Scientists at the University of Plymouth compiled a database of 22,263 individual fossil marine invertebrates belonging to 1, 770 families of organisms.

Lowly bottom-feeders survived the biggest mass extinction in history to rescue life in the world’s oceans, a study has found.

Globally, the Late Permian extinction 252 million years ago wiped out 90 per cent of all marine species, but creatures living on the sea floor fared better with almost 40 per cent surviving.

Scientists at the University of Plymouth made the discovery after compiling a database of 22,263 individual fossil marine invertebrates belonging to 1,770 families of organisms.

The researchers worked out how each species moved, fed and affected the ecosystem.

They learned that after the extinction, driven by volcanic eruptions and climate change, 38 per cent of benthic – or sea floor – life survived.

“Crucially, not one of the key ecological groups of animals that lived on or within the seafloor, and which keep ecosystems functioning, were completely eliminated,” said lead scientist Richard Twitchett.

Colleague William Foster said: “The fact that none of the key benthic ecological groups were completely eliminated globally during the biggest known extinction recorded in the fossil record was unexpected and demonstrates a certain level of resilience that had not been appreciated before.”

The researchers worked out how each species moved, fed and affected the ecosystem

The findings reported in the journal Nature Geoscience may help scientists better understand the fate of life in the oceans as a result of climate change today.

“We might predict that the present changes will not cause complete elimination of these key functional groups, unless future extinctions turn out to be more severe than that experienced 252 million years ago,” said Foster.

“However, our results also clearly show that some ecosystems do completely collapse, especially tropical ecosystems, in particular reefs.”

Twitchett said: “In this case, the global oceans in the extinction aftermath were a bit like a ship manned by a skeleton crew: all stations were operational but manned by relatively few species.”