Methane-spewing microbes may have been a major cause in the mass extinction that occurred 252 million years ago, which wiped out 90% of all species on Earth.
Volcanic eruptions have previously been blamed for the mass extinction, but new research led by Dr Gregory Fournier from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has shown that a microscopic methane-producing life form called Methanosarcina may be another factor in the global catastrophe.
In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers claim that volcano eruptions could not have produced the amount of carbon found in rock sediments form the period, and the long-term continued increase in the amount of carbon “suggests a microbial expansion”.
The scientists propose that Methanosarcina evolved to become a major producer of methane from accumulations of carbon dioxide in the oceans, which combined volcanic eruptions producing a sudden influx of nickel, a nutrient required for the microbial proliferation, caused a microbial bloom. They claim that it was this bloom that caused huge quantities of methane to build up in the atmosphere, acidifying the oceans, and heating the planet, resulting in the millions of species going extinct as they were too slow to adapt.
