In article ,
Brett Aubrey   wrote:
>My notes suggest that the earliest photosynthesis was around ~3.1 BYA, which
>concurrently began to create an oxidized atmosphere.  This in turn started
>the extinction of anaerobes and the rise of aerobic organisms.
>
>If these notes are relatively accurate, do we have an ballpark idea of the
>length of time it took for the extinction of anaerobic organisms?  (e.g.
>tens or hundreds of millions of years?)  Regards,  Brett Aubrey.

It seems to be taking forever.  That extinction is still not complete.  As I
sit here my gut is loaded with an anaerobic bacterium (Bacteroides), for
example.  So is yours.

-- 
Joe Felsenstein         joe{at}removethispart.gs.washington.edu
 Department of Genome Sciences and Department of Biology,
 University of Washington, Box 357730, Seattle, WA 98195-7730 USA
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