Oxygen boost aided carnivore evolution in Cambrian explosion

Atmospheric change and rise of predators caused burst in complexity of life

ANIMAL REVOLUTION  A rise in oxygen may have allowed carnivores to evolve, a new study of polychaete worms (one shown) suggests. The origin of predators may have then kicked off an arms race that triggered the Cambrian Explosion more than half a billion years ago.

Christina Frieder

A rise in oxygen more than half a billion years ago paved the way for the origin of the first carnivores.