Hi Wayne and others: Part of the problem is that reconstructing trends in environmental conditions (temperature, pH, O, etc.) are non-trivial and full of complicated (and often cross-cancelling) interrelationships (i.e., pinning one unknown variable requires assumptions about the other unknown one). Also, most efforts so far have focused on critical time intervals (such as Cambrian radiation and mass extinctions), making long-term correlative trends uncommon. Older (Archean and Proterozoic) records are in general even patchier and more prone to degradation.
General historical geology textbooks are a pretty good start for generalities. The Stanley textbook you noted is wonderful, and has the useful feature that each chapter has a two-page visual overview showing major trends and relationships between atmosphere/oceans, geology, and biology. These visual overviews should give you a pretty simple visual aid. An increasingly active subdiscipline in geobiology these days you may find interesting is termed paleophysiology. Some recent overviews and case studies (especially looking at roles of oxygenation) can be seen in the following articles: Canfield, D.E., S.W. Poulton, and G.M. Narbonne. 2007. Late-Neoproterozoic deep-ocean oxygenation and the rise of animal life. Science 315: 92-95. Ward, P., C. Labandeira, M. Laurin, and R.A. Berner. 2006. Confirmation of Romer's Gap as a low oxygen interval constraining the timing of initial arthropod and vertebrate terrestrialization. PNAS 103: 16818-16822. Acquisti, C., J. Kleffe, and S. Collins. 2007. Oxygen content of transmembrane proteins over macroevolutionary time scales. Nature 445: 47-52. Knoll, A.H., R.K. Bambach, J.L. Payne, S. Pruss, and W.W. Fischer. 2007. Paleophysiology and end-Permian mass extinction. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 256: 295-313. Graham, J.B., R. Dudley, N.M. Aguilar, and C. Gans. 1995. Implications of the late Paleozoic oxygen pulse for physiology and evolution. Nature 375: 117-120. None of these offer a simple figure spanning Earth history, but they illustrate the variety of ways (and the varied lines of data) we're using to examine these relationships. Cheers, Phil At 08:57 PM 9/3/2007, Wayne Tyson wrote: >** Stanley, Steven M. Earth System History. New York: W.H. Freeman >and Company, 1999. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phil Novack-Gottshall Assistant Professor [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Geosciences University of West Georgia Carrollton, GA 30118-3100 Phone: 678-839-4061 Fax: 678-839-4071 http://www.westga.edu/~pnovackg ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
