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Stanford researchers unearth why deep oceans gave life to the first big, complex organisms

(header photo credit: Peter Trusler)

Scientists have long questioned why deep sea complex organisms appeared when and where they did: in the deep ocean, where light and food are scarce, in a time when oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere was in particularly short supply. A new study led by Tom Boag, doctoral candidate in geological sciences at Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth), published December 12 in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that the more stable temperatures of the ocean’s depths allowed the burgeoning life forms to make the best use of limited oxygen supplies.

Read Stanford News story here >

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