BeigeJournal

Life on a Young Planet : The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth, by Andrew H. Knoll. Princeton University Press, 2003.

This is a fantastic overview of Precambrian paleontology. It is highly readable, with enough detail to be really interesting to someone with an interest in the details without getting bogged down in stable isotope nomenclature or arcane disagreements in taxonomy. Instead, we read of the big, interesting disagreements in taxonomy, the people involved, and the remote locations where the important rocks are found. It’s all here, from the earliest traces of life to the Cambrian, as shown by microfossils, chemical and isotopic signals of life, and genetic analysis of modern organisms.