Reply to Mills et al.: Oceanic Anoxic Event, a mechanism for selecting animals with the ability to survive hypoxic conditions

TL;DR

This paper discusses how Ocean Anoxic Events may have selectively favored animals capable of surviving in low-oxygen conditions, challenging the idea that oxygen rise solely triggered animal life.

Contribution

It proposes that Ocean Anoxic Events could explain the survival of low-oxygen tolerant animals, offering an alternative to the oxygen rise hypothesis for animal evolution.

Findings

Ocean Anoxic Events may have driven selection for hypoxia-tolerant animals

Survival of sponges at low oxygen levels supports the role of anoxic events

The origin of low-oxygen survival ability in marine animals remains unclear

Abstract

It is generally considered that animal life was triggered by the rise of oxygen levels. Based on experiments evaluating the minimum range of oxygen levels at which sponges can survive, Mills and coauthors (doi:10.1073/pnas.1400547111) defend the opposite view. However, the authors do not demonstrate that "animal life was not triggered by the oxygen rise" is the only possible and unique conclusion from their observation. In this reply, it is suggested that a mechanism to explain the ability of sponges to survive at low oxygen biota is Ocean Anoxic Events. These lead to oxygen depletion and a series of them would selectively favor animals able to survive at low oxygen levels. Thus, the origin of the ability of marine animals to survive in low oxygen biota remains to be clarified.