Nature Communications (Jul 2018)

Coupling of ocean redox and animal evolution during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition

  • Dan Wang,
  • Hong-Fei Ling,
  • Ulrich Struck,
  • Xiang-Kun Zhu,
  • Maoyan Zhu,
  • Tianchen He,
  • Ben Yang,
  • Antonia Gamper,
  • Graham A. Shields

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04980-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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The late Ediacaran to early Cambrian interval witnessed extraordinary radiations of metazoan life, in which the role of physical environment remains debated. Here, Wang et al. show that increased nutrient nitrogen availability may have exerted an important control on both macroevolution and ocean oxygenation.