Ancient whodunit may be solved: Methane-producing microbes did it March 31, 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Methane-producing microbes may be responsible for the largest mass extinction in Earths history. Fossil remains show that sometime around 252 million years ago, about 90 percent of all species on Earth were suddenly wiped out -- by far the largest of this planets five known mass extinctions. It turns out that Methanosarcina had acquired a particularly fast means of making methane, and the teams detailed mapping of the organisms history now shows that this transfer happened at about the time of the end-Permian extinction. !sciencedaily/releases/2014/03/140331153608.htm
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 02:40:54 +0000