Title | Description | Convenors |
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Non-marine Environments as drivers of major evolutionary events | Some of the fundamental stages in the progressive evolution of life on Earth probably took place in non-marine settings, leading to the likelihood that environmental conditions linked to freshwater aquatic and terrestrial subaerial settings acted as important agents of Natural Selection. Such major evolutionary transitions as the origin of life itself, the origin and principal diversification of the eukaryotes, and the algal-plant transition may all have occurred in non-marine settings. In addition, terrestrialization and the subsequent rise of the land flora and fauna resulted in an evolutionary history that is distinct from that seen in the marine realm. This symposium is intended to showcase these and other aspects of the evolution of life in terrestrial settings. | Paul Strother and Rose Prevec |