When oxygen appeared on Earth, scientists have found out

American biologists managed to establish when oxygen appeared in the Earth’s atmosphere. As RIA Novosti reports with reference to a study by specialists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cyanobacteria responsible for the production of oxygen appeared on the planet about three billion years ago, at the same time the “industrial” production of oxygen began. However, traces of this work became visible later – about 2.7 billion years ago. It took some more time for all oxygen to stop going to oxidize rocks and begin to accumulate in the atmosphere.

“Despite the fact that there is evidence of early oxygenic photosynthesis, which is the most important and truly amazing evolutionary innovation on Earth, it took hundreds of millions of years for it to really work,” the agency quoted the scientists as saying.