You know I've been researching for the last hour or so...and by just looking at the amount of variation on the planet of various species...we have always been in the Age of Bacteria.
Their numbers are incredible and they live on just about every surface on earth...including inside of us. Amazing.
I wonder if a similar long term experiment on the common cockroach over the course of a 100 years would show significant change? I wonder what the effect of increasing gravity on cockroaches would give us in a 100 years?
This is definitely a microbe's world. I've read that they are, by far, the great majority of the planet's biomass. Very successful in terms of survival and reproduction. Of course they miss out on a lot, but they don't know about it, or care. We do know, and we care, but we probably miss out on a lot too.