Oxygen fuels the fires of time

Variations in the Earth’s atmospheric oxygen levels are thought to be closely linked to the evolution of life, with strong feedbacks between uni- and multicellular life and oxygen. Over the past 400 million years, the level of oxygen has varied considerably from the 21% value we have today. Scientists have now revealed that the amount of charcoal preserved in ancient peat bogs, now coal, gives a measure of how much oxygen there was in the past.

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