New Oxygen research; from rocks, higher earlier (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, August 26, 2016, 15:27 (2800 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: The team's study identifies, for the first time, exactly how much oxygen was in Earth's atmosphere 813 million years ago -- 10.9 percent. This finding, they say, demonstrates that oxygenation on Earth occurred 300 million years earlier than previously concluded from indirect measurements.
> "'Diversity of life emerges right around this time period," Benison said. "We used to think that to have diversity of life we needed specific things, including a certain amount of oxygen. (The findings) show that not as much oxygen is required for organisms to develop." (David's bold)
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> dhw: This is all very confusing, but perhaps you can sort it out. If diversity of life emerged “around this time period”, it was 300 million years before the Cambrian. I thought the Cambrian was when diversity of life emerged. The passage in bold means nothing more than the claim that these researchers are lowering the amount of oxygen they think is necessary for the development of organisms.-The Cambrian is where diversity began, not before. The issue is why not? 300 million years of no diversity suggests increased oxygen was not the necessary driving force for the Cambrian.-> 
> DAVID's comment: That amount of oxygen is half the level existing now, and folks at high altitude easily live at oxygen pressures equal to that amount. Note the bolded comment that high oxygen levels are perhaps not needed for diversity in life forms. That removes from consideration that the Cambrian explosion almost 300 million years later was triggered by oxygen. The Cambrian origin story remains as mysterious as ever for materialists to consider. Perhaps God dabbled!
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> dhw: How high are high oxygen levels? Was there or was there not an increase in oxygen levels at the time of the Cambrian? The article only tells us what levels there were 300 million years before.-It is my impression that this new early oxygen level discovery removes most of the previously presumed oxygen rise in the immediate pre-Cambrian period. Thus the question arises as to why the Cambrian diversity explosion waited so long!