Mid-Devonian ocean oxygenation enabled the expansion of animals into deeper-water habitats.

ABSTRACT: The oxygenation history of Earth's surface environments has had a profound influence on the ecology and evolution of metazoan life. It was traditionally thought that the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event enabled the origin of animals in marine environments, followed by their persistence in aerobic marine habitats ever since. However, recent studies of redox proxies (e.g., Fe, Mo, Ce, I) have suggested that low dissolved oxygen levels persisted in the deep ocean until the Late Devonian, when the first heavily wooded ligniophyte forests raised atmospheric O₂ to modern levels. Here, we present a Paleozoic redox proxy record based on selenium enrichments and isotope ratios in fine-grained siliciclastic sediments. Our data reveal transient oxygenation of bottom waters around the Ediac

SUBMITTER: Bubphamanee K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12415217 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature