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VANCOUVER — A new study is rewriting the history of the very origins of life on Earth.

Sean Crowe, an assistant professor in earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences at the University of British Columbia, and researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Nordic Centre for Earth Evolution, looked at three-billion-year-old soil from South Africa — the oldest soil left in the world today.

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The Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago and, until now, scientists believed that oxygen began accumulating in the planet’s atmosphere about 2.3 billion years ago.

Using advanced technology, Crowe and the other scientists studied the chemical composition of the soil and used mathematical models to determine that trace amounts of oxygen began to appear three billion years ago — 700 million years earlier than believed.

Crowe, the co-lead author of the study, was not available for an interview Wednesday but said in a statement that this event permanently altered the planet.