Periodicity of mass extinctions without an extraterrestrial cause

2004/11/30 by Adam Lipowski · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.other #cond-mat.stat-mech #q-bio.PE

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.71.052902

published as Phys.Rev. E 71, 052902 (2005) · 4 pages, accepted in Phys.Rev. E

arxiv created 2005/03/13 · openalex publication_date 2005/05/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We study a lattice model of a multispecies prey-predator system. Numerical results show that for a small mutation rate the model develops irregular long-period oscillatory behavior with sizeable changes in a number of species. The periodicity of extinctions on Earth was suggested by Raup and Sepkoski [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 81, 801 (1984)], but thus far is lacking a satisfactory explanation. Our model indicates that this might be a natural consequence of the ecosystem dynamics and not the result of any extraterrestrial cause.

Citations

• Delayed recovery and the spacing of major extinctions
• Extinction dynamics of Lotka-Volterra ecosystems on evolving networks
• Punctuated equilibria and1/fnoise in a biological coevolution model with individual-based dynamics
• Periodicity of extinctions in the geologic past.
• Phase transitions for rock-scissors-paper game on different networks

Cited by

• Network growth approach to macroevolution
• Life Before Earth