Comments on: Did a “Nickel Famine” Allow Life As We Know It to Take Over?

By: YouRang

YouRang — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:36:44 +0000

Having a methane atmosphere must have been a bonus. The methane would have retained enough heat to compensate for the lack of a warm sun (Global Warming circa 3 billion BC). It would seem that something else must have happened to compensate for the cooling effect of the loss of methane (and CO2 also)–Maybe a geologic distribution of the continents more consistent with warm ocean currents–an early Pangea.

By: amphiox

amphiox — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:21:39 +0000

Interesting speculation Nick. But would a methane atmosphere be likely to provide the same amount of energy as an oxygen one? It was the amount of available energy that really made multicellular life possible, rather than any specific pathway, but as far as I know, and it was the ease with which molecular oxygen allowed for efficient oxidative metabolism that allowed for this. Would a methane atmosphere without readily available sources of oxygen have allowed for anything comparably similar? I’m not sure if the laws of chemistry actually allow for that.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:22:14 +0000

I suspect that if things had gone the other way there’d be methane-breathing life forms speculating that if things hadn’t gone their way life wouldn’t exist in all the wonderful forms it did for them. :)

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:08:10 +0000

I agree to that, this truly helps to write a lost page in the history of early earth. perhaps one day we’ll know how the two diverse groups of bacteria came to be, and who came first.

By: zach

zach — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:18:28 +0000

Any insight into biological history is fascinating, this is a true revelation.