communities.- Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 1996 24: 433-464. Full Online Access via Annual Reviews, Go to Annual Reviews Search Page (Biomedical Sciences), Search for "Kidwell" (Field Author, Last Name).

! A.H. Knoll and M.A. Nowak (2017): The timetable of evolution. Free access, Science Advances, 3.
Note fig. 1: The evolutionary timetable, showing the course of evolution as inferred from fossils, environmental proxies, and high-resolution geochronology.

A.H. Knoll and M.J. Follows (2016): A bottom-up perspective on ecosystem change in Mesozoic oceans. In PDF, Proc. R. Soc., B, 283: 20161755. See also here.

! A.H. Knoll (2013): Systems Paleobiology. In PDF, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 125. About paleobiology and its important role in understanding how the Earth system works.

K. Koldas (2021): Charred Fossils Provide Clues about Early Terrestrialization. ColbyNews.

M. Kowalewski and R.K. Bambach (2008): The limits of paleontological resolution. In PDF, High-resolution approaches in stratigraphic paleontology. This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! C.C. Labandeira and J.J. Sepkoski (1993): Insect diversity in the fossil record. PDF file, Science.

J. Laurie et al. (2009): Living Australia (in PDF). Earth history in Australia.

! Michel Laurin (2012): Recent progress in paleontological methods for dating the Tree of Life. In PDF, Frontiers in Genetics, 3.

T.M. Lenton et al. (2016): Earliest land plants created modern levels of atmospheric oxygen. Free access, PNAS, 113.

! T.M. Lenton and S.J. Daines (2016): Matworld - the biogeochemical effects of early life on land. In PDF, New Phytologist.

! K. Lepot (2020): Signatures of early microbial life from the Archean (4 to 2.5 Ga) eon. Free access, Earth-Science Reviews, 209. See also here.

Harold L. Levin, Washington University, St. Louis: The Earth Through Time. Book announcement. Go to: Seventh Edition, Chapter 12, Life of the Mesozoic. Website by Pamela J. W. Gore, Georgia Perimeter College, Clarkston, GA.

! C.V. Looy et al. (2014): The late Paleozoic ecological-evolutionary laboratory, a land-plant fossil record perspective. In PDF, The Sedimentary Record, 12: 4-18. See also here.

! R. López-Antoñanzas et al. (2022): Integrative Phylogenetics: Tools for Palaeontologists to Explore the Tree of Life. Open access, Biology, 11: 1185. https://doi.org/10.3390/ biology11081185.
"... The statistical techniques mentioned above have only begun to be applied to questions in palaeontology over the past decade but have found extensive applications in phylogenetic comparative analysis, quantitative genetics, and ecology. Complementary methodologies that combine morphological and molecular approaches can provide novel answers to broad evolutionary and deep-time questions ..."

C.C. Loron et al. (2019): Early fungi from the Proterozoic era in Arctic Canada. Abstract, Nature, 570: 232–235. See also here (in PDF), and there (review, in German).

A.C. Love et al. (2022): Evolvability in the fossil record. Free access, Paleobiology, 48: 186–209.

S.G. Lucas (2021): Nonmarine Mass Extinctions. Paleontological Research 25: 329-344. See also here.

T.W. Lyons et al. (2021): Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview. Open access, Astrobiology, 21.
Note figure 1: Eukaryotic microfossil diversity through time.
Figure 3: Evolution of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen content through time.

! S Magallón et al. (2013): Land plant evolutionary timeline: gene effects are secondary to fossil constraints in relaxed clock estimation of age and substitution rates. Free access, American Journal of Botany, 100: 556-573.

! P.D. Mannion et al. (2014): The latitudinal biodiversity gradient through deep time. Free access, Trends in Ecology &&xnbsp;Evolution, 29: 42-50.
"... Deep-time studies indicate that a tropical peak and poleward decline in species diversity has not been a persistent pattern throughout the Phanerozoic, but is restricted to intervals of the Palaeozoic and the past 30 million years. A tropical peak might characterise cold icehouse climatic regimes, whereas warmer greenhouse regimes display temperate diversity peaks or flattened gradients. ..."
Note figure 3: The Late Cretaceous dinosaur latitudinal biodiversity gradient.
! Figure 4: The latitudinal biodiversity gradient (LBG) through the Phanerozoic.

A.O. Marron et al. (2016): The Evolution of Silicon Transport in Eukaryotes. In PDF, Mol. Biol. Evol. See also here.

! W.F. Martin and J.F. Allen (2018): An algal greening of land. Free access, Cell, 174: 256-258. See also here.
Note figure 1: Streptophyte Algae and the Rise of Atmospheric Oxygen.

! E. Martinetto et al. (2018): Worldwide temperate forests of the Neogene: Never more diverse? Abstract, in PDF. 10th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference, University College Dublin, Ireland.
See also here.

C.R. Marshall (2019): Using the Fossil Record to Evaluate Timetree Timescales. Open access, Front Genet., 10.

P.J. Mayhew et al. (2008): A long-term association between global temperature and biodiversity, origination and extinction in the fossil record. In PDF, Proc Biol Sci., 275: 47-53.

G.R. McGhee et al. (2013): A new ecological-severity ranking of major Phanerozoic biodiversity crises. In PDF, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 370: 260-270.

S. McLoughlin and B.P. Kear (2014): Gondwanan Mesozoic biotas and bioevents. Abstract.

Space Physics Research Laboratory, Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: GLOBAL CHANGE I. The University of Michigan's Global Change Curriculum offers an innovative approach in undergraduate science and social science education as part of the Program in the Environment. In three interdisciplinary, team-taught courses the topic of Global Change from physical and human perspectives are examined. The courses are aimed at first and second year students who want to understand the historical and modern aspects of Global Change. Go to: Emergence of Complex Life; The Fossil Record; Punctuated Equilibrium (Allan).

! D.B. Mills et al. (2022): Eukaryogenesis and oxygen in Earth history. In PDF, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6: 520–532. See also here.
Note especially: Fig. 3: Correlated fossil, molecular and geochemical timeline.
"... these results temporally, spatially and metabolically decouple the earliest stages of eukaryogenesis from the oxygen content of the surface ocean and atmosphere. Rather than reflecting the ancestral metabolic state, obligate aerobiosis in eukaryotes is most probably derived, having only become globally widespread over the past 1 billion years as atmospheric oxygen approached modern levels. ..."

! B.J.W. Mills et al. (2021): Spatial continuous integration of Phanerozoic global biogeochemistry and climate. Free access, Gondwana Research, 100: 73–86.

M. Moczydlowska et al. (2011): Proterozoic phytoplankton and timing of chlorophyte algae origins. Open access, Palaeontology, 54: 721–733.

K.R. Moore et al. (2022): A review of microbial-environmental interactions recorded in Proterozoic carbonate-hosted chert. Open access, Geobiology.
"... we review the record of biosignatures preserved in peritidal Proterozoic chert and chert-hosting carbonate and discuss this record in the context of experimental and environmental studies that have begun to shed light on the roles that microbes and organic compounds may have played ..."

S.J. Mojzsis et al. (1996): Evidence for life on Earth before 3,800 million years ago. In PDF, Nature, 384.

J. Murienne et al. (2015): A living fossil tale of Pangaean biogeography. In PDF, Proc. R. Soc. B, 281. See also here.

! A.D. Muscente et al. (2017): Exceptionally preserved fossil assemblages through geologic time and space. Abstract, Gondwana Research, 48: 164-188. See also here (in PDF).

! NATURE, Nature Debates: Andrew Smith, Department of Palaeontology, the Natural History Museum, London: Is the fossil record adequate? This debate introduces the topic and the conflicting viewpoints that surround it.

Henry Alleyne Nicholson (! 1876): The Ancient Life History of the Earth. A Project Gutenberg EBook. Including some line drawings of plants.

! Y. Nie et al. (2020): Accounting for uncertainty in the evolutionary timescale of green plants through clock-partitioning and fossil calibration strategies. In PDF, Syst. Biol., 69: 1–16. See also here.
! Note figure 5: Time-tree of green plants.
! "... By taking into account various sources of uncertainty, we estimate that crown-group green plants originated in the Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic (1679.7–1025.6 Ma), crown-group Chlorophyta and Streptophyta originated in the Mesoproterozoic–Neoproterozoic (1480.0–902.9 Ma and 1571.8–940.9 Ma), and crown-group land plants originated in the Ediacaran to middle Ordovician (559.3– 459.9 Ma). ..."

! K.J. Niklas (2015): Measuring the tempo of plant death and birth. Open access, New Phytologist.

! N. Noffke et al. (2013): Microbially Induced Sedimentary Structures Recording an Ancient Ecosystem in the ca. 3.48 Billion-Year-Old Dresser Formation, Pilbara, Western Australia. Astrobiology, 13: 1103–1124.

W.R. Norris, Department of Natural Sciences, Western New Mexico University, Silver City, NM:
The Challenges of Life on Land. Lecture notes, powerpoint presentation. See also here (in PDF).

! L.R. Novick et al. Depicting the tree of life in museums: guiding principles from psychological research. In PDF, see also here.

P. Olsen et al. (2022): Arctic ice and the ecological rise of the dinosaurs. Open access, Sci. Adv., 8.
See also: Frost ebnete Dinosauriern den Weg. In German, by Nadja Podbregar, Scinexx, July 04, 2022.

! Wolfgang Oschmann, Department of Geoscience, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany: The Evolution of the Atmosphere of our Planet Earth. In PDF. About the the origin of earth and the early atmosphere, the role of biosphere and the carbon-cycle and the atmospheric evolution through time.

W. Oschmann (2006): Evolution und Sterben der Dinosaurier. In PDF, Nova Acta Leopoldina NF 93, 345, 117-143. PDF file, in German.

Geobiology, Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University: Questioning the evidence for Earth's oldest fossils.
Now provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! Palaeontologia Electronica: Fossil Calibration Database. The Fossil Calibration Database is a curated collection of well-justified calibrations. They also promote best practices for justifying fossil calibrations and citing calibrations properly. Raising the Standard in Fossil Calibration! See also:
D.T. Ksepka et al. (2015): The Fossil Calibration Database, A New Resource for Divergence Dating. Abstract, Systematic Biology.

J.F. Parham et al. (2012): Best Practices for Justifying Fossil Calibrations. In PDF, Syst Biol., 61: 346-359. See also here (abstract).

J.L. Payne et al. (2020): The evolution of complex life and the stabilization of the Earth system. Open access, Interface Focus, 10: 20190106.

Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University:
Geologic Time Scale. Powerpoint presentation.

M.W. Pennell et al. (2014): Is there room for punctuated equilibrium in macroevolution? Trends in ecology & evolution, 29: 23-32.
See also here.

! D. Peris and F.L. Condamine (2023): The dual role of the angiosperm radiation on insect diversification. Free access, bioRxiv.
See also here.
"... We found that, among the six tested variables, angiosperms had a dual role that has changed through time with an attenuation of insect extinction in the Cretaceous and a driver of insect origination in the Cenozoic. ..."

! Alex L. Pigot et al. (2012): Speciation and Extinction Drive the Appearance of Directional Range Size Evolution in Phylogenies and the Fossil Record. Free access, PLoS Biol., 10: e1001260. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001260
See also here.

John Pojeta and Dale A. Springer, American Geological Institute AGI, (in cooperation with the Paleontological Society): Evolution and the Fossil Record. This non-technical introduction to evolution aims to help the general public gain a better understanding of one of the fundamental underlying concepts of modern science. Discussion topics are geologic time; change through time; Darwin's theory of evolution; evolution as a mechanism for change; the nature of species; the nature of theory; paleontology, geology, and evolution; and determining the age of fossils and rocks. The Online booklet contains straightforward definitions as well as discussions of complex ideas. Navigate using the left-hand toolbar. There is also a PDF printable version available.

P David Polly, Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN: Historical Geology. Life through time. Lecture notes. Topics are paleontology, geologic time, biological evolution, plate tectonics, ancient environments, and climate change, principles of interpreting earth history from geological data, etc. Go to:
Lecture 15: Paleobiology, and Lecture 21: Mesozoic 2: Terrestrial environments and extinction. Lecture slides (PDF files).

S.M. Porter (2004): The fossil record of early eukaryotic diversification. In PDF, Paleontological Society Papers, 10: 35-50.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
See also here.
Note figure 1: A current view of eukaryote phylogeny, based on a consensus of molecular and ultrastructural data.

J. Pšenicka et al. (2021): Dynamics of Silurian plants as response to climate changes. Open access, Life, 11.
Note figure 1: Silurian time scale showing conodont and graptolite biozones, stage slices and generalized ¹³Ccarb curve.
Figure 2: Silurian palaeocontinental reconstructions.

C. Puginier et al. (2021): Plant–microbe interactions that have impacted plant terrestrializations. Free access, Plant Physiology.
Note figure 1: 1 Phylogenetic tree of the Viridiplantae. showing the evolution of the AMS [arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis], the putative evolutions of lichens and clades that contain LFA [lichen forming algae] and terrestrial species.
Figure 3: Lichens and their tolerance against terrestrial-related constraints.

T.B. Quental, C.R. Marshall (2010): Diversity dynamics: molecular phylogenies need the fossil record. In PDF, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 25: 434-441.
See also here.

C.M.Ø. Rasmussen et al. (2017): Onset of main Phanerozoic marine radiation sparked by emerging Mid Ordovician icehouse. Sci. Rep., 6.

S. Ratti et al. (2011): Did Sulfate Availability Facilitate the Evolutionary Expansion of Chlorophyll a+c Phytoplankton in the Oceans? In PDF, Geobiology 9, no. 4: 301–312. See also here (abstract).

! J.A. Raven (2018): How long have photosynthetic organisms been aggregating soils? Free access, New Phytologist, 219: 1139–1141.

R.R. Reisz and J. Müller (2004): Molecular timescales and the fossil record: a paleontological perspective. In PDF, Trends in Genetics.

Joachim Reitner, Yang Qun, Wang Yongdong and Mike Reich (eds., 2013): Palaeobiology and Geobiology of Fossil Lagerstätten through Earth History. In PDF, See also here. Abstract Volume. A Joint Conference of the "Paläontologische Gesellschaft" and the "Palaeontological Society of China", Göttingen, Germany, September 23-27, 2013. See also there.

G.J. Retallack (2021): Great moments in plant evolution. See also here (in PDF).
Please notice figure 1.

G.J. Retallack (2013): Ediacaran life on land. In PDF, Nature, 493: 89–92.
See also here (Spaceref), and there Xiao et al. (2014).

J.D. Richey et al. (2021): Modeled physiological mechanisms for observed changes in the late Paleozoic plant fossil record. Abstract, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 562.
"... (1) The existence of pCO2 and precipitation thresholds for loss of physiological viability that provide a mechanism for replacement of wet-adapted lycopsids and medullosans by marattialean tree ferns, which were tolerant of periodic drought, and the subsequent dominance of seasonally dry-adapted cordaitaleans and conifers. ...
(2) Under drier conditions, the combination of higher drought tolerance and primary productivity for marattialean tree ferns, conifers, and cordaitaleans provided an ecophysiological advantage over lycopsids and medullosans. ...
although the shift to more drought-tolerant plants in the Late Pennsylvanian and early Permian could have led to increased biomass and surface runoff, their ability to affect climate was likely limited by aridity and changes in vegetation density. ..."

! R.A. Rohde and R.A. Muller (2005): Cycles in Fossil Diversity. In PDF, Nature, 434, 208-210. See also here and there (abstract).

! A. Rojas et al: (2021): A multiscale view of the Phanerozoic fossil record reveals the three major biotic transitions. Open access, Communications Biology, 4.
"... we demonstrate that Phanerozoic oceans sequentially harbored four global benthic mega-assemblages. Shifts in dominance patterns among these global marine mega-assemblages were abrupt (end-Cambrian 494 Ma; end- Permian 252 Ma) or protracted (mid-Cretaceous 129 Ma), and represent the three major biotic transitions in Earth’s history. ..."

C. Román-Palacios et al. (2022): The origins of global biodiversity on land, sea and freshwater. In PDF, Ecology letters, 25: 1376-1386.
See also here.
"... Most plant and animal species are terrestrial, although these habitats cover only ~28% of Earth's surface.
[...] Freshwater habitats have relatively high richness and exceptional phylogenetic diversity given their tiny area (2%). ..."
[...] most marine species are descended from marine ancestors and most terrestrial species from freshwater ancestors. ..."

! C.V. Rubinstein and V. Vajda (2019): Baltica cradle of early land plants? Oldest record of trilete spores and diverse cryptospore assemblages; evidence from Ordovician successions of Sweden. Free access, GFF, DOI: 10.1080/11035897.2019.1636860.

! B.R. Ruhfel et al. (2014): From algae to angiosperms - inferring the phylogeny of green plants (Viridiplantae) from 360 plastid genomes. In PDF, BMC Evolutionary Biology, 14. See also here.

J. Rust (2007): Die Bedeutung von Fossilien für phylogenetische Rekonstruktionen. In German (PDF file). Go to PDF page 75. In: Species, Phylogeny and Evolution, Phylogenetisches Symposium Göttingen. Snapshot taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

H. Schneider (2007): Plant morphology as the cornerstone to the integration of fossil and extant taxa in phylogenetic systematics. In PDF, go to PDF page 65. In: Species, Phylogeny and Evolution, Phylogenetisches Symposium Göttingen. Snapshot taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! J.W. Schopf et al. (2007): Evidence of Archean life: Stromatolites and microfossils. In PDF, Precambrian Research, 158: 141-155.
See also here.

J.W. Schopf, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, the Molecular Biology Institute, and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP), University of California, Los Angeles: Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Go to: Chapter 1: Darwin's Dilemma, and Chapter 2: Birth of a New Field of Science. Sample chapters, provided by Princetown University Press. Sample chapters actually have been mounted for professors' convenience in evaluating books for class use.
See also: Just pure chemistry? (by Dagmar Röhrlich, Deutschlandfunk). New discussions about the oldest fossils (in German).

! M. Schreiber et al. (2022): The greening ashore. Free access, Trends in Plant Science.
"... Two decisive endosymbiotic events, the emergence of eukaryotes followed by the further incorporation of a photosynthesizing cyanobacterium, laid the foundation for the development of plant life. ..."

! A.C. Scott (1984): The early history of life on land. In PDF, Journal of Biological Education, 18. See also here.
Note figs. 5 and 6: Rconstructions of Silurian and Devonian plants.

! A.W.R. Seddon et al. (2014): Looking forward through the past: identification of 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology. In PDF, Journal of Ecology, 102: 256-267. See also here.

! P.A. Selden (2016): Land Animals, Origins of. In PDF. In: Kliman, R. M. (ed.): Encyclopedia of evolutionary biology. Volume 2: 288-295. Oxford, Academic Press.
About the colonization of the land habitat from the sea by plants and animals.

M.-A. Selosse et al. (2015): Plants, fungi and oomycetes: a 400-million year affair that shapes the biosphere. New Phytologist. 10th New Phytologist Workshop on the "Origin and evolution of plants and their interactions with fungi", London, UK, September 2014.

! J.J. Sepkoski (1998): Rates of speciation in the fossil record. In PDF, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 353: 315-326.

S. Shen et al. (2022): How to Build a High-Resolution Digital Geological Timeline?. In PDF, Journal of Earth Science, 33: 1629-1632.

G.R. Shi and J.B. Waterhouse (2010): Late Palaeozoic global changes affecting high-latitude environments and biotas: an introduction. Abstract, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 298: 1-16. See also here (in PDF).

! P.W. Signor III and J.H. Lipps (1982): Sampling bias, gradual extinction patterns and catastrophes in the fossil record. In PDF, Geological Society of America. This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! D. Silvestro et al. (2015): Revisiting the origin and diversification of vascular plants through a comprehensive Bayesian analysis of the fossil record. In PDF, New Phytologist, 207: 425-436.

South Carolina Geological Survey.
Education and Outreach. Downloadable Earth Science Education presentations, posters, and handouts. Go to:
Geologic Time and Earth’s Biological History. Powerpoint presentation. Also available in PDF.

E.A. Sperling et al. (2022): Breathless through Time: Oxygen and Animals across Earth’s History. Free access, The Biological Bulletin, 243. https://doi.org/10.1086/721754.
Note figure 1: The four broad stages of atmospheric oxygen and life through Earth history, with oxygen in log scale as percent of present atmospheric levels (% PAL).
Figure 5: Reconstructed marine animal biodiversity dynamics and atmospheric oxygen through the Phanerozoic.
Figure 7: The chronology of the worst mass extinction in Earth history.

! E. Strickson et al. (2016): Dynamics of dental evolution in ornithopod dinosaurs. In PDF, Scientific Reports, 6. See also here (abstract).

P.K. Strother et al. (2021): A possible billion-year-old holozoan with differentiated multicellularity. Open access, Current Biology, 31: 2658-2665.e2

Paul K. Strother, Weston Observatory of Boston College, Department of Geology & Geophysics, Weston: Origin and Evolution of Life on Planet Earth.
This course is being designed to use the www in lieu of a textbook. To use this website most effectively, go to the lecture notes and click on a specific lecture topic. This will bring up lecture notes or a content outline (if available) and additional www links to specific topics covered in the course lecture.
Website now publicly accessible by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! C. Strullu-Derrien et al. (2018): The origin and evolution of mycorrhizal symbioses: from palaeomycology to phylogenomics. Free access, New Phytologist, 220: 1012–1030.
! Note figure 1: Geological timescale with oldest known fossils. Left: Antiquity of genomic traits related to mycorrhizal evolution based on molecular clock estimates. Right: Oldest known fossils.
Figure 5: Simplified phylogenetic tree showing the minimum stratigraphic ranges of selected groups based on fossils (thick bars) and their minimum implied range extensions (thin lines).

C. Strullu-Derrien (2014): The earliest wood and its hydraulic properties documented in c. 407-million-year-old fossils using synchrotron microtomography. Abstract, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 175: 423-437.

D. Su et al. (2022): Large-scale phylogenomic analyses reveal the monophyly of bryophytes and neoproterozoic origin of land plants Open access, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 38: 3332–3344.
! Note figure 1: The concatenation species tree of land plants and their algal relatives.
! Figure 2: The coalescent species tree of land plants and their algal relatives.
"... We found that studies favoring a Neoproterozoic origin of land plants (980–682 Ma) are informed more by molecular data whereas those favoring a Phanerozoic origin (518–500 Ma) are informed more by fossil constraints. Our divergence time analyses highlighted the important contribution of the molecular data (time-dependent molecular change) when faced with contentious fossil evidence.
[..] A careful integration of fossil and molecular evidence will revolutionize our understanding of how land plants evolved.

! Roger Summons and Tanja Bosak, MIT Opencourseware, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Geobiology. An introduction about the parallel evolution of life and the environment. Life processes are influenced by chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and the solid earth. In turn, life can influence chemical and physical processes on our planet. This course explores the concept of life as a geological agent and examines the interaction between biology and the earth system during the roughly 4 billion years since life first appeared. Go to:
Lecture Notes. See especially: Theories Pertaining to the Origin of Life. In PDF.

Der Tagesspiegel: Anthropozän - Fallout und Plastik markieren das Menschenzeitalter. In German, Ralf Nestler, May 01, 2015.

D.W. Taylor and H. Li (2018): Paleobotany: Did flowering plants exist in the Jurassic period? eLife, 7: e43421.
"... we infer that Nanjinganthus shows substantial similarity to predicted models of ancestral characters and Early Cretaceous angiosperms, so the evidence suggests that it is a Jurassic flowering plant. ..."

T.N. Taylor et al. (2015): Fungal Diversity in the Fossil Record. In PDF, see also here (abstract).

Teaching Biology, Random Posts on Biological Topics (by Marc Srour, Enalia Physis Environmental Research Center, Cyprus): Taxonomic Bias in the Fossil Record: Is it really an issue?

! A.M.F. Tomescu (2021): Mysteries of the bryophyte–tracheophyte transition revealed: enter the eophytes. Free access, New Phytologist, Note fig. 1: Timeline and evolutionary hypothesis for early land plants. Worth checking out:
! D. Edwards et al. 2022a): Piecing together the eophytes–a new group of ancient plants containing cryptospores. Free access, New Phytologist, 233: 1440–1455.
! D. Edwards et al. 2022b): Earliest record of transfer cells in Lower Devonian plants. Free access, New Phytologist, 233: 1456–1465.

! A.M.F. Tomescu et al. (2016): Microbes and the fossil record: selected topics in paleomicrobiology. Abstract, in: Hurst C. (ed.) Their World: A Diversity of Microbial Environments. Advances in Environmental Microbiology, vol 1: 69-169. See also here (in PDF).

! U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA: Geolex. Geolex is a search tool for lithologic and geochronologic unit names.

S. Varela et al. (2015): paleobioDB: an R package for downloading, visualizing and processing data from the Paleobiology Database. In PDF, Ecography, 38: 419-425.

! G.J. Vermeij (2016): Gigantism and Its Implications for the History of Life. PLoS ONE, 11.

G.J. Vermeij (2015): Forbidden phenotypes and the limits of evolution. In PDF, Interface Focus 5: 20150028.

C. Wang et al. (2021): The Deep-Time Digital Earth program: data-driven discovery in geosciences. In PDF, National Science Review, 8: nwab027.
See also here.

M.J. Watson and D.M. Watson (2020): Post-Anthropocene Conservation. Open access, Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

T. Watson (2020): These bizarre ancient species are rewriting animal evolution. Nature.

C.H. Wellman et al. (2003): Fragments of the earliest land plants. In PDF, Nature, 425: 282–285.
See also here.

Helmut Weissert Geologie, ETH Zürich: Evolution der Biosphäre. Bilder aus der Erdgeschichte. PDF file, in German.
Now provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! N.J. Wickett et al. (2014): Phylotranscriptomic analysis of the origin and early diversification of land plants. In PDF, PNAS 111, see also here.

Wikibooks, an open content textbooks collection that anyone can edit:
History and Origin of Life.

! Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection: High School Earth Science.
Contributed by John Benner et al. Worth checking out:
Evidence About Earth´s Past.
Earth´s History.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
! Timeline of the evolutionary history of life.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Category:Origin of life
Category:Events in the geological history of Earth
Great Oxygenation Event.
Große Sauerstoffkatastrophe (in German).

! J.W. Williams and S.T. Jackson (2007): Novel climates, no-analog communities, and ecological surprises. In PDF, Front. Ecol. Environ., 5: 475-482.
The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

R. Williams (2021): Discovered: Fossilized Spores Suggestive of Early Land Plants. The Scientist.

S. Williams (2017): The Weird Growth Strategy of Earth´s First Trees. The Scientist » News & Opinion » Daily News.
"Ancient fossils reveal how woodless trees got so big: by continuously ripping apart their xylem and knitting it back together".

S. Xiao and Q. Tang (2018): After the boring billion and before the freezing millions: evolutionary patterns and innovations in the Tonian Period. In PDF, Emerging Topics in Life Sciences, 2: 161–171. See also here,

H. Xu et al. (2022): The earliest vascular land plants from the Upper Ordovician of China. In PDF, ResearchSquare, DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1672132/v1.
! Note fig. 4: Phylogeny and evolutionary timescale of early plant groups, with stratigraphic ranges of several key land-dwelling characters.

! H.S. Yoon et al. (2004): A molecular timeline for the origin of photosynthetic eukaryotes. PDF file, Mol. Biol. Evol., 21: 809-818. See also here.

W. Yuan et al. (2023): Mercury isotopes show vascular plants had colonized land extensively by the early Silurian. Free access, ScienceAdvances, 9; DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade9510.
Note figure 1: Conceptual model showing Hg cycling on Earth.
Figure 4: Critical records in Paleozoic sediments in stage/age level.
"... vascular plants were widely distributed on land during the Ordovician-Silurian transition (~444 million years), long before the earliest reported vascular plant fossil ..."

! J. Zalasiewicz et al. (2008): Are we now living in the Anthropocene? In PDF.

Z. Zhou and M.T. Antunes (2013): Terrestrial Mesozoic stratigraphy. In PDF, Ciências da Terra (UNL), 18; Lisboa. See also here.

V. Zimorski et al. (2019): Energy metabolism in anaerobic eukaryotes and Earth's late oxygenation. In PDF, Free Radical Biology and Medicine. See also here.
Note fig. 1: Summary of oxygen accumulation of earth history.