the long snooze gave way to the Cambrian explosion, the most rapid, creative period of evolution in the history of our planet. In the blink of a geologic eye (hundreds of millions of years), all the basic biology needed to sustain complex organisms was worked out, and the paths to all modern life, ranging from periwinkles to people, branched off.
In their attempts to solve the riddle, some researchers have recently turned not to the Cambrian explosion but back to the boring billion, and in so doing, they might finally have found the answer.
If they're right-if the evolution of organisms really is woven together with the evolution of planets-their hypothesis will have profound consequences in our search for life beyond Earth.
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