Earth's days once got 2 hours longer — and that may have triggered one of the biggest evolutionary explosions in history, study suggests

A dark grey moon above a blue and white planet.

Earth's days once got more than two hours longer, thanks to the moon drifting thousands of miles farther away in its orbit over two periods, researchers have discovered.

The extra hours of sunlight, in turn, may have led to oxygenation events that ushered in a period when life's complexity exploded on Earth, the study researchers say.