I'm no expert, but my understanding is that past a certain point in history, the life that could thrive depended on an environment that no longer exists. For e

I'm no expert, but my understanding is that past a certain point in history, the life that could thrive depended on an environment that no longer exists. For example, the Great_Oxidation_Event (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event) that killed off many anerobic organisms. So there are still pockets environments that can support such anaerobes, but they are rare. Many Archaea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaea) are inhabitants of extreme environments - the extremophiles - but are they the same organisms as the ancient life here, or also relatives?