Sudden explosion: Aussie researchers discover how first animals appeared on earth
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In a statement, Associate Professor Jochen Brocks from the Australian National University (ANU) said his team "crushed" ancient sedimentary rocks into a fine powder in order to closely analyze their contents.
Brocks said that the researchers were able to backdate traces of organisms as far back as 650 million years ago.
"We crushed these rocks to powder and extracted molecules of ancient organisms from them," Brocks said.
"These molecules tell us that it really became interesting 650 million years ago. It was a revolution of ecosystems, it was the rise of algae."
He said the timeline shows that the algal bloom formed after a 50 million year-long ice age; glaciers and ice formations "ground entire mountain ranges to powder" in a development which released nutrients into oceans. ■