J. William Schopf.
Cradle of Life: the discovery of the Earht's earliest fossils.
Princeton University Press. 1999
One of the greatest mysteries in reconstructing the history of life on Earth
has been the apparent absence of fossils dating back more than 550 million years.
The quest to find such traces culminated in one dramatic moment in 1993 when
J. William Schopf identified fossilized microorganisms 3.5 billion years old.
This startling find opened up a vast period of time—some 85% of Earth’s history—to
new research and new ideas about life’s beginnings.
Here Schopf, a pioneer of modern paleobiology, tells for the first time
his exciting and fascinating story of the origins and earliest evolution of life
and how that story has been unearthed.