Editor's Summary
10 March 2005
The 62-million-year question
With the posthumously published A Compendium of Fossil Marine Animal Genera, Jack Sepkoski initiated a new wave in palaeontology: the exploration of major patterns in the history of life as recorded by compilations of taxonomic data. This database, which records first and last stratigraphic appearances of over 36,000 marine genera, has been reanalysed in the light of the latest stratigraphic time scales, and a previously unrecognized 62-million-year cycle in the diversity of fossil genera emerges. As yet there is no explanation, but various models involving climate, environment, geological and astrophysical factors should provide testable predictions to help solve the mystery.
News and Views: Biodiversity: Fossils make waves
A 62-million-year cycle in biodiversity emerges from scrutiny of a marine-fossil database, but its causes remain mysterious. Thus, this discovery is likely to provoke a flurry of theoretical speculation.
James W. Kirchner and Anne Weil
doi:10.1038/434147a
Letter: Cycles in fossil diversity
Robert A. Rohde and Richard A. Muller
doi:10.1038/nature03339
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (205K) | Supplementary information