Educational Resources
Earliest Life (Pre-Cambrian)
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Earliest Life (Pre-Cambrian)
- Oldest evidence for life on land unearthed in South Africa. Source: Homann, M., Sansjofre, P., Van Zuilen, M., Heubeck, C., Gong, J., Killingsworth, B., ... & Lalonde, S. V. (2018). Microbial life and biogeochemical cycling on land 3,220 million years ago. Nature Geoscience, 11(9), 665.
- Dodd, MS, Papineau, D, Grenne, T et al. (2017). Evidence for early life in Earth’s oldest hydrothermal vent precipitates. Nature, 543 (7643). pp. 60-64.
- 'World’s oldest fossils’ may just be pretty rocks. Analysis of 3.7-billion-year-old outcrops has reignited controversy over when life on Earth began. National Geographic.
- Original: Nutman, A. P., Bennett, V. C., Friend, C. R., Van Kranendonk, M. J., & Chivas, A. R. (2016). Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures. Nature, 537(7621), 535.
- Recent: Allwood, A. C. (2016). Geology: Evidence of life in Earth's oldest rocks. Nature, 537(7621), 500.
- Protolife: Green, J. (2011). Academic aspects of lunar water resources and their relevance to lunar protolife. International journal of molecular sciences, 12(9), 6051-6076.
- NASA: In Search of Panspermia. Early Earth, like early Mars and no doubt many other planets, was bombarded by meteorites and comets. Could they have arrived with “living” microbes inside them?
- Altwegg, K., Balsiger, H., Bar-Nun, A., Berthelier, J. J., Bieler, A., Bochsler, P., ... & De Keyser, J. (2016). Prebiotic chemicals—amino acid and phosphorus—in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Science Advances, 2(5), e1600285.
- Looking for LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor
- Joyce, G. F. (2002). The antiquity of RNA-based evolution. Nature, 418(6894), 214.
- Meredith, R. W., Janečka, J. E., Gatesy, J., Ryder, O. A., Fisher, C. A., Teeling, E. C., ... & Rabosky, D. L. (2011). Impacts of the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution and KPg extinction on mammal diversification. Science, 334(6055), 521-524.
- Pulido-Santacruz, P., Aleixo, A., & Weir, J. T. (2018). Morphologically cryptic Amazonian bird species pairs exhibit strong postzygotic reproductive isolation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285(1874), 20172081.
- Teixeira, J. C., & Cooper, A. (2019). Using hominin introgression to trace modern human dispersals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(31), 15327-15332. Sheds light on how ancient hominin species interbred and contributed to the genetic diversity of modern humans. By studying introgression (the transfer of genetic material from one species to another through hybridization), researchers can identify specific genes or genetic traits that were advantageous and spread through populations. This provides insights into adaptations and evolutionary changes in response to different environments.
- Harvati, K., & Ackermann, R. R. (2022). Merging morphological and genetic evidence to assess hybridization in Western Eurasian late Pleistocene hominins. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6(10), 1573-1585.
- Wheeler, Q., & Meier, R. (Eds.). (2000). Species concepts and phylogenetic theory: a debate. Columbia University Press.
- Martin, N. H., & Willis, J. H. (2007). Ecological divergence associated with mating system causes nearly complete reproductive isolation between sympatric Mimulus species. Evolution, 61(1), 68-82.
- Ring Species: Unusual Demonstrations of Speciation
- Johnson, N. (2008) Hybrid incompatibility and speciation. Nature Education 1(1):20
- Arora, N., Nater, A., van Schaik, C. P., Willems, E. P., van Noordwijk, M. A., Goossens, B., ... & Kuze, N. (2010). Effects of Pleistocene glaciations and rivers on the population structure of Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(50), 21376-21381.
- Feder, Jeffrey L., and Patrik Nosil. The efficacy of divergence hitchhiking in generating genomic islands during ecological speciation. Evolution: International Journal of Organic Evolution 64.6 (2010): 1729-1747.
- Wolf, J. B., & Ellegren, H. (2017). Making sense of genomic islands of differentiation in light of speciation. Nature Reviews Genetics, 18(2), 87.
- Charlesworth, B. (2009). Effective population size and patterns of molecular evolution and variation. Nature Reviews Genetics, 10(3), 195.
- Whitney, K. D., & Garland Jr, T. (2010). Did genetic drift drive increases in genome complexity?. PLoS genet, 6(8), e1001080.
- Alcaide, M. (2010). On the relative roles of selection and genetic drift in shaping MHC variation. Molecular Ecology, 19(18), 3842-3844.
- Kliman, R., Sheehy, B. & Schultz, J. (2008) Genetic Drift and Effective Population Size. Nature Education 1(3):3
- Theorists Debate How ‘Neutral’ Evolution Really Is
- Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution
- Lynch, M., Ackerman, M. S., Gout, J. F., Long, H., Sung, W., Thomas, W. K., & Foster, P. L. (2016). Genetic drift, selection and the evolution of the mutation rate. Nature Reviews Genetics, 17(11), 704.
- Yi, S. (2013) Neutrality and Molecular Clocks. Nature Education Knowledge 4(2):3
- Reading phylogenetic trees
- Evolutionary Uniqueness (Tuatara Phylogenetic software)
- Simões, T. R., Vernygora, O., Caldwell, M. W., & Pierce, S. E. (2020). Megaevolutionary dynamics and the timing of evolutionary innovation in reptiles. Nature communications, 11(1), 1-14.
- Yonezawa, T., Segawa, T., Mori, H., Campos, P. F., Hongoh, Y., Endo, H., ... & Jin, H. (2017). Phylogenomics and morphology of extinct paleognaths reveal the origin and evolution of the ratites. Current Biology, 27(1), 68-77.
- Island biogeography: Taking the long view of nature’s laboratories
- Comparative phylogeography of oceanic archipelagos: Hotspots for inferences of evolutionary process
- Lehman, S. M., & Fleagle, J. G. (2006). Biogeography and primates: a review. In Primate biogeography (pp. 1-58). Springer, Boston, MA.
- O’Dea, A., Lessios, H. A., Coates, A. G., Eytan, R. I., Restrepo-Moreno, S. A., Cione, A. L., ... & Stallard, R. F. (2016). Formation of the Isthmus of Panama. Science advances, 2(8), e1600883.
- Müller, G. B. (2007). Evo–devo: extending the evolutionary synthesis. Nature reviews genetics, 8(12), 943.
- Zhang, J. (2003). Evolution by gene duplication: an update. Trends in ecology & evolution, 18(6), 292-298.
- Blount, Z. D., Borland, C. Z., & Lenski, R. E. (2008). Historical contingency and the evolution of a key innovation in an experimental population of Escherichia coli. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105: 7899-7906.
- Spribille, T., Tuovinen, V., Resl, P., Vanderpool, D., Wolinski, H., Aime, M. C., ... & Mayrhofer, H. (2016). Basidiomycete yeasts in the cortex of ascomycete macrolichens. Science, 353(6298), 488-492.
- Schultz, T. R., & Brady, S. G. (2008). Major evolutionary transitions in ant agriculture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(14), 5435-5440.
- Jandér, K. C., & Herre, E. A. (2010). Host sanctions and pollinator cheating in the fig tree–fig wasp mutualism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1687), 1481-1488.
- Kawakita, Atsushi, and Makoto Kato. Assessment of the diversity and species specificity of the mutualistic association between Epicephala moths and Glochidion trees. Molecular Ecology 15.12 (2006): 3567-3581.
- Hembry, David H., Jeremy B. Yoder, and Kari Roesch Goodman. Coevolution and the diversification of life. The American Naturalist 184.4 (2014): 425-438.
- Gerardo, N. M., Mueller, U. G., & Currie, C. R. (2006). Complex host-pathogen coevolution in the Apterostigma fungus-growing ant-microbe symbiosis . BMC Evolutionary Biology, 6(1), 88.
- Alizon, S., Hurford, A., Mideo, N., & Van Baalen, M. (2009). Virulence evolution and the trade‐off hypothesis: history, current state of affairs and the future. Journal of evolutionary biology, 22(2), 245-259.
- Ashby, B., & Boots, M. (2015). Coevolution of parasite virulence and host mating strategies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(43), 13290-13295.
- Cressler, C. E., McLEOD, D. V., Rozins, C., Van Den Hoogen, J., & Day, T. (2016). The adaptive evolution of virulence: a review of theoretical predictions and empirical tests. Parasitology, 143(7), 915-930.
- Decaestecker, E., Gaba, S., Raeymaekers, J. A., Stoks, R., Van Kerckhoven, L., Ebert, D., & De Meester, L. (2007). Host–parasite ‘Red Queen’dynamics archived in pond sediment. Nature, 450(7171), 870.
- A Cretaceous terrestrial snake with robust hindlimbs and sacrum
- A Devonian tetrapod-like fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan
- The mammal-like reptiles: a study of transitional fossils
- The origin of whales and the power of independent evidence
- Four-winged dinosaurs from China
- Almécija, S., Hammond, A. S., Thompson, N. E., Pugh, K. D., Moyà-Solà, S., & Alba, D. M. (2021). Fossil apes and human evolution. Science, 372(6542), eabb4363.
- Slicox, M. T. (2014) Primate Origins and the Plesiadapiforms. Nature Education Knowledge 5(3):1.
- Williams, Blythe A., Richard F. Kay, and E. Christopher Kirk. (2010) New perspectives on anthropoid origins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107.11: 4797-4804.
- Analysis of human sequence data reveals two pulses of archaic Denisovan admixture
- Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 through recombination and strong purifying selection
- Origin and Evolution of Pathogenic Coronaviruses
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