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Late-Neoproterozoic deep-ocean oxygenation and the rise of animal life

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Simon Poulton

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Abstract

Because animals require oxygen, an increase in late-Neoproterozoic oxygen concentrations has been suggested as a stimulus for their evolution. The iron content of deep-sea sediments shows that the deep ocean was anoxic and ferruginous before and during the Gaskiers glaciation 580 million years ago and that it became oxic afterward. The first known members of the Ediacara biota arose shortly after the Gaskiers glaciation, suggesting a causal link between their evolution and this oxygenation event. A prolonged stable oxic environment may have permitted the emergence of bilateral motile animals some 25 million years later.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Canfield DE, Poulton SW, Narbonne GM

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Science

Year: 2007

Volume: 315

Issue: 5808

Pages: 92-95

ISSN (print): 0036-8075

ISSN (electronic): 1095-9203

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1135013

DOI: 10.1126/science.1135013

PubMed id: 17158290

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