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Published Online December 7, 2006
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1135013

Reports

Submitted on September 12, 2006
Accepted on October 27, 2006

Late-Neoproterozoic Deep-Ocean Oxygenation and the Rise of Animal Life

Don E. Canfield 1*, Simon W. Poulton 2, Guy M. Narbonne 3

1 Nordic Center for Earth Evolution (NordCEE) and Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M, Denmark.
2 School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, Drummond Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK.
3 Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Don E. Canfield , E-mail: dec{at}biology.sdu.dk

Animals have an absolute requirement for oxygen, and an increase in late Neoproterozoic oxygen concentrations has been forwarded as a stimulus for their evolution. The iron content of deep-sea sediments show that the deep ocean was anoxic and ferruginous before and during the Gaskiers glaciation 580 million years ago, becoming oxic afterward. The first known members of the Ediacara biota are found shortly after the Gaskiers glaciation, suggesting a causal link between their evolution and this oxygenation event. A prolonged stable oxic environment may have permitted the emergence of bilateral motile animals some 25 million years later.


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