ArticleJournal of molecular evolution2024
Stem Life: A Framework for Understanding the Prebiotic-Biotic Transition.
Article in Journal of molecular evolution, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Emergence of biosignatures on Earth and implications for life detection.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- The Emergence of Life in the Light of Evolution.ArXiv · 2026Article
- The origins and evolution of translation factors.Trends in genetics : TIG · 2025Review
- Introduction to the Special Issue on Early Evolution and the Last Common Ancestor.Journal of molecular evolution · 2024Article
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1 author.
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Abstract
Abiogenesis is frequently envisioned as a linear, ladder-like progression of increasingly complex chemical systems, eventually leading to the ancestors of extant cellular life. This "pre-cladistics" view is in stark contrast to the well-accepted principles of organismal evolutionary biology, as informed by paleontology and phylogenetics. Applying this perspective to origins, I explore the paradigm of "Stem Life," which embeds abiogenesis within a broader continuity of diversification and extinction of both hereditary lineages and chemical systems. In this new paradigm, extant life's ancestral lineage emerged alongside and was dependent upon many other complex prebiotic chemical systems, as part of a diverse and fecund prebiosphere. Drawing from several natural history analogies, I show how this shift in perspective enriches our understanding of Origins and directly informs debates on defining Life, the emergence of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA), and the implications of prebiotic chemical experiments.
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