00:00As far as we know at this point, Earth is pretty unique, especially with regards to
00:07not only supporting life, but having it flourish.
00:10However, despite many experts saying that a proliferation of oxygen caused the Cambrian
00:14explosion or the relatively sudden diversification of life on our planet, new evidence suggests
00:19that just a little bit of O2 actually went a long way.
00:22The researchers say it was more of a slow dissolving of oxygen into shallow basins and
00:26oceanic shelves that kicked off the explosion of life.
00:30With geobiologist and one of the study's authors, Eric Sperling, saying about it, that Cambrian
00:34animals likely did not require as much oxygen as scientists used to believe.
00:39Instead, he and his team found minor increases in oxygenation, which were discovered trapped
00:44in time in sedimentary rock.
00:46According to their study, it was enough oxygen to drive major ecological changes at the time,
00:51simply because those creatures were used to having less of it.
00:53Of course, this was the catalyst for all of the species we see today.
00:57With the study's lead researcher, Richard Stokke, saying about the Cambrian explosion's
01:01timeline, from a global perspective, we didn't see the full oxygenation of the oceans to
01:05near modern levels until around 400 million years ago, around the time that we see the
01:09appearance of large forests on land.
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