Tectonics And Sea Level Rise May Have Jump Started The Cambrian Era b4in.org/eAtT In devising his theories about evolution, Darwin theorized that species evolved on Earth slowly over millions of years. However, the fossil record doesn’t agree with the slow-and-steady model as a massive explosion of species took place 530 million years ago during the Cambrian era. Now, a researcher from the University of Texas at Austin has found that a massive tectonic event may have brought on a rise in sea level and other ecological transformations that came with the recognizable burst of life and diversity, according to a study published in the journal Geology. Seen in the fossil record, the surge of evolution in the Cambrian would lead to the emergence of nearly all modern animals. “At the boundary between the Precambrian and Cambrian periods, something big happened tectonically that triggered the spreading of shallow ocean water across the continents, which is clearly tied in time and space to the sudden explosion of multicellular, hard-shelled life on the planet,” said study author Ian Dalziel, a geophysics professor at the university. More b4in.org/eAtT
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 23:33:22 +0000
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