Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The temperature of a planet is linked with the diversity of life that it can support. MIT geologists have now reconstructed a timeline of the Earth’s temperature during the early Paleozoic era, between 510 and 440 million years ago – a pivotal period when animals became abundant in a previously microbe-dominated world.
In a study appearing today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers chart dips and peaks in the global temperature during the early Paleozoic. They report that these temperature variations coincide with the planet’s changing diversity of life: Warmer climates favored microbial life, whereas cooler temperatures allowed more diverse animals to flourish.