In the past, the length of the Earth’s day was longer than 24 hours, which may have led to the rapid development of complex life forms. This conclusion was reached by Chinese scientists from Chengdu University of Technology. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The team concluded that there were two periods in Earth’s history when the planet’s rotational speed on its axis changed rapidly, during which the day was 2.2 hours longer than it is today.
According to scientists, the length of the Earth’s day depended on the position of the Moon. The slowdown was due to the satellite moving away from our planet by about 20 thousand kilometers compared to the current 384.4 thousand kilometers.
One of these time periods lasted from 650 to 500 million years ago and included the so-called “Cambrian explosion,” during which life on the planet diversified sharply and occupied new ecological niches.
The second slowdown occurred between about 340 and 280 million years ago, when massive glaciers covered the Earth.
The study suggests that, with increasing day length and therefore sun exposure, the Moon may have triggered major oxygenation events that led to an evolutionary explosion.
Earlier scientists named Factors affecting the speed of Earth’s rotation.
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Source: Gazeta
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