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Chapter 16: The Origin of Life and the Precambrian Evolution Destinations

Explore key concepts and research through these links to additional web resources.

16.1 What was the first living thing?

• Primordial Soup
  A good place to begin reading Dr. Awramik's article "Astrobiology and the Origins of Life.
  Keywords: primordial soup, earth, Precambrian period

• Endosymbiotic Theory
  Dr. Lynn Margulis developed the endosymbiotic theory that posits the origin of cell organelles by hereditary symbiosis. Here you find many links about this theory as well as ongoing research.
  Keywords: endosymbiotic, cell organelles, research

16.2 Where did the first living thing come from?

• Museum of Paleontology
  The University of California, Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology Web site has a wealth of resources, including several related to the origin of life.
  Keywords: paleontology, resources, origin of life

• How Did It All Begin?
  David W. Deamer discusses the origin of cellular life in this on-line article. This was originally published in Evolution: Investigating the Evidence, Special Publication of the Paleontological Society Volume 9, 1999.
  Keywords: paleontology

16.3 What was the last common ancestor of all extantorganisms and what is the shape of the tree of life?

• Tree of Life Project
  Explore the Archaea and other early forms of life.
  Keywords: early life forms, resource, tree of life

• The Tree of Life Home Page
  From the University of Arizona, the Tree of Life is a collection of over 1630 World Wide Web pages containing information about the diversity of life. These pages are housed on 20 computers in four countries, and are authored by biologists from around the world.
  Keywords: diversity, evolution, resource

16.4 How did the last common ancestor's descendants evolve into today's organisms?

• The Biosphere: Life on Earth
  This site anchors pages on life forms ancient and modern.
  Keywords: biosphere, life forms, earth

• Precambrian Earth
  This site provides links to pages with information about the characteristics of the early Earth.
  Keywords: Precambrian, earth, resource