Mass Extinctions vs. Uniformitarianism in Biological Evolution

Details Mass Extinctions vs. Uniformitarianism in Biological Evolution Mass Extinctions vs. Uniformitarianism in Biological Evolution

1996-02-02

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9602012v1

Physics

Condensed Matter

17 pages uuencoded with style file lamuphys.sty. 9 figures not included but can be obtained via bak@cmth.phy.bnl.gov. to appea

Scientific paper

It is usually believed that Darwin's theory leads to a smooth gradual evolution, so that mass extinctions must be caused by external shocks. However, it has recently been argued that mass extinctions arise from the intrinsic dynamics of Darwinian evolution. Species become extinct when swept by intermittent avalanches propagating through the global ecology. These ideas are made concrete through studies of simple mathematical models of coevolving species. The models exhibit self-organized criticality and describe some general features of the extinction pattern in the fossil record.

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