Friday, March 11, 2005

Mass extinction comes every 62 million years, UC physicists discover

"Muller and Rohde conceded that they have puzzled through every conceivable phenomenon in nature in search of an explanation: 'We've had to think about solar system dynamics, about the causes of comet showers, about how the galaxy works, and how volcanoes work, but nothing explains what we've discovered,' Muller said."

Further evidence of Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis? Perhaps the planetary brain "decides" that 62 million years is ample time for a species to evolve sufficiently to migrate into space -- and, if not, too bad.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Then we're WAY overdue, I'd say. (Like about 2 million years overdue?)
--WMB

11:23 PM
Anonymous said...

Since we'd be overdue, I'd say that throws a wrench into any theory involving an astronomical cycle and perhaps even one involving a volcanic cycle. Would it be reasonable to suspect biological reasons, such as a one or a few successful species killing off a lot of other species only to end up starving? That seems like something that would happen in cycles, while at the same time not sticking to a precise schedule. Maybe the size and geography of the planet dictate the interval? Yes, I'm letting myself be led by the nose by that previous link about humans being the cause for mass extinction. :)

10:47 AM
RJU said...

I think that most likely the 62 million year cycle is not delayed as W.M. suggests. It fits fairly well with the Cretaceous extinction and the start of the Quaternary period, Pleistocene epoch about 1.8 million years ago. Significant extinctions took place at the Tertiary/Quaternary boundary, although not as pronounced and well known as the extinctions at the Cretaceous/Tertary boundary. This means we are only in the beginning of one of these 62 million year cycles. Probably it would be best to wait for the publication of this work in "Nature" and get more information about all this before making more speculations.

5:15 PM

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