Once, there were giants. Mountain ranges that rivaled the Himalayas in height used to stretch thousands upon thousands of kilometers across the seams of merging supercontinents, billions of years in the past.
It's an intriguing hypothesis, but one that needs more concrete evidence. Exactly what precipitated the rapid appearance of new biological characteristics half a billion years ago, and whetherThe fact that a second set of supermountains was ground into dust on Nuna just as complex life was evolving shows the idea is worth exploring further."It shows these two huge spikes: one is linked to the emergence of animals and the other to the emergence of complex big cells.
Tellingly, there are no supermountains emerging on any merging continents in the hundreds of millions of years interceding the two spikes. Whether coincidence or something more profound, this same break in supermountain formation period between 1.8 billion to 800 million years ago coincides with a 'boring' stretch of time whereA lot of work needs to be done to establish stronger links between the reduction of last stretches of mountain to sediment, changes in oxygen levels and other life-building materials, and the diversification of life.
But if it pans out, complex life – including we humans – just might owe a debt of gratitude to Earth's long-lost giants.
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