Today, oxygen fuels much of life on Earth, but it wasn't always that way. Three billion years ago, this gas was scarce in the atmosphere and oceans. Knowing why oxygen became plentiful could illuminate the evolution of our planet's flora and fauna, but scientists have struggled to find an explanation satisfying to all. Now, a research team has proposed a novel link between how fast our planet spun on its axis—which defines the length of a day—and the ancient production of additional oxygen. Their modeling of Earth's early days, which incorporates evidence from microbial mats coating the bottom of a shallow, sunlit sinkhole in Lake Huron, produced a surprising conclusion: As Earth's spin slowed and led to longer days, that could have triggered more photosynthesis from similar mats, allowing oxygen to build up in ancient seas and diffuse up into the atmosphere.

今天，氧气为地球上的大部分生命提供燃料，但并非总是如此。三十亿年前，这种气体在大气和海洋中非常稀少。知道为什么氧气变得充足可以阐明我们星球动植物群的进化，但科学家们一直在努力寻找一个让所有人都满意的解释。现在，一个研究小组提出了我们的星球绕地轴自转的速度（它定义了一天的长度）与古老的额外氧气产生之间的新联系。他们对地球早期的建模，结合了覆盖在休伦湖阳光照射下的浅坑底部的微生物垫的证据，得出了一个令人惊讶的结论：随着地球的自转速度减慢并导致白天变长，这可能会引发更多类似垫子的光合作用,