Ancient Earth May Have Smelled Like Rotten Eggs
11:34 minutes
Reporting in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers write about finding fossils of bacteria-like organisms that lived nearly two billion years ago. Paleobiologist Martin Brasier of the University of Oxford explains that these ancient creatures belched hydrogen sulfide—the stench of rotten eggs—after meals, suggesting that the early Earth may have been a smelly place.
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Martin Brasier
Martin Brasier is a paleobiology professor at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England.
Related Links
- DAILY MAIL: Researchers recreate the whiff of Earth 1.9 BILLION years ago – and find it smelt of rotten eggs
- NATIONAL POST: Scientists in Australia, Norway, U.K. join forces, discover ancient Ontario smelled like eggs
- PNAS: Nanoscale analysis of pyritized microfossils reveals differential heterotrophic consumption in the ∼1.9-Ga Gunflint cher
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About Christopher Intagliata
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