Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-30T06:27:42.745Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rates of extinction in marine invertebrates: further comparison between background and mass extinctions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

J. Francis Thackeray
J. Francis Thackeray*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prominent extinction “events” have been recognized from statistical analyses of marine invertebrate genera represented in Mesozoic and Cenozoic assemblages, contrasting with relatively low “background” extinction intensities measured in terms of a “percentage extinction” index. On a logarithmic scale, the slope of the relationship between time and extinction intensity for background extinctions is shown to be parallel to the slope obtained for most extinction events, characterized by intensities 100.35 above prevailing background levels. Although extinction intensities are variable, this study suggests that the magnitude of the factor(s) primarily associated with most mass extinctions in a 260-m.y. period (N = 9) need not necessarily have been very different from one event to another, an exception being the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , Winter 1990 , pp. 22 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Boyajian, G. F. 1986. Phanerozoic trends in background extinction: consequences of an aging fauna. Geology 14:955–958.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flessa, K. W., and Jablonski, D. J. 1985. Declining Phanerozoic background extinction rates: effect of taxonomic structure? Nature 313:216–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harland, W. B., Cox, A. V., Llewellyn, P. G., Picton, C. A. G., Smith, A. G., and Walters, R. 1980. A Geologic Time Scale. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kitchell, J. A., and Pena, D. 1984. Periodicity of extinctions in the geologic past: deterministic versus stochastic explanations. Science 226:689–692.Google Scholar
Quinn, J. F. 1983. Mass extinctions in the fossil record. Science 219:1239–1240.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M., and Sepkoski, J. J. 1982. Mass extinctions in the marine fossil record. Science 215:1501–1502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raup, D. M., and Sepkoski, J. J. 1984. Periodicities of extinction in the geologic past. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 81:801–805.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raup, D. M., and Sepkoski, J. J. 1986. Periodic extinction of families and genera. Science 231:833–836.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M., Sepkoski, J. J. Jr., and Stigler, S. M. 1983. Mass extinctions in the fossil record: reply to J. F. Quinn. Science 219:1240–1241.Google Scholar
Sepkoski, J. J. Jr. 1986. Phanerozoic overview of mass extinction. In Raup, D. M., and Jablonski, D. (eds.), Patterns and Processes in the History of Life. Springer; Berlin.Google Scholar
Stanley, S. M. 1984. Marine mass extinctions: a dominant role for temperature. In Nitecki, M. H. (ed.), Extinctions. University of Chicago Press; Chicago.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L. M. 1984. A resetting of Phanerozoic community evolution. Nature 307:50–52.Google Scholar