Life on our planet faced a stern test during the Cryogenian Period that lasted from 720 million to 635 million years ago when Earth twice was frozen over with runaway glaciation and looked from space like a shimmering white snowball.
An illustration shows Earth during the Marinoan Ice Age, 651 to 635 million years ago, when ice sheets covered most of the planet's surface. A new study suggests the presence of open waters in both low- and mid-latitude oceans rather than a planet completely frozen over. Huyue Song/ Handout via REUTERS
Fossils identified as seaweed unearthed in black shale in central China's Hubei Province indicate that habitable marine environments were more widespread at the time than previously known, scientists said on Tuesday. The findings support the idea that it was more of a "Slushball Earth" where the earliest forms of complex life—basic multicellular organisms—endured even at mid-latitudes previously thought to have been frozen solid.
"Our study shows that, at least near the end of the Marinoan 'Snowball Earth' event, habitable areas extended to mid-latitude oceans, much larger than previously thought. Previous research argued that such habitable areas, at best, only existed in tropical oceans. More extensive areas of habitable oceans better explain where and how complex organisms such as multicellular seaweed survived," Song added.
Scientists are trying to better understand the onset of "Snowball Earth." They believe a greatly reduced amount of the sun's warmth reached the planet's surface as solar radiation bounced off the white ice sheets. "The fossils were preserved as compressed sheets of organic carbon," China University of Geosciences paleontologist and study co-author Qin Ye said.
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