Miracle Planet Part 2 Snowball Earth First Complex Life

Miracle Planet is a 5-video series co-produced by the NFB, NHK Japan, the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel.

Over its more than 4-billion-year history, Earth has been home to repeated violent climatic changes, which have caused mass extinctions. And yet, life has survived. In fact,these same catastrophes that devastated life on Earth also helped bring about its evolution from the simplest microbes to the complexity and diversity that is found on the planet today.

Featuring location footage, interviews with the world's foremost scientists and cutting-edge computer technology, Miracle Planet is a five-part series that recounts the profound and gripping story of Earth's mysterious evolution.

2 Snowball Earth First Complex Life

The hypothesis “Snowball Earth” explains that ice ages, caused by the earliest life-forms, resulted in an evolutional leap � larger-sized life. Atmospheric methane created by microbes initially kept the Earth warm. As microbes that produce oxygen (photosynthesizers) emerged, atmospheric methane was lowered. As a result Earth cooled and the primeval ocean froze to 1,000 meters deep.

Most life may have become extinct during a long period of intense glaciation believed to have lasted several million years. However, some life survived, perhaps in puddles created near volcanic craters. Carbon dioxide accumulated in the air because thick ice sheets prevented ocean water from absorbing it. A green-house effect, created by carbon dioxide, finally melted the ice and fed photosynthesizers.

Hyper hurricanes raged after the great meltdown and stirred up the ocean water, creating an ideal condition for life to prosper and develop collagen. Using collagen, life-forms were able to build larger bodies, and a variety of creatures, called Ediacara biota, emerged for the first time.

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