Life on a Young Planet

The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth

By: Andrew H. Knoll

Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin

Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites - such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, presenting a compelling new explanation for the emergence of biological novelty.

The very latest discoveries in paleontology - many of them made by the author and his students - are integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science to forge a broad understanding of how the biological diversity that surrounds us came to be. Moving from Siberia to Namibia to the Bahamas, Knoll shows how life and environment have evolved together through Earth's history.

Listeners go into the field to confront fossils, enter the lab to discern the inner workings of cells, and alight on Mars to ask how our terrestrial experience can guide exploration for life beyond our planet. Along the way, Knoll brings us up-to-date on some of science's hottest questions, from the oldest fossils and claims of life beyond the Earth to the hypothesis of global glaciation and Knoll's own unifying concept of "permissive ecology."

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2003 Princeton University Press (P)2019 Tantor

Voice acting is fine

Voice acting is fine, but it may annoy some. I found it was clear and good to fall asleep to in any case! Subject dealt with well with an insight to the field and fieldwork, not just facts and discoveries.
I will be listening to this book again.

Interesting, broad and well written

Very crisply written account of the early earth and biosphere. The author is an authority in the field of biogeochemistry, which gives this material a pov distinct from most popular books on the subject I've read. I liked it enough I will get it in print. My only caveat is the narration is tinged by an affected and overdone staccato conciseness that takes some effort, for me at least, to process. It gets between the listener and the fascinating and well written material, which is a bit of a pity. Still, very much worth the time and the credit, if you're into the subject matter at all.

The Earliest Life

I enjoyed this book about the very first life on earth. I wanted to learn about the single-celled organisms that were the life-forms that populated the earth for billions of years, and this book presented that information in a way I could understand.

bad narration

a b c d e f . . . . . . . .

Skip the epilog.

A great book that explains the early Earth. But why do authors writing about science always seem to be obligated to go off on some anti-religion rant, only to end with their own prayers to their god of scientism?

Dense subject matter

Narration is clear but stuffy, not at all engaging.

Material focuses entirely on microorganisms and is dry.

Perhaps of interest to specialists, but will bore laypersons to death.

A bit mixed ...

The content is good, the narration annoying. I really liked the depth into life before the Cambrian.

Life during the Precambrian period

One of the very few Audible books on the earliest life on Earth, very interesting - though quite demanding: the reader has to focus to follow the story. Pretty revealing, I learned a lot. Mind you that the book was written in 2000s, so I just wonder what new fascinating discoveries were made in the last 15 years.

On the other hand, you need to get used *sigh* to the narrator *sigh*, who has a bit irritating tendency *sigh* to finish every phrase with a sigh *sigh*.

Enunciation perfected

The reader clearly adores the sound of his own voice. It becomes outright pretentious at times, when he adds extra syllables, like clumsy grace notes in a musical composition. I read it on Kindle after giving up on the Audible version.

Poor narration.

Difficult to focus on the interesting fact due to the narrator trying to be an actor. His breathlessness and hissing ‘s’s was really irritating