The Gulf of Mexico basin was created by an episode of crustal extension and sea-floor spreading during the Mesozoic breakup of Pangea (Salvador, 1987; Sawyer et al., 1991; Buffler and Thomas, 1994; Harry and Londono, 2004; Jacques and Clegg, 2002).
Title: Life Before Earth. Abstract: An extrapolation of the genetic complexity of organisms to earlier times suggests that life began before the Earth was formed. Life may have started from systems with single heritable elements that are functionally equivalent to a nucleotide.
Earthâs hottest periodsâthe Hadean, the late Neoproterozoic, the PETMâoccurred before humans existed. Those ancient climates would have been like nothing our species has ever seen. Modern human civilization, with its permanent agriculture and settlements, has developed over just the past 10,000 years or so.