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> an event that is inevitable, but requires many prerequisites, and so takes a billion years? In support of this idea, the Cambrian explosion of large (large r
by sampo 6y ago
> an event that is inevitable, but requires many prerequisites, and so takes a billion years?
In support of this idea, the Cambrian explosion of large (large relative to microbial life) multicellular organisms happened immediately after the 2 billion years of work by blue-green algae had produced enough oxygen into the atmosphere to make larger organisms possible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101217145647.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101217145647.h...
- sideshowb 6y agoI guess it all depends on how you balance occam's razor against abusing the anthropic principle.
- AgentME 6y agoThe article mentions that multicellular life is something that's known to have separately evolved at least 40 times, so it's probably not a useful evolutionary step to compare to ones that only happened once.
- arp242 6y agoWhile it made complex life possible, at the same time the introduction of oxygen also killed a lot of lifeforms and was a mass extinction. It's not inconceivable that with slightly different circumstances it could have just have wiped out all life. The development of (complex) life seems like a really fine balance.