Earth has been habitable for 4.3 billion years, and the earliest rock record indicates the
presence of a microbial biosphere by at least 3.4 billion years ago—and disputably earlier …

Abstract The Archean era (4 to 2.5 billion years ago, Ga) yielded rocks that include the
oldest conclusive traces of life as well as many controversial occurrences. Carbonaceous …

Microbial life permeates Earth's critical zone and has likely inhabited nearly all our planet's
surface and near subsurface since before the beginning of the sedimentary rock record …

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the science of the history of life.
Paleobiologists bring many analytical tools to bear in interpreting the fossil record and the …

It is often acknowledged that the search for life on Mars might produce false positive results,
particularly via the detection of objects, patterns or substances that resemble the products of …

The recognition of past habitable environments on Mars has increased the urgency to
understand biosignature preservation in and characterize analogues of these environments …

Venus today is inhospitable at the surface, its average temperature of 750 K being
incompatible to the existence of life as we know it. However, the potential for past surface …

The Perseverance rover has collected seven oriented samples of sedimentary rocks, all
likely older than the oldest signs of widespread life on Earth, at the exposed base of the …

It is 50 years since the landmark paper where Black et al.(1971) presented whole-rock Pb-
Pb and Rb-Sr isotopic evidence for some rocks in Greenland surviving from Earth's first …

Abstract Abiotic, Bioinduced and Biocontrolled carbonates are process-based sediment
categories. They successively reflect increasing levels of biotic control over carbonate …