Seilacher, A., Bose, P. K. & Pflüger, F. Triploblastic animals more than 1 billion years ago: trace fossil evidence from India. Science 282, 80-83 (1998).
Knoll, A. H., Javaux, E. J., Hewitt, D. & Cohen, P. Eukaryotic organisms in Proterozoic oceans. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London B 361, 1023-1038 (2006).
Bengtson, S., Rasmussen, B. & Krapez?, B. The Paleoproterozoic megascopic Stirling biota. Paleobiology 33, 351-381 (2007).
Lamb, D. M., Awramik, S. M. & Zhu, S. Paleoproterozoic compression-like structures from the Changzhougou Formation, China: eukaryotes or clasts? Precambr. Res. 154, 236-247 (2007).
Rasmussen, B., Fletcher, I. R., Brocks, J. J. & Kilburn, M. R. Reassessing the first appearance of eukaryotes and cyanobacteria. Nature 455, 1101-1105 (2008).
Han, T.-M. & Runnegar, B. Megascopic eukaryotic algae from the 2.1-billion-year-old Negaunee Iron-Formation, Michigan. Science 257, 232-235 (1992).
Schneider, D. A., Bickford, M. E., Cannon, W. F., Schulz, K. J. & Hamilton, M. A. Age of volcanic rocks and syndepositional iron formations, Marquette Range Supergroup: implications for the tectonic setting of Paleoproterozoic iron formations of the Lake Superior region. Can. J. Earth Sci. 39, 999-1012 (2002).
Bengtson, S., Belivanova, V., Rasmussen, B. & Whitehouse, M. The controversial "Cambrian" fossils of the Vindhyan are real but more than a billion years older. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 7729-7734 (2009).
Shapiro, J. A. & Dworkin, M. (eds) Bacteria as Multicellular Organisms (Oxford Univ. Press, 1997).
Bekker,A. et al. Dating the rise of atmospheric oxygen. Nature 427, 117-120 (2004).
Gauthier-Lafaye, F. & Weber, F. The Francevillian (Palaeoproterozoic) uranium ore deposits of Gabon. Chem. Geol. 84, 2267-2285 (1989).
Gauthier-Lafaye, F. & Weber, F. Natural nuclear fission reactors: time constraints for occurrence, and their relation to uranium and manganese deposits and to the evolution of the atmosphere. Precambr. Res. 120, 81-100 (2003).
Bros, R., Stille, P., Gauthier-Lafaye, F., Weber, F. & Clauer, N. Sm-Nd isotopic dating of Proterozoic clay material: an example from the Francevillian sedimentary series, Gabon. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 113, 207-218 (1992).
Hoori, K., Hidaka, H. & Gauthier-Lafaye, F. U-Pb geochronology and geochemistry of zircon from the Franceville series at Bidoudouma, Gabon. The 15th Annual Goldschmidt Conference. (2005).
Gancarz, A. J. in The Natural Fission Reactors: Annual International Atomic Energy Agency Conference 513-520 (TC-119/40, IAEA, 1978).
Bekker, A. et al. Fractionation between inorganic and organic carbon during the Lomagundi (2.22-2.1 Ga) carbon isotope excursion. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 271, 278-291 (2008).
Habicht, K. S., Gade, M., Thamdrup, B., Berg, P. & Canfield, D. E. Calibration of sulfate levels in the Archean ocean. Science 298, 2372-2374 (2002).
Farrell, U. C., Martin, M. J., Hagadorn, J. W., Whiteley, T. & Briggs, D. E. G. Beyond Beecher's Trilobite Bed: widespread pyritization of soft tissues in the Late Ordovician Taconic foreland basin. Geology 37, 907-910 (2009).
Seilacher, A., Buatois, L. & Mángano, M. G. Trace fossils in the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition: behavioral diversification, ecological turnover and environmental shift. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 227, 323-356 (2005).
Wacey, D. Early Life on Earth: A Practical Guide (Springer, 2009).
Cortial, F., Gauthier-Lafaye, F. & Lacrampe-Couloume, G. Oberlin, A. & Weber, F. Characterization of organic matter associated with uranium deposits in the Francevillian formation of Gabon (lower proterozoic). Org. Geochem. 15, 73-85 (1990).
Mossman, D. J., Gauthier-Lafaye, F. & Jackson, S. Carbonaceous substances associated with the Paleoproterozoic natural nuclear fission reactors of Oklo, Gabon: paragenesis, thermal maturation and carbon isotopic and trace element composition. Precambr. Res. 106, 135-148 (2001).
Dutkiewicz, A., George, S. C., Mossman, D. J., Ridley, J. & Volk, H. Oil and its biomarkers associated with the Palaeoproterozoic Oklo natural fission reactors, Gabon. Chem. Geol. 244, 130-154 (2007).
Ben-Jacob, E. Bacterial self-organization: co-enhancement of complexification and adaptability in a dynamic environment. Philos. Transact. Ser. A 361, 1283-1312 (2003).
Grazhdankin, D. & Gerdes, G. Ediacaran microbial colonies. Lethaia 40, 201-210 (2007).
Allwood, A. C., Walter, M. R., Kamber, B. S., Marshall, C. P. & Burch, I. W. Stromatolite reef from the Early Archaean era of Australia. Nature 441, 714-718 (2006).
Schieber, J. in Atlas of Microbial Mat Features Preserved within the Clastic Rock Record (eds Schieber, J. et al.) 117-134 (Elsevier, 2007)
Bonner, J. T. First Signals: The Evolution of Development (Princeton Univ. Press, 2000).
Canfield, D. E. et al. Ferruginous conditions dominated later Neoproterozoic deep-water chemistry. Science 321, 949-952 (2008).
Frei, R., Gaucher, C., Poulton, S. W. & Canfield, D. E. Fluctuations in Precambrian atmospheric oxygenation recorded by chromium isotopes. Nature 461, 250-254 (2009).
