Bacteria May Have Been Responsible For World's Biggest Extinction Event
Crinoid Fossil Filter-feeders like this marine animal were significantly less abundant after the Permian-Triassic extinction. A new theory says bacterial species might have produced huge amounts of methane, which caused a greenhouse effect that choked out other life. Wikimedia CommonsMost of the world's ocean species died--and lots of land-based ones, too--and it might have been the fault of a microbe. Add this to the murderous microbe highlight reel--a single strain of bacteria could have worsened the Great Dying event 250 million years ago, producing prodigious methane and choking out most other life on Earth. During the Permian-Triassic extinction event, 96 percent of everything in the oceans and 70 percent of everything on land died out. And much of the blame could lie at the feet of one type of marine bacteria, a new study claims. The era around 250-252 million years ago is marked by a huge and rapid die-off of most...