Life on earth most likely originated from non-living materials.

• 10.1 Complex organic molecules arise in non-living environments.
• 10.2 Cells and self-replicating systems evolved together to create the first life.
• 10.3 This is how we do it: Could life have originated in ice, rather than in a “warm little pond”?

Species are the basic units of biodiversity.

• 10.4 What is a species?
• 10.5 How do we name species?
• 10.6 Species are not always easily defined.
• 10.7 How do new species arise?

Evolutionary trees help us conceptualize and categorize biodiversity.

• 10.8 The history of life can be imagined as a tree.
• 10.9 Evolutionary trees show ancestor-descendant relationships.
• 10.10 Similar structures don’t always reveal common ancestry.

Macroevolution gives rise to great diversity.

• 10.11 Macroevolution is evolution above the species level.
• 10.12 The pace of evolution is not constant.
• 10.13 Adaptive radiations are times of extreme diversification.
• 10.14 There have been several mass extinctions on earth.

An overview of the diversity of life on earth: organisms are divided into three domains.

• 10.15 All living organisms are classified into one of three groups.
• 10.16 The bacteria domain has tremendous biological diversity.
• 10.17 The archaea domain includes many species living in extreme environments.
• 10.18 The eukarya domain consists of four kingdoms: plants, animals, fungi, and protists.