Friday, December 17, 2010

Rise in Oxygen Drove Evolution of Animal Life 550 Million Years Ago

[ScienceDaily]   Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) at the University of Oxford have uncovered a clue that may help to explain why the earliest evidence of complex multicellular animal life appears around 550 million years ago, when atmospheric oxygen levels on the planet rose sharply from 3% to their modern day level of 21%.  More...