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.
Life somehow managed to survive during this time called ¡°Snowball Earth,¡± and a new study offers a deeper understanding as to why.
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 ¡ª basic multicellular organisms ¡ª endured even at mid-latitudes previously thought to have been frozen solid.
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