By Mindy
Weisberger, Senior Writer | July 2, 2018 01:54pm ET
Ancient marine creatures stirred things up in
Earth's atmosphere hundreds of millions of years ago, by burrowing in the ocean
bottom.
What do humans have in common with the first
animals that appeared on Earth? We're both responsible for global warming
events (though, human-driven climate change is unfolding — and accelerating —
over decades, rather than over millions of years).
About 520 million to 540 million years ago, life
began booming in Earth's oceans, with diverse marine creatures digging busily
in seafloor sediments and munching up organic matter. But as they did so, they
were unwittingly sowing the seeds of a global climate crisis, according to a
new study.
Little did these early animals know, but over the
next 100 million years their burrowing habits would drive a major buildup of
the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in the planet's atmosphere.
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