When was oxygen abundant on earth

These microbes conduct photosynthesis : using sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates and, yes, oxygen. In fact, all the plants on Earth incorporate symbiotic cyanobacteria known as chloroplasts to do their photosynthesis for them down to this day. For some untold eons prior to the evolution of these cyanobacteria, during the Archean eon, more primitive microbes lived the real old-fashioned way: anaerobically.

These ancient organisms—and their " extremophile " descendants today—thrived in the absence of oxygen, relying on sulfate for their energy needs. But roughly 2. At roughly the same time and for eons thereafter , oxidized iron began to appear in ancient soils and bands of iron were deposited on the seafloor, a product of reactions with oxygen in the seawater.

It took up residence in atmosphere around 2. What occurred 2. The evolution of the marine phosphate reservoir. Swanson-Hysell, N. Cryogenian glaciation and the onset of carbon-isotope decoupling. Erwin, D. The Cambrian conundrum: early divergence and later ecological success in the early history of animals.

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Correspondence to Timothy W. Reprints and Permissions. Download citation. Received : 11 April Accepted : 21 January Published : 19 February Issue Date : 20 February Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:.

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Advanced search. Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature. Subjects Palaeoclimate. The presence of unoxidised sulphide metal-sulphur minerals and uraninite UO 2 grains in sediments is taken as evidence for low levels or absence of oxygen. Studies of sulphur isotope relations allow researchers to make inferences about whether there was an ozone layer in the early atmosphere. According to Kopp et al , about 2. This suggests oxygenic cyanobacteria evolved and radiated shortly before that time.

It has been suggested the earliest cyanobacteria evolved around 2. However, the recent paper by Crowe et al suggests an even earlier rise of oxygen. This inference is based on oxidation weathering detected by the researchers when they looked at the 2. The researchers noted the distribution of chromium isotopes and redox-sensitive metals in these soils.

Chromium isotopes are sensitive to reactions involving oxygen, with the heavier isotope being slightly more soluble when oxidised than the lighter one. The extra oxygen was in part converted in the atmosphere into ozone O 3 , which filters damaging solar ultraviolet radiation, allowing new microbial species to emerge.

When late Proterozoic oceans became enriched with oxygen, it allowed protein chains to develop. This meant Ediacara fauna — the earliest known multicellular organisms — could emerge in the oxygenated oceans.

Here's another video where our favourite chemists demonstrate oxygen's reactive properties: basically, they blow up stuff. Even though we haven't learned about chlorine yet, this NASA video discussing ozone is still interesting:.

Oxygen is a highly reactive gas at room temperature and is essential to life.