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First Steps Towards Defining Galactic Niches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2017

Simon Conway Morris*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, England

Abstract

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Terrestrial evolution encompasses many levels, from proteins to societies. Potentially any level can be encompassed by a multidimensional “habitation box”, of which only a minute fraction is occupied. on the basis of evidence from evolutionary convergence it is argued that life elsewhere will not only be similarly constrained, but also strangely similar.

Type
Origins and Evolution of Life
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004 

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