Rapid evolutionary innovation during an Archaean genetic expansion

@article{David2011RapidEI,
  title={Rapid evolutionary innovation during an Archaean genetic expansion},
  author={Lawrence A. David and Eric J. Alm},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2011},
  volume={469},
  pages={93-96}
}
The natural history of Precambrian life is still unknown because of the rarity of microbial fossils and biomarkers. However, the composition of modern-day genomes may bear imprints of ancient biogeochemical events. Here we use an explicit model of macroevolution including gene birth, transfer, duplication and loss events to map the evolutionary history of 3,983 gene families across the three domains of life onto a geological timeline. Surprisingly, we find that a brief period of genetic… 
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