Increase of Atmospheric Oxygen Preceded Cambrian Explosion
TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
Biological and geochemical causes of an increase in atmospheric oxygen before the Cambrian explosion reveal fine-tuning in Earth’s biosphere. The larger complex mammals that arrived suddenly ~550 million years ago (during the Cambrian explosion) required an increase in atmospheric oxygen (which occurred around 600 million years ago) to survive. A team of scientists has provided evidence that a more abundant and diverse land-based biosphere fundamentally changed the weathering cycle of continental land masses. Consequently, an increase in clays provided more efficient burial of carbon, which otherwise reacts with oxygen. So, the production of these clays caused an increase in atmospheric oxygen immediately preceding the advent of larger complex mammals. Such sequencing corroborates RTB’s creation model, wherein a supernatural Creator timed the geological, biological, and astronomical processes precisely to prepare Earth for advanced life, particularly human life.
- Martin Kennedy et al., “Late Precambrian Oxygenation; Inception of the Clay Mineral Factory,” Science 311 (2006): 1446-49.
- https://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/311/5766/1446
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