Freezing Water

[aisne]

Is there any other material like water which expands on freezing? And what would have been the effect on life if water had contracted below 4 degrees C?

[Henryn]

No, water is unique in that it expands when frozen, which is why it floats. As for the second part of the question, if you mean if it contracted rather than expanded, I'm not sure that there would have been any effect on life on earth to begin with because the world was so hot when the primordial soup was spawning the first organisms.