Methane-Producing Microbes Caused 'The Great Dying'

["Paul H." <oxytropidoceras@cox.net>]

Ancient whodunit may be solved: The microbes 
did it! (Methane-producing microbes may be 
responsible for the largest mass extinction in 
Earth’s history.) MIT News, April 1, 2014
http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/ancient-whodunit-may-be-solved-microbes-did-it

Archaeageddon: how gas-belching microbes could 
have caused mass extinction by Chelsea Wald,
Nature News, 
http://www.nature.com/news/archaeageddon-how-gas-belching-microbes-could-have-caused-mass-extinction-1.14958

Methane-Producing Microbes Caused 'The Great 
Dying' by Christopher Joyce, Morning Edition, 
NPR, April 1, 2014. 
http://www.npr.org/2014/04/01/297623130/methane-producing-microbes-caused-the-great-dying

The paper is:

Rothman, D. H., G. P. Fournier, K. L. French, E. J. 
Alm, E. A. Boyle, C. Cao, and R. E. Summons, 2014, 
Methanogenic burst in the end-Permian carbon cycle.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Early Edition, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1318106111
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/26/1318106111

Freely available online through the PNAS open 
access option. 
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/26/1318106111.full.pdf+html

Yours,

Paul H.