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Palaeobiology

Sea change in sediments

Earth's oxygen levels increased slowly over a long and ill-defined transitional period around two billion years ago. A microbial ‘footprint’ from this era provides biological evidence to complement existing geological data.

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Figure 1: Life on Earth through the ages.

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Marais, D. Sea change in sediments. Nature 437, 826–827 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/437826b

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