Recent findings by Johns Hopkins University reveal that prehistoric worms played a crucial role in boosting oxygen levels through sediment mixing, thereby contributing significantly to the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event and the explosion of new species approximately 480 million years ago.
Prehistoric worms’ burrowing activities on ocean floors released oxygen, fostering the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, according a new study.
One of Earth’s most consequential bursts of biodiversity—a 30-million-year period of explosive evolutionary changes spawning innumerable new DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2024.04.018
The study was funded by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund.