- Most scientists agree that complex life probably began during the Ediacaran period about 600 million years ago—right around the time of the famous Cambrian explosion.
- However, a new study suggests that some multicellular life may have occurred 1.5 billion years earlier, due to certain conditions caused by volcanic eruptions. hot caused by the collision of two continents.
- Although chemical analysis of salt deposits from the Foravillian region of Gabon may support this theory, some scientists question whether there is enough evidence to suggest a that complex life has evolved in this small pocket of the world.
If the last month has told us anything, the science of the origin of life on Earth is away from laying stones-well, except for the fact that directly set in stone.
Another group of scientists revealed that the Last Universal Grandfather of Life it may be around 4.2 billion years oldand one study suggested that deep sea polymetallic nodules it would have provided an alternative source of life-sustaining oxygen separate from the photosynthetic activity generated by light near the planet’s surface.
Now, a new study (led by scientists at Cardiff University) complicates the ancient Earth’s timeline even more by suggesting that the first forms of complex life actually reached the Palaeoproterozoic era—about 1.5 billions years earlier than previously believed.
Ernest Chi Fru, who led the study, said that these life forms may have been created in a ‘nutrient rich laboratory’ in the sedimentary geologic area known as the Francevillian Basin, which Today’s Christmas. The results of the study were published in the newspaper Precambrian Research.
“We think that the submarine volcanoes, which followed the collision and thrusting of the Congo and São Francisco cratons in one body, blocked and cut this section of the world’s ocean water to create a shallow inland nutrient-rich ocean,” Chi Fru said in a press release. This created an environment where cyanobacterial photosynthesis was abundant for a long period of time, which made the sea water more oxygenated and produced more food.
Although the Cambrian explosion is often thought of as this amazing geological event that started complex life on Earth (and it really did. i that), scientists know that multicellular life existed in the past Ediacaran period in the form of tubular, frond-shaped. In conversation with the BBCChi Fru described his pseudo-lifeforms as looking like modern-day brainless slime.
The main evidence that points to this “laboratory” of early life is the chemical analysis of sedimentary metals excavated from the Gabon basin. The team stated that the high levels of oxygen and phosphorus present in these cores may be due to volcanic eruptions caused by the collision of two plates – Congo and São Francisco cratons. Although the rest of the world was too poor in nutrition to support a complex life at that time. But these conditions, Chi Fru says, would have “provided enough energy to promote an increase in body size and complex behavior” and provided an incredible opportunity for multicellular life to take over. first place on Earth.
But this first chance at a sophisticated life, according to Chi Fru, did not last long—the inhospitable environment surrounding this landlocked sea became prevent the growth of these life forms and reduce their ability to achieve world domination.
However, the Francevillian basin carries a long history of controversy. The first “relics” indicating complex life in the area were discovered in 2008, and since then, some scientists have proposed theories suggests that the samples were simply abiotic pyrite crystals formed through diagenesis – the physical and chemical changes that occur in water-rock interactions.
Likewise, scientists are wary of Chi Fru’s findings. For example, Graham Shields – a geologist from the University of London in London – said BBC that even if this basin had higher-than-normal nutrients 2.1 billion years ago, that is not really enough to suggest that multicellular life took hold.
For now, this strange theory of a false start in multicellular life on Earth will remain just that—a theory.
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his past stuff on Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.
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