Study Says 540-Million-Year-Old Feces Helped Fuel Cambrian Explosion
Updated
Updated · Ars Technica · Aug 12
Study Says 540-Million-Year-Old Feces Helped Fuel Cambrian Explosion
3 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Aug 12
Summary
A new study argues the Cambrian explosion was boosted when early animals evolved digestive tracts and began producing fecal pellets that carried nutrients into deeper seas.
Julien Kimming and Russell Bicknell compiled fossil digestive systems and Cambrian coprolites, then compared them with simulations and geological evidence for ocean chemistry about 540 million years ago.
Their conclusion is that this early “biological pump” moved carbon, iron, nitrogen and phosphorus downward, making deeper waters more habitable and supporting larger animals and more varied ecosystems.
The idea links a major evolutionary leap to a simple physiological innovation in animals that first appeared roughly 600 million years ago, before diversification accelerated about 60 million years later.