>>The findings fit in nicely with the story told by the current Snowball Earth hypothesis. So far, it’s believed that the beginning of plate tectonics over 700 million years ago had understandably catastrophic consequences on the planet, as the cracking crust led to an increase in seismic and volcanic activity. That in turn created a global glaciation event.

After 50 million years or so, it’s thought that the melting snow and ice washed huge amounts of nutrients into the oceans. That in turn would have given the early lifeforms like planktonic algae a decent leg up – some scientists call this period the “rise of the algae.” Over the next 15 million years or so, some of this plankton turned predatory, paving the way for a complex food web that eventually gave rise to us.<<

https://newatlas.com/fossil-fats-snowball-earth/58292/

PermeateFree said:

>>The findings fit in nicely with the story told by the current Snowball Earth hypothesis. So far, it’s believed that the beginning of plate tectonics over 700 million years ago had understandably catastrophic consequences on the planet, as the cracking crust led to an increase in seismic and volcanic activity. That in turn created a global glaciation event.

After 50 million years or so, it’s thought that the melting snow and ice washed huge amounts of nutrients into the oceans. That in turn would have given the early lifeforms like planktonic algae a decent leg up – some scientists call this period the “rise of the algae.” Over the next 15 million years or so, some of this plankton turned predatory, paving the way for a complex food web that eventually gave rise to us.<<

https://newatlas.com/fossil-fats-snowball-earth/58292/

Interesting article, ta.

call this period the “rise of the algae

oooow, I like a bit of macro algae. ulva intestinalis is my favourite.

But their probably talking micro, & cyano n stuff.

In anycase, give me some ulva anyday

PermeateFree said:

>>The findings fit in nicely with the story told by the current Snowball Earth hypothesis. So far, it’s believed that the beginning of plate tectonics over 700 million years ago had understandably catastrophic consequences on the planet, as the cracking crust led to an increase in seismic and volcanic activity. That in turn created a global glaciation event.

After 50 million years or so, it’s thought that the melting snow and ice washed huge amounts of nutrients into the oceans. That in turn would have given the early lifeforms like planktonic algae a decent leg up – some scientists call this period the “rise of the algae.” Over the next 15 million years or so, some of this plankton turned predatory, paving the way for a complex food web that eventually gave rise to us.<<

https://newatlas.com/fossil-fats-snowball-earth/58292/

A lot in this. I’ll have to look into this more, later. Good article.

To put this in historical context, Snowball Earth was “sometime earlier than 650 million years ago”. By comparison, the Ediacaran started 640 million years ago. This new biomarker, 25,28-bisnorgammacerane (BNG) is a type of fat and was sampled from 635 million years ago.

That makes this study intensely interesting.