Elevated Oxygen and the Rise of Animals

Through geochemical and paleontological studies, researchers have drawn correlations between elevated oxygen concentrations on the ancient Earth and the rise of animal life. The study focused on the Ediacara biota, the earliest known animals on Earth. Researchers examined examples of Ediacara biota in the fossil record and documented morphological and ecological novelties that are tied to oxygen demand.

The results suggest that rising oxygen levels on the planet provided conditions that may have led to the evolution of more complex life and ecologies on Earth. Toward the end of the Ediacaran period, there appears to have been a dieing off of organisms that required high levels of oxygen. This also corresponds to a drop in oxygen concentrations, and further supports the idea that oxygen was an important control in the evolution of early animal life on Earth.

The study, “Dynamic oxygen and coupled biological and ecological innovation during the second wave of the Ediacara Biota,” was published in the journal Emerging Topics in Life Sciences. The work was supported by NASA Astrobiology through the Exobiology Program.