A photo of the permian triassic boundary at Meishan, China. This photo shows the limestone beds in between the volcanic ash beds that the researchers were able to date. (Photo : Shuzhong Shen/ MIT )

The rise of methane-producing microbes might have led to a mass extinction that occurred 252 million years ago, a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found.

During The end-Permian extinction around 252 million years ago, life on earth nearly came to an end after 96 percent of all ocean life and 70 percent of land-based forms disappeared.

The mass extinction occurred in a span of just 60,000 years, which is a flash in terms of geological timescale.

Super-volcanoes, fires and even asteroid impacts were considered a reason for this great die-off. But, now researchers at MIT report that the cause for this mass extinction was methane-producing archaea called Methanosarcina. These microbes bloomed and started spewing large amounts of methane in the atmosphere. The influx of methane altered the climate by changing the chemistry of oceans. The environment conditions became so nasty that a majority of life on earth died.

Ancient rocks from Meishan, China, revealed that the end Permian era witnessed a rise in carbon-dioxide levels. At the same time, large volcanoes belched out carbon dioxide, Livescience reported.

However, calculations by the team at MIT show that volcanoes alone didn't release enough carbon to cause the wipeout.

"A rapid initial injection of carbon dioxide from a volcano would be followed by a gradual decrease," Gregory Fournier said in a news release. "Instead, we see the opposite: a rapid, continuing increase."

"That suggests a microbial expansion," he added.

The proliferation of microbes, researchers said, is capable of raising carbon production.

Genomic analysis showed that Methanosarcina acquired genes that helped it make methane from acetate, according to Livescience. The gene transfer occurred around the time of the end-Permian extinction.

The team also found that large volcanic events such as Siberian eruptions could have fueled the feeding frenzy of the Methanosarcina by providing nickel- a key ingredient for microbial growth.

The study was supported by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Natural Science Foundation of China, and the National Basic Research Program of China and is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.