The Evolutionary Bottleneck Fork

Genesis Project · Prof. Claudius Gros, Goethe University Frankfurt · Click any node to explore

Unseeded planet
Genesis-seeded planet
Planet formation Rocky world forms Prokaryotic life Bacteria colonize eukaryote bottleneck Evolutionary stall Locked at bacteria Habitability lost Oceans slowly vanish Barren world No complex life Genesis probe Eukaryotes delivered Eukaryotic bloom Complexity increases Pre-Cambrian life Multicellular forms Cambrian explosion Complex life emerges 4.5 Bya 3.8 Bya ~3.5 Bya ~1.5 Bya ~1.0 Bya arrival +100 Myr +500 Myr +600 Myr

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Based on: C. Gros, "Developing Ecospheres on Transiently Habitable Planets: The Genesis Project," Astrophysics and Space Science 361, 324 (2016) · genesis-project.php