University of Wisconsin-Madison, December 30, 2016

For the development of animals, nothing — with the exception of DNA — may be more important than oxygen in the atmosphere. A study now links the rise in oxygen to a rapid increase in the burial of sediment containing large amounts of carbon-rich organic matter.

Also J.M. Husson and S.E. Peters, February 15, 2017

Atmospheric oxygenation driven by unsteady growth of the continental sedimentary reservoir. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2017; 460: 68 DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2016.12.012