  Extremal dynamics represents a path to self-organized criticality in which
the order parameter is tuned to a value of zero. The order parameter is
associated with a phase transition to an absorbing state. Given a process that
exhibits a phase transition to an absorbing state, we define an ``extremal
absorbing" process, providing the link to the associated extremal
(nonabsorbing) process. Stationary properties of the latter correspond to those
at the absorbing-state phase transition in the former. Studying the absorbing
version of an extremal dynamics model allows to determine certain critical
exponents that are not otherwise accessible. In the case of the Bak-Sneppen
(BS) model, the absorbing version is closely related to the "$f$-avalanche"
introduced by Paczuski, Maslov and Bak [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 53}, 414 (1996)], or,
in spreading simulations to the "BS branching process" also studied by these
authors. The corresponding nonextremal process belongs to the directed
percolation universality class. We revisit the absorbing BS model, obtaining
refined estimates for the threshold and critical exponents in one dimension. We
also study an extremal version of the usual contact process, using mean-field
theory and simulation. The extremal condition slows the spread of activity and
modifies the critical behavior radically, defining an ``extremal directed
percolation" universality class of absorbing-state phase transitions.
Asymmetric updating is a relevant perturbation for this class, even though it
is irrelevant for the corresponding nonextremal class.
