The end-Permian extinction that started some 252 million years ago and continued for 20,000 years is considered to be the most catastrophic mass extinction ever taken place on the planet Earth. By the time the extinction slowed down, around 90% of life on the Earth was destroyed.

It has been termed as one of the world's oldest murder mysteries. A recent research has tried to solve the mystery. Researchers from MIT and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing, China have blamed tiny microbes found on the bottom of the ocean floor for the mass extinction.

Study researchers got a hint that microscopic microbes could be behind the mass extinction when they were looking at how carbon levels increased during that period. Geological records unveiled that carbon dioxide levels were quite high at that time. The rise in carbon levels would have led to acidification in oceans and Earth also witnessed a rise in heat levels, hence, making the environment hostile for survival.

But it could not be known as what led to rise in carbon levels. A number of researchers have tried to know the same and many of them said large amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases in the Earth's atmosphere were released due to volcanic eruptions in Siberia and led mass extinctions.

Other scientists have blamed as asteroid for the same. While trying to know the reason, MIT geophysicist Dan Rothman found the rise in carbon levels in a rapid upward curve.

"If the C02 came from the sudden combustion of a coal field in Siberia it wouldn't behave this way. It has this special character that is consistent with microbial processes", said Rothman. Methanosarcina was the microbe responsible for the ancient catastrophe. Presence of nickel in abundance at that time also led to a rise in microbe population.