Humble moss helped to cool Earth and spurred on life

[Little Star]

BBC
By Pallab Ghosh
2 February 2012


Humble moss helped to cool Earth and spurred on life



~snip
Primitive moss-like plants could have triggered the cooling of the Earth some 470 million years ago, say researchers.

A study published in Nature Geoscience may help explain why temperatures gradually began to fall, culminating in a series of "mini ice ages".

Until now it had been thought that the process of global cooling began 100 million years later, when larger plants and trees emerged.

The simple plants' interactions with rocks are believed to be the cause.
snip~

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16814669

[mindwalker_i]

1. The earliest instance of carpet bombing

Calling that cool might be a little redundant in this case.

[tclambert]

2. But . . . but the Earth is only 6,000 years old.

The Bible told me so.