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"significant reductions in diversity at 415, 322, 300, 145 and 33 Myr ago" - it seems that periods between extinctions events are so large that you can easily f
by antonmks 9y ago
"significant reductions in diversity at 415, 322, 300, 145 and 33 Myr ago" - it seems that periods between extinctions events are so large that you can easily fit there hundreds and even thousands of civilizations like ours. So not much to worry about, we will have plenty of opportunities to kill ourselves before a comet does us in.
- dghughes 9y agoI'm not a math wizard but going by that pattern it seems the periods are getting shorter. I tried to find a sequence https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=415,+322,+300,+145,+33,+.. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=415,+322,+300,+145,+33....
- marcosdumay 9y agoMy bet is that is because of observation biases. We don't know a lot about distant past, and may have lost some events that we'd call great extinctions if they were recent.
- mrec 9y agoThe periods (intervals between events) there would be [93, 22, 155, 112] My. That doesn't look like they're getting shorter.
- swamp40 9y agoBut they are getting closer! :)