As Darwin noted long ago, animals evolve into their environment. In this Villum Investigator Project, wewish to unravel relationships between the early evolution of animal life and the chemical evolution of theEarth’s ancient environment. The availability of oxygen for animals would have been critically important,and in this project we will develop tools to reconstruct levels of oxygen in the ancient atmosphere andoceans. To put these reconstructions in the proper context, we will also explore the physiologicalrequirements of ancient animals and animal ancestors. Finally, early animal evolution will be placed in anecological context by developing ocean models to predict the distribution of oxygen, nutrients andbiological activity in the ancient oceans. This work should illuminate key processes governing the history ofanimal evolution on Earth, a fundamental part of our history as humans.
Provider: Villum Foundation
Total amount of grant: 37.861.450
Period: 1/7 17 – 30/6 23