| Preface: Approaches to understanding early life on Earth | |
| Introduction: The coherence of history | p. 1 |
| The planetary setting of prebiotic evolution | p. 10 |
| Early environments: Constraints and opportunities for early evolution | p. 24 |
| Earth's early atmosphere: Constraints and opportunities for early evolution | p. 36 |
| Early chemical stages in the origin of life | p. 48 |
| The transition from non-living to living | p. 60 |
| The RNA world, its predecessors and descendants | p. 70 |
| Molecular origin and evolution of early biological energy conversion | p. 81 |
| Sources and geochemical evolution of RNA precursor molecules: The role of phosphate | p. 91 |
| Self-assembly and function of primitive membrane structures | p. 107 |
| Vitalysts and virulysts: A theory of self-expanding reproduction | p. 124 |
| Protocell life cycles | p. 133 |
| Early evolution of genes and genomes | p. 135 |
| The lesson of Archaebacteria | p. 143 |
| The early diversification of life | p. 152 |
| The emergence, diversification, and role of photosynthetic eubacteria | p. 161 |
| The origin of eukaryotes and evolution into major kingdoms | p. 181 |
| The oldest known records of life: Early Archean stromatolites, microfossils, and organic matter | p. 193 |
| The Archean-Proterozoic transition and its environmental implications | p. 208 |
| Global methanotrophy at the Archean-Proterozoic transition | p. 220 |
| Early Proterozoic atmospheric change | p. 237 |
| Trends in Precambrian carbonate sediments and their implication for understanding evolution | p. 245 |
| Biomarkers in the Proterozoic record | p. 259 |
| Stromatolites: The main source of information on the evolution of the early benthos | p. 270 |
| Proterozoic eukaryotes: Evidence from biology and geology | p. 287 |
| Early ecosystems: Limitations imposed by the fossil record | p. 298 |
| The role of phenotypic comparisons of living protists in the determination of probable eukaryotic phylogeny | p. 312 |
| Combinatorial generation of taxonomic diversity: Implication of symbiogenesis for the Proterozoic fossil record | p. 327 |
| The continuing importance of cyanobacteria | p. 334 |
| Proterozoic carbonaceous compressions ("metaphytes" and "worms") | p. 342 |
| Early multicellular fossils | p. 358 |
| Vendian body fossils and trace fossils | p. 370 |
| Early multicellular life: Late Proterozoic fossils and the Cambrian explosion | p. 389 |
| The Cambrian explosion | p. 401 |
| The advent of animal skeletons | p. 412 |
| Evolution of algal and cyanobacterial calcification | p. 426 |
| Neoproterozoic evolution and environmental change | p. 439 |
| Early metazoan evolution: First steps to an integration of molecular and morphological data | p. 450 |
| Ideas on early animal evolution | p. 460 |
| Molecular phylogeny and the origin of Metazoa | p. 467 |
| Evolution of the "lower" Metazoa | p. 475 |
| Developmental mechanisms in the evolution of animal form: Origins and evolvability of body plans | p. 489 |
| From protein domains to extinct phyla: Reverse-engineering approaches to the evolution of biological complexities | p. 501 |
| References | p. 517 |
| Index | p. 599 |
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