Posted on 12/14/2012 1:12:41 PM PST by Renfield
AROUND 251 million years ago, over 90 per cent of the species on Earth suddenly went extinct. Their killer may not have been a devastating meteorite or a catastrophic volcanic eruption, but a humble microbe.
The prevailing theory is that the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period was triggered by volcanic eruptions over a vast area of what is now Siberia. This led, among other things, to a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
But the scenario just doesn't fit the facts, says Daniel Rothman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From his analysis of an end-Permian sediment sample from China, Rothman says carbon levels surged much too quickly for geological processes to be at work....
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Ping
Sooo they’re basically saying bacteria farts destoyed the early Earth?
Very interesting article.
Hey! my farts can destroy a dinner party
I didn't do it, never traveled to that period.
The dinosaurs made a big mistake. They should have put a carbon tax on those microbes.
“million years ago” here comes a Fairy Tale!
Well.. some dinner parties need to be destroyed.
It’s sometimes an act of mercy.
Did you send The Coffee there?
These people are not scientists.
I was going to say it was Obamas fault but then I noticed they said it was a “humble” microbe.
I guess it was 6000 years to you?
How they can get into the mind of an extinct microbe is beyond me...how do they know it was humble? Its victims would be no more dead if the microbe was a proud microbe.
Why do you say that?
Why do you say that?
He/she thinks the Earth is 6000 years old.
I think it caused by a Gamma Ray Burst from a really close supernova, those things can cause a LOT of havoc!
No.
The range in that direction for my machine is only about 50 million years.
Not even close.
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