Expanding Earth Theory and Pre-Cambrian Era: Part V

I have divided the discussion of Expanding Earth model for pre-Cambrian period in short postings: 5 altogether. In the first posting I discussedd the notions of super-continents, super-oceans, and glaciations during Neoproterozoic period with short coments inspired by R/2 scenario. In second posting I summarized the dominating Snowball model for the climate during Neoproterozoic period in the same spirit. In the third posting I dicussed TGD Expanding Earth view about super-continents, super-oceans and glaciations and compares it with Snowball Earth scenario. Fourth posting was devoted to paleomagnetic tests for R/2 scenario. This posting will discuss the Expanding Earth scenario about how life escaped to the underground lakes and seas created during the expansion and returned back in the beginning of Cambrian era.

Did life go underground during pre-Cambrian era?

The basic idea of Expanding Earth model is that the life developed in underground seas and emerged to the surface of Earth in Cambrian explosion. The series of pre-Cambrian glaciations explains why the life escaped underground and how the underground seas were formed.

1. If one believes that the reduction of gravitational binding energy was responsible the cooling, then the expansion of Earth could have begun at the same time as Sturtian glaciation (see this). On the other hand, the TGD estimate for the duration of the expansion period giving 1.1 Gyr, suggests that the breakup of the Rodinia, which began in the beginning of Proterozoic period corresponds to the beginning of the expansion. The simplest assumption is that the radius of R at the beginning of Cambrian period was not yet much larger than R/2 and continued to increase during Cambrian period and ended up around 100 My, when dinosaurs and other big animals had emerged (possibly as a response to the reduction of gravity). This means that there were land bridges connecting the separate continents.

2. One must explain the scarcity of fossils during pre-Cambrian era. If the more primitive life forms at the surface of Earth did not have hard cells and left no fossils one can understand the absence of highly evolved fossils before Cambrian explosion (see this). If life-forms emerged cracks and underground seas there would be no fossils at the surface of Earth. In the case of volcanoes dead organisms would have ended to gone to the bottom of the water containing volcano and burned away.

3. The expansion had formed the underground pockets and fractures made possible for the water to flow from the surface to the pockets. Life would have evolved in fractures and pockets. The first multicellular fossils appeared during Ediacaran period (segmented worms, fronds, disks, or immobile bags) (see this) and have little resemblance to recent life forms and their relationship with Cambrian life forms is also unclear. Ediacaran life forms could have migrated from the fractures and Cambrian fossils from from the underground seas and lakes. The highly evolved life-forms in Cambrian explosion could have emerged from underground seas through fractures.

One can make also questions about the underground life.

1. The obvious question concerns the sources of metabolic energy in underground seas. In absence of solar radiation photosynthesis was not possible plants were absent. The lowest levels in the metabolic hierarchy would have received their metabolic energy from the thermal or chemical energy of Earth crust or from volcanoes. The basic distinction between plants and animals might be that the primitive forms of plants developed at the surface of Earth and those of animals in underground seas.

2. At first it seems strange that the Cambrian life-forms had eyes although there was no solar radiation in the underground seas. This is actually not a problem. These life-forms had excellent reasons for possessing eyes and in absence of sun-light the life forms had to invent lamp. Indeed, many life forms in deep sea and sea trenches produce their own light (see this). It would be interesting to try to identify from Cambrian fossils the body parts which could have served as the light source.

For details see the new chapter Expanding Earth Model and Pre-Cambrian Evolution of Continents, Climate, and Life of "Genes and Memes".