Ediacaran mass extinction occurred 540 million years ago, when the world lived only bacteria.
Scientists from Vanderbilt University found that the world’s first global extinction was caused by living organisms. This event, known as the ediacaran mass extinction occurred 540 million years ago, when the world lived only bacteria. Paper, revealing the causes of the disaster, published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
The ediacaran biota was characterized by a great diversity. The bacteria spread throughout the Earth 600 million years ago, and their body shape was a the disks, “quilt”, tubes or bags. Approximately 60 million years on the planet there is another form of life — first single-celled animals (Metazoa). According to scientists, they have become environmental engineers, which made the habitat unsuitable for the ediacaran biota. The emergence of new organisms is the main factor of global change on the planet and mass extinction.
Paleontologists have discovered traces of a community of organisms where present, the remains of both animals and ediacaran fauna. The discovery was evidence of the close ecological relationships between the two groups. Scientists believe that the ancestors of modern sea anemone and other ancient predators could hunt the creatures that ruled the planet before the appearance of Metazoa. Also, the researchers draw an analogy between the impact on the biota first animals and humans that alter the terrestrial biosphere at present. According to them, the ediacaran extinction shows what happens when there are organisms that can radically reorganize ecosystems.
Another example is environmental engineers are the first photosynthetic bacteria, which contributed to increasing the level of oxygen in the atmosphere. This has led to the death of many anaerobic organisms.
