Symbiotic Planet

* Book: Symbiotic Planet: A New Look At Evolution. by Lynn Margulis. Basic Books, 1999

URL = https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/lynn-margulis/symbiotic-planet/9780465072729

Description

1. H.J. Spencer:

"This book summarizes the scientific evidence for three of the most radical theories that are changing our basic ideas about Life and Biology:

• Symbiotic Evolution,
• the Gaia Hypothesis and
• the radical Five-Kingdom classification of all life forms.

Lynn Margulis is best qualified to discuss these topics as shewas either the originator or a major developer of these ideas."

(https://www.academia.edu/41477663/HETERODOX_A_Review_Essay_of_Symbiotic_Planet_by_Lynn_Margulis_1998_)

2. From the publisher:

"Although Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution laid the foundations of modern biology, it did not tell the whole story. Most remarkably, The Origin of Species said very little about, of all things, the origins of species. Darwin and his modern successors have shown very convincingly how inherited variations are naturally selected, but they leave unanswered how variant organisms come to be in the first place. In Symbiotic Planet, renowned scientist Lynn Margulis shows that symbiosis, which simply means members of different species living in physical contact with each other, is crucial to the origins of evolutionary novelty. Ranging from bacteria, the smallest kinds of life, to the largest — the living Earth itself — Margulis explains the symbiotic origins of many of evolution’s most important innovations. The very cells we’re made of started as symbiotic unions of different kinds of bacteria. Sex — and its inevitable corollary, death — arose when failed attempts at cannibalism resulted in seasonally repeated mergers of some of our tiniest ancestors. Dry land became forested only after symbioses of algae and fungi evolved into plants. Since all living things are bathed by the same waters and atmosphere, all the inhabitants of Earth belong to a symbiotic union. Gaia, the finely tuned largest ecosystem of the Earth’s surface, is just symbiosis as seen from space. Along the way, Margulis describes her initiation into the world of science and the early steps in the present revolution in evolutionary biology; the importance of species classification for how we think about the living world; and the way “academic apartheid” can block scientific advancement."

(https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/lynn-margulis/symbiotic-planet/9780465072729/)

Excerpt

Symbiogenesis

H.J. Spencer:

"In the course of her research, Margulis discovered that an American anatomist, I. E. Wallin proposed in the 1920s that several vital cell components, like mitochondria and chloroplasts, originated as symbiotic bacteria. When he was not being ignored, he was strongly condemned for daring to suggest that 'germs' could contribute anything positive to life forms that were rigidly believed to exist as only animals or plants. Additionally, in reading old biology books, Margulis did find links to the symbiogenesis ideas of Merezhovsky. This stimulated her focus on the role of bacteria and her laboratory evidence that symbiotic associations between prokaryotic bacteria were absorbed into eukaryotic cells in the form of forerunners of distinct, independent organelles in a process that Margulis called Endosymbiosis (some symbionts living within a larger organism). Since Margulis proposed that this process had occurred several times over extended timeframes, she added the word 'serial' to emphasize its recurrence; so this is why she has described her theory as Serial Endosymbiosis Theory(or SET)."

(https://www.academia.edu/41477663/HETERODOX_A_Review_Essay_of_Symbiotic_Planet_by_Lynn_Margulis_1998_)