What biological clocks and geological rocks tell us about life in space

Abstract

One of the first geological lessons we learn is that continents are constantly moving. The evidence of these plate tectonic movements is written in the rocks. But the rocks only tell us half of the story. The other half is contained in the evolutionary history of animals.

In our recent paper we have made the most comprehensive comparison yet between tectonic plate movements and the evolution of the genes of animals. We found they are in agreement for dating million year old breakup of continents and the divergence of different animal groups.

This result on its own provides further validation regarding the accuracy of both dating methods and is of interest to biologists and geologists.

But the reason two astronomers have undertaken this study has more to do with life in space than life on Earth. Show more