Somewhere between Earth's creation and where we are today, scientists have demonstrated that some early life forms existed just fine without any oxygen.
Earth Sciences
Nov 29, 2016
4
10612
(Phys.org) —A small team of researchers with the University of California has found a way break apart carbon dioxide molecules and get carbon atoms and oxygen molecules instead of carbon monoxide and an oxygen atom. In ...
(Phys.org)—An international team of scientists has discovered the greatest absence of evolution ever reported—a type of deep-sea microorganism that appears not to have evolved over more than 2 billion years. But the researchers ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 3, 2015
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A low level of atmospheric oxygen in Earth's middle ages held back evolution for 2 billion years, raising fresh questions about the origins of life on this planet.
Earth Sciences
Feb 2, 2017
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(Phys.org) —A team of European researchers has published a paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offering a possible explanation for the apparent drop in early Earth's oxygen levels following ...
Scientists have long wondered how Earth's atmosphere filled with oxygen. UBC geologist Matthijs Smit and research partner Klaus Mezger may have found the answer in continental rocks that are billions of years old.
Earth Sciences
Sep 18, 2017
4
285
Some time in Earth's early history, the planet took a turn toward habitability when a group of enterprising microbes known as cyanobacteria evolved oxygenic photosynthesis—the ability to turn light and water into energy, ...
Evolution
Sep 28, 2021
14
419
More than 2.4 billion years ago, Earth's atmosphere was inhospitable, filled with toxic gases that drove wildly fluctuating surface temperatures. Understanding how today's world of mild climates and breathable air took shape ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 13, 2017
8
680
New research led by the University of St Andrews helps answer one of the most asked questions in geoscience, when did Earth start to become habitable to complex life?
Earth Sciences
Jun 2, 2020
0
176
A 2-billion-year-old chunk of sea salt provides new evidence for the transformation of Earth's atmosphere into an oxygenated environment capable of supporting life as we know it.
Earth Sciences
Mar 22, 2018
3
378
