Permian bacterial nightmare

A small form of bacteria, not a "killer" asteroid or volcanic fury, who wiped out more than 90% of the species on Earth 251 million years ago.

According to a prevailing hypothesis, the mass extinction event at the end of the Permian period was triggered by volcanic eruptions in the area now known as Siberia, leading to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Global.

The scene of death in the late Permian period
Science Photo Library - (Photo: Science Photo Library)

However, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology expert Daniel Rothman, this scenario is not suitable for actual data.

From the analysis of sediment samples from the end of the Permian period collected in China, Dr. Rothman said that the carbon content increased at a rapid rate in order to be attributed to the geological activity. He thought that the new bacteria could produce that amount of carbon compounds so quickly.

When his team analyzed the bacterial sequences of methanosarcina, the bacteria responsible for most of the methane biogas, they found they had achieved this ability 231 million years ago, according to a report on the New Scientist website.

Methanosarcina requires a large amount of nickel to produce methane quickly. And American experts have found that nickel content appears in sediment samples of similar age, suggesting that methanosarcina activated the mass extinction event, according to the researchers' new hypothesis. at MIT.