London : It took 100 million years for oxygen in the oceans and atmosphere to increase to the level that allowed the explosion of animal life on the Earth about 600 million years ago, according to new research, reports IANS.
It is, therefore, likely that early animal evolution was kick-started by increased amounts of oxygen, rather than a change in animal behaviour leading to oxygenation. “We wanted to find out how the evolution of life links to the evolution of our climate,” said lead researcher Philip Pogge von Strandmann from the University College London (UCL).
Researchers tracked what was happening with oxygen levels globally 770-520 million years ago using new tracers in rocks across the US, Canada and China.