Posted: Dec 21, 2010 5:16 pm
by byofrcs
Speaking of the rise of new genes,

Scientists decipher 3 billion-year-old genomic fossils where it says,

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — MIT scientists have created a sort of genomic fossil that shows that the collective genome of all life underwent an enormous expansion about 3 billion years ago, which they're calling the Archean Expansion. Many of the new genes appearing in the Archean Expansion are oxygen related, and could be the first biological evidence of the Great Oxidation Event, the period in Earth's history when oxygen became so plentiful that many anerobic life forms may have become extinct. A report of this work by Eric Alm and Lawrence David will appear in Nature online Dec. 19.

(my bold) etc etc. Nature link is here.