ArticleScientific reports2018
The Boring Billion, a slingshot for Complex Life on Earth.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- Environmental phylogenetics supports a steady diversification of crown eukaryotes starting from the mid-Proterozoic.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Oxygen reductase origin followed the great oxidation event and terminated the Lomagundi excursion.Biochimica et biophysica acta. Bioenergetics · 2026Article
- Article
- Breathing life into the boring billion: Direct constraints from 1.4 Ga fluid inclusions reveal a fair climate and oxygenated atmosphere.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- A diverse Palaeoproterozoic microbial ecosystem implies early eukaryogenesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Stromatolites and pulsed oxygenation events in the Mesoproterozoic Longjiayuan formation of western Henan: evidence for life-environment co-evolution.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Earth-Moon dynamics from cyclostratigraphy reveals possible ocean tide resonance in the Mesoproterozoic era.Science advances · 2024Article
- The radical impact of oxygen on prokaryotic evolution-enzyme inhibition first, uninhibited essential biosyntheses second, aerobic respiration third.FEBS letters · 2024Article
- The importance of continents, oceans and plate tectonics for the evolution of complex life: implications for finding extraterrestrial civilizations.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Generation and Physiology of Hydrogen Sulfide and Reactive Sulfur Species in Bacteria.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- The expanding network of mineral chemistry throughout earth history reveals global shifts in crustal chemistry during the Proterozoic.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Recycled selenium in hot spot-influenced lavas records ocean-atmosphere oxygenation.Science advances · 2020Article
- Oxygen, evolution and redox signalling in the human brain; quantum in the quotidian.The Journal of physiology · 2019Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The period 1800 to 800 Ma ("Boring Billion") is believed to mark a delay in the evolution of complex life, primarily due to low levels of oxygen in the atmosphere. Earlier studies highlight the remarkably flat C, Cr isotopes and low trace element trends during the so-called stasis, caused by prolonged nutrient, climatic, atmospheric and tectonic stability. In contrast, we suggest a first-order variability of bio-essential trace element availability in the oceans by combining systematic sampling of the Proterozoic rock record with sensitive geochemical analyses of marine pyrite by LA-ICP-MS technique. We also recall that several critical biological evolutionary events, such as the appearance of eukaryotes, origin of multicellularity & sexual reproduction, and the first major diversification of eukaryotes (crown group) occurred during this period. Therefore, it appears possible that the period of low nutrient trace elements (1800-1400 Ma) caused evolutionary pressures which became an essential trigger for promoting biological innovations in the eukaryotic domain. Later periods of stress-free conditions, with relatively high nutrient trace element concentration, facilitated diversification. We propose that the "Boring Billion" was a period of sequential stepwise evolution and diversification of complex eukaryotes, triggering evolutionary pathways that made possible the later rise of micro-metazoans and their macroscopic counterparts.
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