Decline in extinction rates and scale invariance in the fossil record

dc.creatorNewman, M. E. J.
dc.creatorEble, Gunther J.
dc.date1998-09-22
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T01:50:59Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T01:50:59Z
dc.descriptionWe show that the decline in the extinction rate during the Phanerozoic can be accurately parameterized by a logarithmic fit to the cumulative total extinction. This implies that extinction intensity is falling off approximately as the reciprocal of time. We demonstrate that this observation alone is sufficient to explain the existence of the proposed power-law forms in the distribution of the sizes of extinction events and in the power spectrum of Phanerozoic extinction, results which previously have been explained by appealing to self-organized critical theories of evolutionary dynamics.
dc.description11 pages including 3 postscript figures, typeset in LaTeX 2e using the Elsevier macro package elsart.cls
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/adap-org/9809004
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/adap-org/9809004
dc.identifierPaleobiology 25, 434-439 (1999)
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/180
dc.subjectAdaptation and Self-Organizing Systems
dc.subjectQuantitative Biology
dc.titleDecline in extinction rates and scale invariance in the fossil record
dc.typetext

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