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Toxic oxygen

Simple cells were the first living things, the predecessors of all life on Earth. Over time, the cells diversified and spread around the world but one group would have a devastating impact on the planet. Off Western Australia, those ancient microbes still exist today. Called stromatolites, they secrete strange pillars made of lime. It is like a scene from three billion years ago. Although they look harmless enough now, back then stromatolites almost snuffed-out all life forever. By generating huge amounts of a new and toxic gas - oxygen - they triggered a global pollution crisis. Oxygen utterly destroyed primitive cells, poisoning them by the billion!

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