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    Home > Food News > Food Articles > 600 million years ago on Earth, deep-sea animals had "oxygen-absorbing freedom" for the first time.

    600 million years ago on Earth, deep-sea animals had "oxygen-absorbing freedom" for the first time.

    • Last Update: 2021-02-10
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Between 635 and 538 million years ago, deep seawater may have begun to oxidize on a large scale, a critical turning point in the evolution of life on Earth, with a large number of complex multicellular organisms in the ocean, but past studies have concluded that the deep sea was still oxygen-deprived. Reporter 4 from China
    Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology was informed that the institute Wang Wei associate researcher and others of the latest research results, that the deep sea water may have begun large-scale oxidation, the results published online on January 27 in the internationally renowned journal Geology.
    oxygen is one of the important conditions for the survival and reproduction of complex multicellular organisms. In modern oceans, from shallow to deep water, there is enough oxygen to feed plants and animals, such as the Ariane Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, which is 11,000 metres deep, and animals such as fish have been identified at about 8,500 metres, but not in ancient oceans 500 million years ago. It is generally believed that after the appearance of the plant, the prototype of the modern sea of oxidation is fully formed, the previous marine environment is always oxidation - lack of oxygen between the back and forth.
    In recent years, scientists have found a large number of fossil biota consisting of complex multicellular life in the Edikara formation, such as the "Bluefield Biota", the "Yuan Biota", the "Temple River Biota" and the "Slate Beach Biota" in the Yangzi Platform in South China. The life activities of complex multicellular organisms, which consume a lot of oxygen, represent an increase in oxygen levels in the marine environment at the time, but contrary to past research.
    In-researcher Wang Wei of Nanjing Institute of Paleontology, assistant researcher Guan Chengguo and researcher Zhou Chuanming, in collaboration with colleagues from the
    Institute of Geology and Geophysics of China, used the in-place micro-region analysis method of sulfur isotopes in yellow iron ore, combined with ostrology and mineralogy analysis, to reveal that the capacity of sulfuric acid in the Edikara era ocean was higher than previously estimated, indicating that deep seawater may have begun to oxidize on a large scale.
    isotope method is one of the important means to restore the ancient marine environment. The restoration of ancient marine environment in geological history is mostly by geochemical means, and sulfur isotopes are one of the most commonly used geochemical indicators. Under the condition that the oxygen content of the atmosphere is generally low, the land source sulfate ion is an important oxidant of the ocean, which plays a key role in the oxidation of the deep water area of the ancient ocean.
    the concentration of sulfuric acid in ancient oceans during the geological history period can not be measured directly, and their concentration levels are generally indicated by the degree of sulfur isotope fractionation in ancient oceans. Wang Wei believes that the application of traditional sulfur isotope methods in the past has taken full rock analysis methods, lack of systematic rock and mineralogy analysis, and has not fully considered the complexity of sedimentary sulphides (e.g. yellow iron ore) formation process and its later rock formation. Early methods may have caused isotope signals in the extracted ancient seawater to overlay signals from other media (e.g., pore water, late-rock groundwater bodies), which biased our understanding of the redox state of marine bodies at that time.
    researchers studied fresh bluefield core samples, carefully sliced rock specimens, carefully observed the morphological characteristics of yellow iron ore under an optical microscope, and found that yellow iron ore has different morphological characteristics. They also used scanning electroscopes to observe the morphology of yellow iron ore at the micron scale, and used SIMS mass spectrometrometography to dot the composition of the isotopes in the original micro-region of yellow iron ore.
    Based on the experimental data, the team used mathematical models to initially estimate the underestimation of the sulfate concentration in the ocean at that time, and concluded that the sulfate concentration in the deep water area of the Edikara era should be seriously underestimated, and that the capacity of the sulfuric acid reservoir in the ocean may have been sufficient to meet the oxidation of deep seawater, suggesting that the ancient ocean deep water may have begun large-scale oxidation after the "snowball Earth event", thus providing a guarantee for the development of complex multicellular life.
    this study, from a new perspective, overturns previous studies on the deepwater oxidation capabilities of the Edikara ancient ocean, which concluded that large-scale oxidation had occurred in the deep waters of ancient seawater 600 million years ago, providing a strong guarantee for the emergence of complex life in deep water. It also answers at some level why "bluefield biota" have emerged in 600 million years of deep ocean water. At the same time, this study points out that the total rock sulfur isotope index has some limitations in the reconstruction of the ancient environment, and provides a corresponding solution.
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