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Large-body impact and extinction in the Phanerozoic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2016

David M. Raup
David M. Raup*
Affiliation:
Department of the Geological Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
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Abstract

The kill curve for Phanerozoic marine species is used to investigate large-body impact as a cause of species extinction. Current estimates of Phanerozoic impact rates are combined with the kill curve to produce an impact-kill curve, which predicts extinction levels from crater diameter, on the working assumption that impacts are responsible for all “pulsed” extinctions. By definition, pulsed extinction includes the approximately 60% of Phanerozoic extinctions that occurred in short-lived events having extinction rates greater than 5%. The resulting impact-kill curve is credible, thus justifying more thorough testing of the impact-extinction hypothesis. Such testing is possible but requires an exhaustive analysis of radiometric dating of Phanerozoic impact events.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , Winter 1992 , pp. 80 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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References

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