No Soil pre 500mya

In the beginning was the Big Bang.

Trillions of stars were created,

10 billion years ago, our Milky Way was formed,

One of whose stars was to become our sun.

4 and half billion years ago

Earth formed when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in

To become the third planet from the Sun.

Seas arrived a quarter of a billion years later. 

Another half billion years went by before

A primeval soup, in a warm pond (according to Darwin)

Made chemical compounds that became the building blocks of life.

They could organise into patterns, so

Organisms emerged that could create oxygen, so

From a billion years ago, all sorts of – now multicellular - organisms

were swimming around, competing with each other,

which made a case for having protective coverings.

There was land for them to ‘land’ on, but they couldn't survive long on that lump of rock

Even half a billion years later,

There were only rocks and sediments, in the form of sand, silt and mud. 

There would have been water films with life

Encouraging fungi and algae on the rocks

But not such sign of our living soil.

But three hundred million years later, dinosaurs walked on soil

So they must have been pretty resilient,

Telling us the soil must have evolved before then.

Yet, we take this soil for granted as if they had been here forever

It has been here for only about a tenth of the life of this planet,

Since when they have withstood at least three mass extinctions

There is almost certainly no similar living community, no ecosystem,

In any of those myriads of stars and planets in the universe

Yet, we keep spending trillions looking in other galaxies for ‘signs of life’

When we could be spending trillions looking under our feet.

Especially its soil

Perhaps if we knew better and understood our soil

How all the characters and creatures worked together to make soils 

We would value better and respect this wonderful world under our feet.

How did our soils arrive?

Have you ever asked your self that question?
Or do you just take those tons of brown stuff under your feet for granted?
As if it had always been there.

But when where and how did it arrive?

We can be pretty sure they did not just arrive like 'manna from heaven', ie descended out of the blue..

The answer to this could help use understand better what is under our feet?

Surely if it is living, it must have evolved?

When and the key actors appear and where from?

The is the first time this scientific detective story has been told

This story of soils’ evolution expands existing frameworks

of soil science, geology, biology, palaeontology - and evolution

If we work out what went on underground

If we can shed light from the dark recesses underground

It may help give further insights into our great natural world above ground,

We may unlock many other mysteries – like the evolution of insects

And the spread of flowering plants - Darwin's dilemma.