Knowledge of how and why oxygenic photosynthesis, eukaryotes, metazoans, and humans evolved on Earth is important to the search for complex life outside our Solar System. Hence, one grand challenge for modern geoscience research is to reconstruct the story of how Earth's environment and life coevolved through time. A critical part of the effort to understand Earth's story is the use of geochemical signatures from the rock record—paleo-oxybarometers—to constrain atmosphere and ocean O₂ levels and their spatiotemporal variations. Recent advances in analytical methods and improved knowledge of elemental and isotopic (bio)geochemical cycles have fostered development and refinement of many paleo-oxybarometers. Each offers its unique perspective and challenges toward obtaining robust (semi)quantitative O₂ estimates. Overall, these paleo-oxybarometers have provided critical new insights but have also spurred new debates about Earth's oxygenation and its impact on biological evolution (and vice versa). Integrated approaches with multiple paleo-oxybarometers are now more critical than ever.

了解含氧光合作用、真核生物、后生动物和人类在地球上进化的方式和原因对于寻找太阳系外的复杂生命很重要。因此，现代地球科学研究的一大挑战是重建地球环境和生命如何随时间共同进化的故事。了解地球故事的努力的一个关键部分是使用来自岩石记录的地球化学特征——古氧气压计——来限制大气和海洋 O ₂水平及其时空变化。分析方法的最新进展以及对元素和同位素（生物）地球化学循环的认识的提高，促进了许多古氧气压计的发展和改进。每个都提供了获得稳健（半）定量 O 的独特视角和挑战₂估计。总的来说，这些古氧气压计提供了重要的新见解，但也引发了关于地球氧化及其对生物进化影响的新辩论（反之亦然）。使用多个古氧气压计的集成方法现在比以往任何时候都更加重要。