The 5 Kingdoms of Nature

Lynn Margulis is a distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA. She was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 1983, and in 1999 received the Presidential Medal of Science from President Clinton. The Library of Congress, Washington, DC, announced, in 1998, that it would permanently archive her papers.

Her publications, spanning a wide range of scientific topics, include original contributions to cell biology and microbial evolution. She is best known for her theory of symbiogenesis. She argues that inherited variation, significant in evolution, does not come mainly from random mutations, but that new tissues, organs, and even new species, evolve primarily through “the long-lasting intimacy of strangers”. The fusion of genomes in symbioses followed by natural selection, she suggests, leads to increasingly complex levels of individuality. Dr Margulis is also acknowledged for her contribution to James E Lovelock’s Gaia concept. Gaia theory suggests that the Earth’s surface interactions among living beings, sediment, air, and water have created a vast self-regulating system.

Professor Margulis is the author of many articles and books. Her work with K V Schwartz provides a consistent formal classification of all life on Earth and has led to the third edition of Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth (1998).