Evolution articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Editorial |

    The march from an Archaean microbial world to the modern reign of more complex life was slow but not steady. Instead, the rise of the animals may have resulted from an intricate back-and-forth between evolving life and the Earth's environment.

  • Feature |

    People have changed the world irrevocably. Jan Zalasiewicz discusses whether formalization of the Anthropocene as an epoch in geological time will help us understand our place in Earth history.

    • Jan Zalasiewicz

  • News & Views |

    The prediction of marine microbial responses to ocean acidification is a key challenge for marine biologists. Experimental evolution offers a powerful tool for understanding the forces that will shape tomorrow's microbial communities under global change.

    • Sinéad Collins

  • Article |

    Rifting of the eastern part of the East African Rift System was thought to have begun several million years before its western counterpart. Reconstructions of drainage development, combined with dating of rift-related volcanic activity, suggest that rifting in the western branch may instead have begun at the same time as in the eastern branch.

    • E. M. Roberts
    • , N. J. Stevens
    •  & S. Hemming

  • Letter |

    The timing of onset of modern-style plate tectonics on Earth is debated. Analysis of rocks in the West African metamorphic province, which is more than 2 Gyr old, reveals that some minerals formed under conditions similar to those in modern-day subduction zones, suggesting that subduction occurred on the Palaeoproterozoic Earth.

    • J. Ganne
    • , V. De Andrade
    •  & J. Allibon

  • Letter |

    Two competing models have been suggested to explain the recovery of ecosystems from mass extinctions. An analysis of the recovery of marine pelagic communities from the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction supports a model of contingent recovery, rather than one based on trophic structure.

    • Pincelli M. Hull
    • , Richard D. Norris
    •  & Jonathan D. Schueth

  • News & Views |

    Proof that purported fossils of early life are truly old and biological is often controversial. Detailed analyses confirm the early evolution of microbial sulphur cycling and reveal microfossils in 3.4-billion-year-old beach sandstones.

    • Emmanuelle J. Javaux

  • Letter |

    Microbes were thought to be the dominant reef constructors following the end-Permian mass extinction. Sponge–microbe reef deposits formed in the Early Triassic from the western United States suggest that instead, metazoan-reef building continued immediately following the extinction wherever marine conditions allowed.

    • Arnaud Brayard
    • , Emmanuelle Vennin
    •  & Gilles Escarguel

  • News & Views |

    River systems have changed through time; the sinuous, stable channels common today developed relatively late in Earth's history. The rock record suggests that a specific type of fixed-channel river system arose after the expansion of arborescence.

    • Chris Paola

  • Article |

    The expansion of land plants led to the development of new river and floodplain morphologies. Field studies suggest that the expansion of tree habitats in the Carboniferous period caused the development of river systems dominated by multiple channels and stable alluvial islands.

    • Neil S. Davies
    •  & Martin R. Gibling

  • Letter |

    The evolution of marine complex animals about 635 million years ago took place in relatively low-oxygen waters. An analysis of a low-oxygen, hypersaline lagoon suggests these early animals may have obtained both oxygen and food from widespread microbial mats.

    • Murray Gingras
    • , James W. Hagadorn
    •  & Kurt O. Konhauser

  • News & Views |

    • Alicia Newton

  • News & Views |

    Evidence from biomarkers and molecular clocks points to the existence of sponges tens of millions of years before their earliest fossil remains. Fossils from South Australia may narrow that gap.

    • Marc Laflamme

  • Article |

    Over 90% of calcareous nannoplankton species disappeared during the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction, which occurred after an impact event. Palaeontological analyses show that the extinction was most pronounced in the Northern Hemisphere oceans, possibly as a result of an increased concentration of particulates created by the impact in the north.

    • Shijun Jiang
    • , Timothy J. Bralower
    •  & Jonathan D. Schueth

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