A mass extinction 2 billion years ago would have killed 99% of life on Earth

A mass extinction occurred about 2 billion years ago, destroying up to 99.5% of life on Earth, scientists reportedly reported. According to a study published last week and published Monday by Newsweek, it killed more of the Earth's biosphere than the event that resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Researchers used geochemical data from rocks in subarctic Canada to track the decline of oxygen in the atmosphere. Following what they call the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), researchers say that this one has gone from "the" party "to" starvation "" over the next billion years. ; years.

"An unprecedented geological reduction in the size of the biosphere has occurred throughout the transition from the GOE to the GOE," they wrote.

"Over the 100 to 200 million years that preceded this deadly event, the planet was heavily populated, but after this event, much of it died," Peter Crockford told Newsweek, l & # 39; author of the study. "According to our estimates, there could be between 99.5% and 80% of life on the planet dead about 2 billion years ago.