AUSTIN, Texas — A trove of exceptionally preserved Jurassic marine fossils discovered in Canada, rare for recording soft-bodied species that normally don’t fossilize, is expanding scientists’ view of the rich marine life of the period. (more…)
*Persistent lack of oxygen in Earth’s oceans affected animal evolution*
The oceans became oxygen-rich as they are today about 600 million years ago, during Earth’s Late Ediacaran Period. Before that, most scientists believed until recently, the ancient oceans were relatively oxygen-poor for the preceding four billion years.
Now biogeochemists at the University of California-Riverside (UCR) have found evidence that the oceans went back to being “anoxic,” or oxygen-poor, around 499 million years ago, soon after the first appearance of animals on the planet. (more…)
