LIFE ON THE EDGE: SURVIVING EARTH'S GREATEST EXTINCTIONS

In the abyssal darkness, ancient microbial communities thrived. Around hydrothermal springs, they had lived for billions of years. They had no defense against oxygen. No enzymes. No protection. Oxygen reacted with their minerals. Locked them in inaccessible compounds. Tore apart their molecules. Microbial city after city was annihilated. Only one percent survived. Everything alive today descends from that one percent.