Yet ifĪtmospheric oxygen reached 35 per cent in the Carboniferous, why did it promote exuberant growth, Reactive forms of oxygen, known as free radicals, are thought to cause ageing in people. Fruit flies raised at twice normal atmospheric levels of oxygen live half as long as their Divers breathing pure oxygen at depth suffer from convulsionsĪnd lung injury. The strange and profound effects that oxygen has had on the evolution of life pose a riddle, which this book High oxygen levels may also explain the global firestorm that contributed to theĭemise of the dinosaurs after the asteroid impact.
Giant spiders, tree-ferns, marine rock formations and fossil charcoalsĪll tell the same story. Researchers claim they could have flown only if the air had contained more oxygen than today. Three hundred million years ago, in Carboniferous times, dragonflies grew as big as seagulls, with wingspans of Oxygen has had extraordinary effects on life.
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