The Earth's "Boring Billion" Years Were Anything But
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2023
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About 1.8-0.8 billion ago, the Earth went through a period known as the Boring Billion, where not a lot changed in terms of geology, evolution, or even the number of hours in a day. Some scientists call it “the dullest period in Earth’s history”; but if you look a little closer, there's a pretty interesting story to tell.
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Were anything but boring
3:35 sorry; for all the dudes- the most important
@@newlineschannel you must be a dude
Hey the discount link for Brilliant doesn’t seem to be legitimate. Through the link Brilliant takes 20% off of 161.68. Through the app with no discount the cost is 119.99. That’s a discount of +9.50 😂
edit: maybe it’s an app store thing
Ok, so the next time someone says “humans can’t possibly produce enough greenhouse gases to affect the climate”, I’m going to respond with “Cyanobacteria produced enough oxygen to literally freeze the day length to 19hrs for a whole billion years; what’s your excuse now??”
I hit those people with that fact all the time, it just slides off their smooth brain unfortunately.
No machinery needed
and then strike them upside the head
You ecpect someone like that to know what a Cyanobacteria is.
Facts, although those changes happened over millions of years while right now it’s happening astronomically fast
Geologists: "This era is when multicellular life & sexual reproduction first began on earth, but we call it boring because there weren't any mountains being actively created."
All the rocks stay the same. Tectonics is weird, but hardly changes either. Geologically that is boring. Micropaleontologists and biologists might find very interesting, but the rock record is very dull compared to how dynamic earth usually is. The study of life is biology not geology. It can be exciting biologically and boring geologically, and the geologists get to name the time periods
And we get grumpy about people trying to take that away from us
@@VitorSchettino Well yeah. Biologists name species. Physicists name natural phenomena. Chemists name materials. Geologists name the rocks and earth processes. There is some multidiscipline overlap there, but general norm. A biologist doing micropaleontology should have named it first if people wanna complain
I get fleeting glimpses of deep time occasionally. Like when you mention an event almost invisible now, but for the careful detective work of science - the snowball earth 'event'... that lasted for around 200 million years. Two hundred. Million years. And that this triggered something that lasted five times longer than that!
My personal favorite potential renaming for the Boring Billion is the Blooming Billion. The period in time when life was seemingly setting itself up to take complex multicellular forms.
Right? I’m not even finished with the video, and it’s definitely way more exciting.
They always give Hank the extended episodes that research a topic in depth, it’s my fav
"They always give Hank"... you do know that the "they" in your sentence is Hank and just Hank, right?
@@stevevernon1978sounds reasonable
@@stevevernon1978Obama giving a medal to himself meme.
Hank is my favorite host by far. So no complaints here!
The OG host for me anyway.
I'm tired of people that have to be 13 to be on socal media
I feel like this is a good example of talking about non-change. Like we always want an explanation for change, but asking why something didn't change is also useful and insightful
I've also read that the rusting of the oceans during that time period held oxygen at a pretty steady level, and once all the iron ions in the ocean had reacted oxygen could climb once again
Congrats on your good news the other week Hank. I've loved your's and Scishow's videos for years. you've taught me a lot and have a really engaging delivery. Will continue to hope your health improves. Bravo.
Man it boggles my mind of all the things that has to happen to get to this point in time. Its a gosh dang miracle we're here at all.
Thank you, SciShow.
Thank you, Trogdor
no step on snek❤
This is one of the best videos you guys have done, there’s so much fascinating information in this I’ve never heard of before that’s packaged in an understandable way. Thank you for lighting up the darkness of our collective ignorance
If you're interested in more content, Hank is involved in another channel that focuses on this type of thing. It's called PBS Eons and it's pretty phenomenal imo.
@@ajchapeliere Yeah this is very PBS EONS esque, in fact I got here from an EONS video and as I was watching this I was like, "Oh cool! Hank's hosting EONS again! Oh nvm it's Scishow."
I have loved learning so much about this particular billion year period this past year. A couple videos led to a deep dive, and months later we get a Sci show episode on it! Love it
Once again you have amazed me Hank & SciShow!❤
Back on top form Hank. Excellent video, thank you!
great to see you back man
Flagging this video as needing (not just auto-generated) subtitles. Please help us hard of hearing and deaf folks access your content!! 🥰🤟🏻
Replying for algorithmic boost
WOW! Atmospheric tidal forces acting to change day length and pauses in the historic day lengthening. AMAZING! I learn something new and exciting every time I watch SciShow. Good to see you back, Hank.
Whenever I start to feel important, I remember the earth stopped slowing down for a boring period of time 100,000 times longer than the time between now and when humans invented AGRICULTRE. The scale of a billion is mind-boggling.
Thanks, Hank! You rock! ❤️🔥🤘
👏 Bravo on a perfectly written video, Lucas Kavanagh. 90% of what Hank said was understood by my terrifically tired brain. 🧠
Some really impressive stuff had to have been happening in the Boring Billion. After all, before it, all we had was Archea, and after, we had Ediacaran life. It's really the fuzziest part of evolution to me- animal evolution makes sense, and abiogenesis makes sense. Even the evolution from archea to basic eukaryotes makes sense. But what about the part between basic eukaryotes and the very first animals? I feel like nobody talks about that
You mean multi-cellular? I guess it had to do with the mitochondria. That was the main evolution driving animal origions.
Abiogenesis makes sense to you??? Damn, you should write some papers!
Oh, they are. The first animals and fungi probably date to the end of the biting billion, a billion years ago. They also turn out to be each others closest relative, and share more characteristics they one would think (external digestion, for example, and having a single posterior flagellum). The fungi, along with green algae, may have colonized land that early as well. (Land plants and animals would take another 500 million years).
@ConontheBinarian I remember seeing something recently about a research paper demonstrating their hypothesis that multicellular life formed to avoid predation. Multicellular behaviour was observed after a few generations in a situation where predation was high and being smaller meant being more likely to be eaten.
Found it, a short by PBS Eons:
ua-cam.com/users/shorts0TgKW-dj-wo?si=gmlAcrUD2YE5w-a_
@@electricnezumi probably not the insane ones like rats supposedly arises from food storage or something,
More likely, the author of the comment is refering to is the process on which seemingly biological molecules is made with the right conditions, and those biological molecules arange themself to create the first primordial "cell",
Although it depends on what is life in general, where "Decartes killed the universe" comes into play lol
I'd like a slow version of this vid - including more detail on those developments in eukaryotes as well as the geolody & cosmology (like what other outside events might have helped)
Pbs eons hasa couple episodes on the 'bb'. Hank used to host some of their episodes too
The history of the earth has a near hour long video on the bb, though it goes less into the nitty gritty science.
@@Sanquinity that's a good channel too
Your energy is back and you look great. Welcome back Hank. We missed you.
That’s an amazing hypothesis! It gets me spinning in my seat. Life changed the Earth’s rotation with the ozone layer. Wow 😮
+
Can you imagine the day being 19 hours long? I don't have enough time in the day *now,* when it's 24 hours long! Can't imagine what I'd do with only 19 hours! 😂
I think I'd actually be more productive. Because I would still sleep 8 hours every night, so I would possibly have more energy for the remaining 11 hours.
Dear Hank, what are you doing is amazing and thank you very much for your enthusiasm going through a difficult time. You’ve always been one of my favourite so sci show presenters if not the original. And always a joy to have on. Thank you 🙏
Very fun video! Also good to see than Hank is getting better !
The Common Descent podcast did an episode on "The Boring Billion" recently. I know at least one of the hosts has written scripts for scishow before.
Super show! Glad to have ya on my radar. Good to have ya back!❤
Hank and the Sci Show gang, you are all heroes. In today's world ignorance is a choice. And, you guys are fighting ignorance on a global scale. Brilliant.
Gosh! I just love how even things going on in space are connected to what's going on on Earth 😮
Earth is in space.
@@TheRealSkeletor and there's space in Earth... So on and so forth... But you get what I'm trying to say
@@eyeofhorus04 Of course. My point is that many people seem to think of space as being somehow separate from earth, when they have always been inexorably connected.
@@TheRealSkeletor oh I get it. For me they sometimes do exist in different compartments in my head
@@eyeofhorus04 exactly
I love this channel. It has taught me so much.
5:53 "neat" - Bender Bending Rodriguez
I teach life science to 6th grade, earth and space science to 7th, and physics to 8th. This video has everything! Thanks you guys. Please keep doing what you're doing.
Good to see you Hank. Keep fighting.
Love this hypothesis, lovethis video
Really well done
Glad to see back on Scishow Hank!
Great episode
Love you Hank!
You are a incredible human being, thanks for the content
i am so happy for you hank
That’s a very educational and informational video
❤ hi Hank! Great video!!
Completely fascinating.
🙏 Thank you!
Wow! That's fascinating!
Great new video to show my intro geology class!
This is mindblowing
Thanks Scishow
well explained.
0:17: 🌍 The 'boring billion' refers to a period in Earth's history where not much changed, but it still holds interesting stories.
2:32: 🌍 The Earth's continents merged into a supercontinent called Nuna, which later broke up and reformed into a new supercontinent called Rodinia, with implications for the development of complex life.
4:45: 🌍 The Earth's rotation and the moon's orbit affect each other, causing changes in tides and lengthening of days and lunar months.
7:10: 🌊 The study uses cyclostratigraphy to determine the number of daily tides in each lunar month and the length of each day in the past.
9:33: 🌍 The video discusses the theory that a steady spin rate of the Earth during the 'boring billion' period may have affected the evolution of life and the increase in oxygen levels.
Recap by Tammy AI
lets dislike so AI dosen't take over
This one really blew my mind
Huh. I've always thought of the Proterozoic as the "Age of Basins" rather than the "Boring Billion", despite it not being an era of deep interest to me (I was fascinated by Archean geology). A lot of important basins formed at craton/continent margins during that time, which have stuck around to this day. It may have been a fairly stable time in geological terms (though events such as the Keweenaw rift/Grenville Orogenic event would show that geological activity was certainly not absent), which was likely important for life to stabilize and develop; too much excitement (geologically speaking) tends not to be very good for living things.
So... when you boar... bore.. into an age... deep basin... what bored the tunnel to pause... what?... yeah I'm just jibbity jobbing... peace out
Cool shirt, Hank!
Thanks! It's amazing to think that microbes pooping oxygen could influence both the Earth's and Moon's orbits. People wonder if Earth/Gaia is a super organism, but all these interconnections suggest that is more like a super organelle.
Either way
Mother Earth is
a living Being!
I love these mind-bending, over-arching dives into meta-science! (I tried to come up with some more hyphenated words but decided this says enough; I wouldn't want to over-think it.)
This video reminds me of how much I miss Hank on PBS Eons 😢
Get better soon man
Hope you are feeling ok!
This guy is awesome, even with what he's being through he keeps being himself. Most people would be destroyed at this point. Congratz man, bless you
As someone born in the UK, with a brain and natural curiosity, I find this subject matter that spawned the creation of complex life on our shared planet ultimately fascinating and not boring at all. Instead I find the almost hyperactive high speed velocity of the narration in a foreign alien American language difficult to comprehend. Hopefully you will ask yr narrators to calm down so the rest of the world can comprehend what you are talking about some time soon so we can actually understand you one day soon. Thank you
certified scishow classic
And there are millions of people who believe the earth is flat or that its just 6000 years old. Thats astounding too.
I love the graph at 8:54 , I was thinking that global ice sheets would reduce the moon's torque. That graph does show a large dip in the region labeled "Snowball Earths".
OMFG this video was suggested every single time I reloaded.... I guess I'll watch it.
The Boring Billion wasn't completely boring with regards to geology - there were some orogenies (mountain building events) during the Boring Billion - the Penokean, and Grenville Orogenies for example. Also, don't forget that the Mid-Continent Rift that almost split North America in half, occurred 1.1 billion years ago, which was during the Boring Billion.
always amazes me how life survived while it accomplished first essentially bleaching itself, then freezing itself, and then being suffocated over and over again. It makes one wonder if life isn't way more common in our galactic neighborhood than you might suppose.
I thought I had already heard a lot about the boring billion, but a lot of this was new! Also, I grew up in Sudbury, site of a gigantic asteroid strike 1.8 billion years ago - always wondered if this was also figured into the equation?
I love that the sun has something to say about it
Respect❤✊️
SciShow is why I don't mind paying for UA-cam premium. It's worth paying for.
Give us scishow space back!
Thanks Mr. Green! We love you!
Hey Hank, please for all that you hold dear, cover 'deep adaptation'.
Gives a new definition to the phrase "There are only 24 hours in the day"
Neat.
Episode idea , when you back is ichy and you get some one to scratch. It why does the itch travel to different spots
* Photosynthesis had been going on for much longer, but it didn't produce oxygen.
* Longer days don't make for more daylight in the course of a year or longer, but it would make for more daylight at a time, and that might make photosynthesis more efficient.
Is it sunny in there?
I think they are underestimating the effect of the distribution of continental land masses. This can drastically change the resistance to the tidal flow.
Cool.
Wait this is new? I could have sworn this was done years ago here😊
9:19 WHAAAT
I think the UV shield animation at 2:13 is of something else, maybe IR. Most of the sun's UV is _absorbed_ by the Ozone layer (which is concentrated in the stratosphere), and turned into heat.
Atmospheres are still reflective, looks like a pretty exaggerated example though
Challenges promote cooperation, make sense.
Hank has changed.
*Let the Sunshine In...*
Geology rocks!!
The Billion Years Buffering
I like that, slowdown of nutrients provides pressure to drive evolution, just like retrograde periods force us to slow down, reflect, and refine as individuals and society
I love the new "cap look" Hank 👍
Hides his illness well
...you sound & lQQk great Hank! :)
HANK HANK HANK
How is it that the suns affect on the atmosphere to make torque would equal that from the moon since the water would have so much more mass?
@Scishow 9:23 you say the "sun's torque" when I'm pretty sure you mean "Earth's torque".
The problem with the hypothesis that life caused an increase in the torque of the sun versus the moons torque causing a pause in the increase in the length of days on earth is that life still exists on earth, so why hasn't the earth's days continued to decrease once that process crossed over a threshold?
2:48 Based on personal experience with driving, I have to point out that maybe...just MAYBE...the Indian plate had the right of way, and the Himalayas are the result of the Asian plate refusing to yield...
😂
PBS Eons watches with stolen thunder in the corner.
The Brewing Billion, or Brooding Billion.