4,570,000,000 to 545,000,000 years ago

Knowledge about the precambrian has changed rapidly in recent years. Two articles summarizing some recent work appeared in National Geographic in March and April of 1998. Written by science writer Richard Monastersky, both are written and magnificently illustrated in typical National Geographic style. The first focuses on the origin and early evolution of single-celled life, while the second focuses on the Ediacaran fauna.

1. Monastersky, Richard (March 1998) "The Rise of Life on Earth." National Geographic 193 (3) pp 54-81.
2. Monastersky, Richard (April 1998) "Life Grows Up." National Geographic 193 (4) pp 100-115.

For material in greater depth than provided in the National Geographic articles above I recommend the books below and the articles in Major Events in the History of Life, edited by J. William Schopf.

1. Fedonkin, Mikhail A., et. al. The Rise of Animals: Evolution and Diversification of Animalia. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore (2008).
2. Knoll. Andrew H. Life on a Young Planet—the First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2003).
3. Schopf, J. William (1992) "The Oldest Fossils and What They Mean." in Major Events in the History of Life. (J. William Schopf, ed.) Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Boston.
4. Runnegar, Bruce (1992) "Evolution of the Earliest Animals." in Major Events in the History of Life. (J. William Schopf, ed.) Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Boston.

The references below represent most of the articles I used in researching this display and the associated web pages. Most of the articles from Science and Nature are mini-reviews of the latest research written for a scientifically sophisticated, but non-specialist audience. All of the articles reference the specialist literatures.

Richard A. Paselk, Precambrian exhibit designer/author.

1. Des Marais, David J. (8 September 2000) "When Did Photosynthesis Emerge on Earth?" Science 289 pp 1703-5.
2. Halliday, Alex N. (11 June 2000) "In the Beginning" Nature 409. pp 144-5.
3. Holland, Heinrich D. (2 January 1997) "Evidence for Life on Earth More Than 3850 Million Years Ago." Science. 275. pp 38-9.
4. Jørgensen, Bo Barker. (19 July 2001) "Space for hydrogen." Nature 412. pp 286­9
5. Knoll, Andrew H. and Sean B. Carroll. (25 June 1999) "Early Animal Evolution: Emerging Views from Comparative Biology and Geology" Science284. pp 2129­37.
6. Kramers, Jan. (27 July 2001) "The Smile of the Cheshire Cat" Science 293. pp 619-20.
7. Lipps, Jere H. and Philip W. Signor. (1992) Origin and Early Evolution of the Metazoa. Plenum Press, New York.
8. Martin, M. W., D. V. Grazhdankin, S. A. Bawring, D. A. D. Evans, M. A. Fedonkin, and J. L. Kirschvink. (5 May 2000) "Age of Neoproterozoic Bilaterian Body and Trace Fossils, White Sea Russia: Implications for Metazoan Evolution." Science 288. pp 841-5.
9. Meyerowitz, Elliot M. (22 February 2002) "Plants Compared to Animals: The Broadest Comparative Study of Development." Science 295. pp1482-5.
10. Nisbet, Euan. (8 June 2000) "The realms of Archean life" Nature 405. pp 625­6.
11. Sleep, Norman H. (15 March 2001) "Oxygenating the atmosphere." Science 310. pp 317­9.
12. Rasmussen, Birger, Stefan Bengtson, Ian R. Fletcher, and Neal J. McNaughton (10 May 2002) "Discoidal Impressions and Trace-Like Fossils More Than 1200 Million Years Old." Science 296. pp 1112-5.
13. (22 December 2000) Science. 290. p 2241
14. Walker, James C.G., Cornelis Klein, Manfred Schidowski, J. William Schoppf, David Stevenson, and Malcolm R. Walter (1983) "Environmental Evolution of the Archean-Early Proterozoic Earth" in Earth's Earliest Biosphere. (J. William Schopf, ed.) Princeton University Press, Princeton. pp 276-283 [detailed minerology etc. of banded iron-formations]