The Creation of the Earth: How Living Organisms Shaped Our World

If it weren't for living beings, Earth would have been destined for a bleak fate like Mars. It is various organisms - from bacteria to flowering plants and mammals - that turned the third planet from the Sun into a habitable world, created its current atmosphere, significantly influenced the composition of the World Ocean, and the rocky shell - the lithosphere. No substantial deposits of mineral resources - from organic coal and oil to seemingly inert gold - could have formed without the influence of living beings. The book by Andrey Zhuravlev, a paleontologist, Doctor of Biological Sciences, and professor of the Department of Biological Evolution at the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, explains how our planet was formed - the way we know it now.