Ancient feces may have sparked the Cambrian explosion of life
A new study argues that a surge in animal waste 540 million years ago helped fuel the rapid diversification of early marine life.
An international team examined coprolite samples from 35 global locations and observed a marked shift in size, shape, and composition at the onset of the Cambrian period. The authors contend that this transformation, driven by more complex digestive tracts in early arthropods, resulted in richer waste that returned organic matter to the seas. Such nutrient feedback may have amplified the growth of marine food webs during the Cambrian explosion.
Russell Bicknell, an evolutionary ecologist at Flinders University, notes that similar processes operate today, from deep-sea detritus to dung-based fertilizers on farms. The findings were published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
Why it matters
Understanding ancient nutrient cycles could reshape theories about how complex life first flourished on Earth.
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