Iron and Ice: How life survived Snowball Earth
Around 700 million years ago, our planet experienced an extreme ice age known as Snowball Earth. Fossil record suggest that early life forms had begun to evolve before it began, but
how did they survive?
These early life forms including eukaryotes – organisms with advanced cell structures – and possibly early primitive animals like sponges needed oxygen-rich marine habitats to survive.
But during the Snowball Earth, the oceans are thought to have been anoxic, or oxygen-poor,
as the global ice cover sealed off the oceans from sunlight and the atmosphere.
Around 700 million years ago, our planet experienced an extreme ice age known as Snowball Earth. Fossil record suggest that early life forms had begun to evolve before it began, but
how did they survive?
These early life forms including eukaryotes – organisms with advanced cell structures – and possibly early primitive animals like sponges needed oxygen-rich marine habitats to survive.
But during the Snowball Earth, the oceans are thought to have been anoxic, or oxygen-poor,
as the global ice cover sealed off the oceans from sunlight and the atmosphere.
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