Ancient Soils Yield Clues to Early Life
Oxygen appeared in the atmosphere up to 700 million years earlier than previously thought, according to research published in the journal Nature, raising new questions about the evolution of early life.
Researchers from the Univ. of Copenhagen and Univ. of British Columbia examined the chemical composition of three-billion-year-old soils from South Africa – the oldest soils on Earth – and found evidence for low concentrations of atmospheric oxygen. Previous research indicated that oxygen began accumulating in the atmosphere only about 2.3 billion years ago during a dynamic period in Earth’s history referred to as the Great Oxygenation Event.
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