| Prehistoric Scratchpad PhBP Po10BP |
The most severe Snowball Earth period, sometimes called "The Snowball Earth". Oxygenation occurred after this glaciation due to melting glaciers halted a decline in oxygen levels and started an increase.
Marinoan Glaciation Web Pages[]
Classification[]
- Neoproterozoic Era (1000-540 MYA) - Era from which we have the first multicellular fossils.
- Ediacaran Period (635–541 MYA) - A period of the beginnings of complex multicellular life that coincided with a slow 1% to 10% modern level 100 MY rise in Oxygen levels. Followed the Sturtian Glaciation and saw increase in Oxygen contents due to Sturtian glaciers melting and adding nutrients to the sea floor. Oxygen went from 1% to present day (enough to support small sponge-like creatures) to 10% in 100 Million Years (shortly into Cambrian). A relatively mild glaciation interrupts this period, after which oxygen levels rose again, and strange pizza-shaped creatures lived on the seafloor.
- Cryogenian Period (720–635 MYA) - A period dominated by the greatest Ice Ball Earth glaciations, with a respite between.
- Event: Marinoan Glaciation (650-635 MYA) - The most severe Snowball Earth period, sometimes called "The Snowball Earth". Oxygenation occurred after this glaciation due to melting glaciers halted a decline in oxygen levels and started an increase.
- Event: Sturtian Glaciation (720-660 MYA) - The longest lasting Snowball Earth period.
- Tonian Period (1000–720 MYA) - A period that saw the end of the "Boring Billion" and the continued evolution of simple life. Eukaryote predation may have driven its diversification.