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There are about 540 to 520 million years ago, what many scientists consider to be the first real animals began to emerge in the oceans of the Earth. This took place during a rapid increase in biodiversity called Cambrian Explosion.
Among those that evolved were tiny burrowing life forms that broke and recycled organic matter onto the seabed, a process called bioturbation
. the burrowing animals were so great that they actually changed the biogeochemistry of the oceans and the atmosphere, leading to global warming that prevailed for the next 100 million years. This is according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications .
Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline involving the study of the chemical, physical, geological and biological processes that govern the natural environment.
study, an international team of researchers led by Sebastiaan van de Velde from Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, constructed a mathematical model of the early biogeochemistry of the Earth to examine changes that may have been caused by early animals of the planet.
"We were surprised by what we saw," said Benjamin Mills, an author at the University of Leeds, in a statement
: "The evolution of these small animals has actually reduces oxygen in the ocean. and the atmosphere, but has also increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to the point that it has caused global warming, "he said. "We knew that the warming was happening at this point in the Earth's history but did not realize that it could be driven by animals."
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the researchers, the warming process may have created adverse conditions for the first animals and led to a series of deaths. massive extinctions.
Tim Lenton, another author of the Exeter University study, noted that there is an interesting parallel between the "We create a warmer world with l & # 39; 39, expansion of the anoxia of the oceans [oxygen deficiency] which is bad for us and many other creatures with whom we share the planet, He said:
Before the Cambrian explosion, A wonderful variety of complex life forms had already evolved during a period known as Ediacaran, but it was difficult to determine where these organisms fit into the tree. Ediacarous organisms do not appear to have mouths or organs, and it is not thought that they have been able to move, rather absorbing nutrients from the water that surrounds them. Most of the great examples are very distinct from later forms of life.
Moreover, it is unclear how the Ediacaran life forms relate to modern animals because they have largely disappeared with the Cambrian explosion.
Macroorganisms-organisms that be seen at the naked eye-of Ediacaran seem to have been completely replaced by those that evolved during the explosion. And most of the body plans of existing animals come from creatures first appearing in the Cambrian fossil record.
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