Slashdot Mirror
New Theory Links Biodiversity to the Stars
eldavojohn writes "Space.com's Mystery Monday has an article proposing a hypothesis that our solar system's undulations directly affects biodiversity on earth through cosmic-ray exposure. There's data that, through the fossil record, shows us earth's biodiversity peaking again and again until a great cataclysmic period where it is greatly reduced. The theory essentially suggests that this 62 million year cycle can be attributed to how our solar system moves within the milky way galaxy which turns out to be a 64 million year cycle. It's a plausible explanation though very tough to prove, hopefully we don't have to wait around 64 million years to draw a conclusion on this hypothesis."
There is nothing really backing this one up. The Permian extinction could have just as easily been a glaciation on Gondwana. My personal vote would be that the Permian and Ordovician extinctions were the result of some earth-based forcing of the environment. But most importantly, this new information is just a hypothesis, nothing more. Lets not try to give it more weight than it deserves.