a number of large extinction events which wiped out a significant fraction of the species on the planet and in some …

recent years. These include the average decline in extinction rates throughout the Phanerozoic, the average increase in … standing diversity, correlations between rates of origination and extinction, and simple laws governing the form of … possible forms of these trends, such as limits on the rate at which extinction may decline and limits on the allowed difference …

Recently, it has been shown that the power spectrum of extinction intensity during the Phanerozoic takes a power …-law form, which, it is suggested, may indicate the presence of critical phenomena in the dynamics underlying the extinction … average extinction rate during the Phanerozoic. Thus, there is no need to invoke critical phenomena to explain the observed …

have important implications in issues like the process of extinction and diversification or in understanding how …