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Store and share ancient rocks

Geological samples must be archived for all if we are to solve the riddles of Earth’s complex history.
  1. Noah Planavsky

    1. Noah Planavsky is an associate professor in geochemistry at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, and assistant curator of mineralogy and meteoritics at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

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  2. Ashleigh Hood

    1. Ashleigh Hood is a lecturer in sedimentology at the University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.

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  3. Lidya Tarhan

    1. Lidya Tarhan is an assistant professor in palaeontology and sedimentology at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

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  4. Shuzhong Shen

    1. Shuzhong Shen is a professor in palaeontology and stratigraphy at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.

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  5. Kirk Johnson

    1. Kirk Johnson is the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA.

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A collection of fossil samples stored in draws

A staff member views the fossil collection at La Brea Tar Pits museum in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Ted Soqui/Corbis/Getty

Geologists think they know the basics of Earth’s history. Liquid water has flowed on the planet for 4 billion years1. Tiny amounts of oxygen first gathered in the atmosphere about 2.3 billion years ago2. And the planet went through many periods of climatic upheaval, from freezing completely 700 million years ago3 to warming so rapidly about 250 million years ago that more than 80% of marine species were lost4,5. It has had many more ups and downs.

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Nature 581, 137-139 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01366-w

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