Oxygen, temperature and the deep-marine stenothermal cradle of Ediacaran evolution.

ABSTRACT: Ediacaran fossils document the early evolution of complex megascopic life, contemporaneous with geochemical evidence for widespread marine anoxia. These data suggest early animals experienced frequent hypoxia. Research has thus focused on the concentration of molecular oxygen (O₂) required by early animals, while also considering the impacts of climate. One model, the Cold Cradle hypothesis, proposed the Ediacaran biota originated in cold, shallow-water environments owing to increased O₂ solubility. First, we demonstrate using principles of gas exchange that temperature does have a critical role in governing the bioavailability of O₂-but in cooler water the supply of O₂ is actually lower. Second, the fossil record suggests the Ediacara biota init

SUBMITTER: Boag TH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6304043 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature