Ancient microbes were using oxygen 500 million years before it filled our atmosphere
Evidence suggests that early life forms evolved the ability to consume oxygen nearly 3.1 billion years ago, long before the Great Oxidation Event permanently transformed Earth’s atmosphere.
Recent geochemical analysis of ancient soil suggests that primitive bacteria were utilizing oxygen hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought. Researchers identified signs of chemical weathering in South African rock samples dating back 3.1 billion years. This indicates that tiny pockets of oxygen existed in the shallow oceans well before the gas became a major atmospheric component.
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