Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL about the "The Boring Billion", a time period from 1.8 to 0.8 billion years ago characterized by more or less tectonic stability, climatic stasis, and stalled biological evolution. (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 1 year ago by garfaagel to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago

Most things were using sulfur for photosynthesis and not CO2 and O2. Then tectonic events happened that caused O2 production to rise. Suddenly we had an oxidizing atmosphere that killed 80 percent of the diversity of life on earth while also changing the climate.