Delayed biological recovery from extinctions throughout the fossil record

Article Abstract:

The rate that biodiversity rebounds after extinctions in general, rather than after individual mass extinctions was measured. The measurements were based on calculations of the cross-correlation between extinction and origination rates over the whole Phanerozoic marine fossil record. Extinction rates were not found to be significantly correlated with contemporaneous origination rates, but are correlated with origination rates around 10 million years later.

Research, Biological diversity, Biodiversity, Extinction (Biology)

---

Fossils make waves

Article Abstract:

Jack Sepkoski initiated a new wave in paleontology by exploring the major patterns in the history of life as recorded by complications of taxonomic data in his book 'A Compendium of Fossil Marine Animal Genera'. The database that records first and last stratigraphic appearances of over 36,000 marine genera, are reanalyzed in the light of the new stratigraphic time scales, and a previously unrecognized 62-million-year cycle in the diversity of fossil genera emerges.

---

No fractals in fossil extinction statistics

Article Abstract:

It is shown that apparent self-similarity and 1/f scaling reported by Sole and colleagues are artefacts of their interpolation methods. They recognized the possibility of interpolation artefacts, but also discovered 1/f scaling in ammonoid and planktonic foram diversity fluctuations having no interpolation. However the actual spectra do not resemble 1/f spectra, and other results do not suggest fractal scaling in the extinction record, nor support recent biotic evolution models driven by self-organized criticality.

Records and correspondence

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Decoherence of quantum superpositons through coupling to engineered reservoirs. Experimental entanglement of four particles
• Abstracts: North-south geological differences between the residual polar caps on Mars. Evidence for non-synchronous rotation of Europa

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.