Is this thread pingable? I read the article, and I donno ...
It's a science thread and it goes to the formation of life on Earth -- both of which will bring the Luddites out in droves. I'd say ping the list.
The thread might be, but the conclusion isn't.
Yes, the oceans might have had a much greater salinity 3.5 billion yrs ago. But I think large multicellular organisms have evolved much more recently, perhaps in the last 3-4 hundred million years.
And if an organism evolved in a fresh water environment became exposed to salt, it would do one thing. It would die. The dehydrating effects of salt in the diet would throw it totally out of kilter, a sort of feedback, where it started to dehydrate, drank more salty fluid to rehydrate, saline suicide.