A discovery by a South Korean research team suggests that impact-generated lakes may have fostered early oxygen-producing life.
Sulfur is a redox active element that may have helped mediate an electron flow that kickstarted life and which presently is an essential element for all life on Earth. Despite […]
![[LEFT] Occurrence of bd-type oxygen reductase in a dated tree of life. Branches in the dated tree of life obtained from Mahendrarajah et al. [81] are colored according to the presence (turquoise) or absence (gray) of bd-type oxygen reductase. Eukaryotes were not included in the analysis and are therefore colored in higher gray tones, as are taxa that were not present in the comparative dataset. Dark blue dots at nodes represent possible origins of bd-type oxygen reductase. Purple bars represent the percentage of strains within the taxa that have reductases. [RIGHT] Occurrence of HCO oxygen reductase in a dated tree of life. Branches in the dated tree of life obtained from Mahendrarajah et al. [81] are colored according to the presence (yellow) or absence (gray) of HCO oxygen reductase. Eukaryotes were not included in the analysis and are therefore colored in higher gray tones, as are taxa that were not present in the comparative dataset. Brown dots at nodes represent possible origins of HCO oxygen reductase. Purple bars represent the percentage of strains within the taxa that have reductases. -- Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Oxygen-Reductase-Origin-Followed.png?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
The history of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen is a cornerstone of evolutionary biology. While unequivocal evidence for an increase in atmospheric O2 marks the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) roughly 2.4 billion […]
Age estimates for the emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis derived from molecular clock analyses reach back to the Archean, substantially predating geochemical evidence of persistent, irreversible atmospheric oxygenation following the Great […]
The most widely accepted scientific explanation for the arrival of all complex life on Earth has had an unsolved mystery at its heart. According to the theory, all plants, animals […]
The Great Oxidation Event (GOE), which marked the transition from an anoxic to an oxygenated atmosphere, occurred 2.4 billion years ago on Earth, several hundreds of millions of years after […]
The transition from anaerobic to aerobic life was a pivotal adaptation in Earth’s history, yet the timing and genomic drivers remain poorly resolved.
By resurrecting a 3.2-billion-year-old enzyme and studying it inside living microbes, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have created a new way to improve our understanding of the origins of […]
The rise of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere during the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) occurred about 2.3 billion years ago. There is considerably greater uncertainty for the origin of oxygenic […]
The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) was a 200 Myr transition circa 2.4 billion years ago that converted the Earth’s anoxic atmosphere to one where molecular oxygen (O2) was abundant (volume […]
