Table of Contents

Geology.- Nanosims Opens a New Window for Deciphering Organic Matter in Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Samples.- Disentangling the Microbial Fossil Record in the Barberton Greenstone Belt: A Cautionary Tale.- Looking Through Windows onto the Earliest History of Life on Earth and Mars.- Models for Silicate Fossils of Organic Materials in the Astrobiological Context.- Microfossil Phosphatization and Its Astrobiological Implications.- Proterozoic Unicellular and Multicellular Fossils from India and Their Implications.- Microbial Communities of Stromatolites.- Biosedimentological Processes That Produce Hot Spring Sinter Biofabrics: Examples from the Uzon Caldera, Kamchatka Russia.- Cyanobacterial Mat Features Preserved in the Siliciclastic Sedimentary Record.- Deciphering Fossil Evidence for the Origin of Life and the Origin of Animals.- Biology.- Microorganisms in the Ancient Terrestrial Subsurface – And in Outer Space?.- Evidence of Ancient Microbial Life in an Impact Structure and Its Implications for Astrobiology.- Phylogenomic Dating and the Relative Ancestry of Prokaryotic Metabolisms.- Fossil Microorganisms at Methane Seeps: An Astrobiological Perspective.- Endoliths in Terrestrial Arid Environments: Implications for Astrobiology.- Magnetotactic Bacteria and Their Potential for Terraformation.- Paleontological Tests: Human-Like Intelligence Is Not a Convergent Feature of Evolution.- Cosmic Life Forms.- Space Sciences.- Astronomical and Astrobiological Imprints on the Fossil Records: A Review.- Do Impacts Really Cause Most Mass Extinctions?.- Irradiation of Icy Cometary Analogs: Its Relevance in Reference to Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life.- The Big Bang at Time Zero.- Molecular Imprints of Reaction Network.- The ALH84001 Case for Life on Mars.-Preservation Windows for Paleobiological Traces in the Mars Geological Record.- Summary, Final Comments and Conclusions.

Reviews

From the reviews: "This book emphasizes the study of Precambrian paleontology and its implications for investigating extraterrestrial biosignatures. … Largely technical in nature, this fascinating volume … will be of great interest to astrobiologists, planetary astronomers, evolutionary biologists, and paleontologists. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections." (D. A. Brass, Choice, Vol. 46 (9), May, 2009) "In this book, expert scientists from 15 countries present peer-reviewed, stimulating reviews of paleontological and astrobiological studies. The overviews of established and emerging techniques for studying modern and ancient microorganisms on Earth and beyond will be valuable guides to evaluating biosignatures that could be found in the extraterrestrial surface or subsurface within the solar system and beyond. … It is a unique volume among astrobiology monographs in focusing on fossil evidence from the geological record and will be valuable to students and researchers … ." (Lunar and Planetary Information Bulletin, 2009)