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September 4, 2014
Trinity College Dublin
Geologists in Ireland have rewritten the evolutionary history books by
finding that oxygen-producing life forms were present on Earth some 3
billion years ago -- a full 60 million years earlier than previously thought.
These life forms were responsible for adding oxygen to our atmosphere,
which laid the foundations for more complex life to evolve and proliferate.
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Life forms appeared at least 60 million years earlier than previously
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Credit: Quentin Crowley [Click to enlarge image]
G
The study site landscape is shown with boulders of the paleosol in the foreground.
eologists from Trinity College Dublin have rewritten the evolutionary
history books by finding that oxygen-producing life forms were present
on Earth some 3 billion years ago -- a full 60 million years earlier than
previously thought. These life forms were responsible for adding oxygen (O
2
)
to our atmosphere, which laid the foundations for more complex life to evolve
and proliferate.
Working with Professors Joydip Mukhopadhyay and
Gautam Ghosh and other colleagues from the
Presidency University in Kolkata, India, the
geologists found evidence for chemical weathering of
rocks leading to soil formation that occurred in the
presence of O
2
. Using the naturally occurring
uranium-lead isotope decay system, which is used
for age determinations on geological time-scales, the
authors deduced that these events took place at least
3.02 billion years ago. The ancient soil (or paleosol)
came from the Singhbhum Craton of Odisha, and was
named the 'Keonjhar Paleosol' after the nearest local
town.
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The pattern of chemical weathering preserved in the
paleosol is compatible with elevated atmospheric O
2
levels at that time. Such substantial levels of oxygen
could only have been produced by organisms converting light energy and carbon
dioxide to O
2
and water. This process, known as photosynthesis, is used by millions
of different plant and bacteria species today. It was the proliferation of such oxygen-
producing species throughout Earth's evolutionary trajectory that changed the
composition of our atmosphere -- adding much more O
2
-- which was as important for
the development of ancient multi-cellular life as it is for us today.
Quentin Crowley, Ussher Assistant Professor in Isotope Analysis and the Environment
in the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity, is senior author of the journal article that
describes this research which has just been published online in the world's top-ranked
Geology journal, Geology. He said: "This is a very exciting finding, which helps to fill a
gap in our knowledge about the evolution of the early Earth. This paleosol from India is
telling us that there was a short-lived pulse of atmospheric oxygenation and this
occurred considerably earlier than previously envisaged."
The early Earth was very different to what we see today. Our planet's early atmosphere
was rich in methane and carbon dioxide and had only very low levels of O
2
. The widely
accepted model for evolution of the atmosphere states that O
2
levels did not
appreciably rise until about 2.4 billion years ago. This 'Great Oxidation Event' event
enriched the atmosphere and oceans with O
2
, and heralded one of the biggest shifts in
evolutionary history.
Micro-organisms were certainly present before 3.0 billion years ago but they were not
likely capable of producing O
2
by photosynthesis. Up until very recently however, it
has been unclear if any oxygenation events occurred prior to the Great Oxidation Event
and the argument for an evolutionary capability of photosynthesis has largely been
based on the first signs of an oxygen build-up in the atmosphere and oceans.
"It is the rare examples from the rock record that provide glimpses of how rocks
weathered," added Professor Crowley. "The chemical changes which occur during this
weathering tell us something about the composition of the atmosphere at that time.
Very few of these 'paleosols' have been documented from a period of Earth's history
prior to 2.5 billion years ago. The one we worked on is at least 3.02 billion years old,
and it shows chemical evidence that weathering took place in an atmosphere with
elevated O
2
levels."
There was virtually no atmospheric O
2
present 3.4 billion years ago, but recent work
from South African paleosols suggested that by about 2.96 billion years ago O
2
levels
may have begun to increase. Professor Crowley's finding therefore moves the
goalposts back at least 60 million years, which, given humans have only been on the
planet for around a tenth of that time, is not an insignificant drop in the evolutionary
ocean.
Professor Crowley concluded: "Our research gives further credence to the notion of
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MLA APA Chicago
Trinity College Dublin. "Life forms appeared at least 60 million years earlier than
previously thought." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 September 2014.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140904121245.htm>.
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early and short-lived atmospheric oxygenation.
This particular example is the oldest known example of oxidative weathering from a
terrestrial environment, occurring about 600 million years before the Great Oxidation
Event that laid the foundations for the evolution of complex life."
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Trinity College Dublin. Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
1. J. Mukhopadhyay, Q. G. Crowley, S. Ghosh, G. Ghosh, K. Chakrabarti, B. Misra,
K. Heron, S. Bose. Oxygenation of the Archean atmosphere: New paleosol
constraints from eastern India. Geology, 2014; DOI: 10.1130/G36091.1
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