Cambrian Explosion Story Hour: Oxygen as a Creative Force, Again

Gather round, children. It's the Cambrian Explosion Story Hour and Douglas Erwin is back. The theme of the hour: "Debunk Stephen Meyer and Darwin's Doubt without naming them." Yes, this is familiar ground. Since we examined his proposals a year ago, Erwin seems to have joined the Oxygen Party (see our reviews from 2013, 2014, and 2016).

In his latest paper, co-authored by scientists from Yale, Georgia Tech, and UC Riverside, the renowned paleontologist from the National Museum of Natural Hi...