NEW HISTORY OF LIFE (PB)

Writing with humour and clarity, Ward and Kirschvink show that many of our long-held beliefs about the history of life are wrong. Three central themes emerge. First, that catastrophe shaped life's history more than all other forces combined. Second, life consists of carbon, but oxygen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulphide determined how it evolved. Third, ever since Darwin we have thought of evolution in terms of species. Yet it is the evolution of ecosystems--from deep-ocean vents to rainforests--that has formed the living world as we know it.