The appearance of the recently discovered Nuna supermountain range, which extended for about 8,000 kilometers along an entire supercontinent, could have been, together with the emergence of the Trasngondwana mountain chain, decisive for the evolution of primitive life on Earth. more than 1.8 billion years ago, according to a recent study conducted by scientists at the Australian National University.
According to the experts, the appearance of the enormous mountain ranges coincides with two of the most important periods in the history of evolution. The first of these, the Nuna supermountain range, emerged during the formation of the Columbia supercontinent, between 2,000 and 1,800 million years ago, a period in which eukaryotes appeared, complex cellular organisms that gave rise to plants and animals.
For her part, Ziyi Zhu, co-author of the research, explains that the emergence of the second of these geological formations in Gondwana, the Transgondwana supermountain, between 650 and 500 million years ago, “coincides with the appearance of the first large animals 575 million years ago” as well as “with the Cambrian explosion 45 million years later, when most animal groups appeared in the fossil record”.
The rise of the mountain systems, the scientists suggest, may have substantially increased the low oxygen levels of the early atmosphere. Likewise, the erosion of these could have released essential elements for life, such as phosphorus or iron, into the oceans, “supercharging biological cycles and driving evolution towards greater complexity.”
“There is nothing like these two supermountains today. If you imagine the 2,400-kilometer-long Himalaya repeated three or four times, you get an idea of the scale,” Ziyi said.
During the study, the academics were able to determine the origin of the supercordilleras by analyzing samples of zircon with a low content of lutetium, a mineral considered to be a rare earth that is only found at the bases of high mountains, where they form under intense pressure at over millions of years.
“The record of mountain building over time[…] shows these two huge spikes: one is linked to the appearance of animals and the other to the appearance of large complex cells,” said Jochen Brocks, co-author of the research, recently published online in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
