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New Theory Explains Periodic Mass Extinctions

Posted by Zonk on from the we're-not-due-for-a-little-while-yet dept.

i_like_spam writes "The theory that the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid impact, the K-T extinction, is well known and supported by fossil and geological evidence. Asteroid impact theory does not apply to the other fluctuations in biodiversity, however, which follow an approximate 62 million-year cycle. As reported in Science, a new theory seems to explain periodic mass extinctions. The new theory found that oscillations in the Sun relative to the plane of the Milky Way correlate with changes in biodiversity on Earth. The researchers suggest that an increase in the exposure of Earth to extragalactic cosmic rays causes mass extinctions. The original paper describing the findings is available online."

15 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. Huh. Better get to work! by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Only 7 million years from now, for all you long range planners. Better stock up on beans, bottled water and relocate your house 1 kilometer underground.

    It's a perfectly reasonable hypothesis, though it'll be a while before we can test it. It's always a little weird though, to think of extra-solar events as relevant on a "local" scale. I mean, in the same way that Earth is endangered by rogue meteorites and asteroids, the whole solar system is vulnerable to a rogue star or brown dwarf. Anyone ever read Jack McDevitt? He's obsessed with that sort of disaster (pun intended).

    Hard to get your mind around it...The odds are so long...

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    1. Re:Huh. Better get to work! by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 5, Funny
      So we have 7 million years to figure out space flight and/or a way to record the sum of our knowledge for future intelligences.

      We're hosed.

      --
      If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
    2. Re:Huh. Better get to work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dude... A house 1 kilometer underground, and you want to stock up BEANS??

    3. Re:Huh. Better get to work! by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Funny

      ... the emerging rat civilization

      Let me guess: the rats are the warriors, the hamsters are the scientists,
      and a bright orange guinea pig named Dr Zeus will be in charge.

  2. It burns... by unchiujar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will my tinfoil hat protect me ?

    --
    Shakespeare poems - infinite monkeys with infinite time.Computer tech support - a few trained ones working from 9 to 5.
  3. Nah this is not correct either. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Funny
    What? Sun? Galactic Plane? Intergalactic Rays? You guys are watching way too many reruns of Star Trek.

    Everyone knows the extinctions were perfectly explained using the Theory of Intelligent Smiting.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Nah this is not correct either. by AJWM · · Score: 5, Informative

      You forgot to mention Christopher Columbus's theory that the earth is round... [...]when the rest of the so called "Intelligent" people of the world said it was flat.

      LOL! You still believe that nursery school myth?

      NO intelligent person in Columbus's time thought the world was flat -- as it clearly is not to anyone sufficiently observant. Columbus's problem is that he wanted to go to Asia via a western route, and everyone intelligent knew that with a circumference of about 25,000 miles, Eratosthenes having calculated it about 240 BC (as others had since). Hence they "knew" that with the sailing technology of the day, there was no way Columbus could make the voyage.

      They were right, too. Had the Americas not been in his way, his expedition would have perished before he got as far as the longitude of Hawaii.

      There is some evidence that Columbus may in fact have known that there was some land mass to the west considerably before Asia (the Vikings certainly did, and it is quite possible that fishermen who went as far as the Grand Banks were also aware). Whether from that he decided that Eratosthenes was wrong and the circumference was smaller (possibly influenced by Ptolemy's maps (from Geographica) which underestimated the circumference at about 18,000 miles), or whether he was just arguing that way to get backing for an expedition (with the secret purpose of discovering and exploiting just whatever land mass was there), we have no way of knowing.

      That mistake alone discredits the rest of your post as to make it not even worth reading.

      --
      -- Alastair
  4. Figure 4 in the paper by Pausanias · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Check out Figure 4 at the end of the linked paper. It shows that the periods of highest diversity coincide with the periods where the cosmic ray flux is lowest. Really amazing correlation if you ask me.

  5. Re:Well, that would explain by eln · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article suggests that this does not explain the K-T event, which is already adequately explained by the asteroid impact theory. This theory explains the cyclical decreases in biodiversity that seem to happen about once every 62 million years. The K-T event is not part of this cyclical pattern.

  6. Or Maybe... by MxTxL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The researchers suggest that an increase in the exposure of Earth to extragalactic cosmic rays causes mass extinctions.

    Or maybe, the increased radiation merely causes some periods of increased mutations... extinctions follow as species are outcompeted for resources.

  7. (5am posting, sorry) by ggvaidya · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... extragalactic cosmic rays causes mass extinctions ...

    Can we please oh please oh please call them death rays?
  8. Well... by Chouonsoku · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one welcome our new cosmic ray-based overlords! (I just felt like I hadn't seen that lately. :'( Mod me as you wish. But, be gentle.)

  9. to quote inidana jones: by conspirator57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    you say: "A truth is a fact,"

    Indiana Jones says, "Archaeology is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall."

    --
    "If still these truths be held to be
    Self evident."
    -Edna St. Vincent Millay
  10. Re:Perfectly reasonable hypothesis? by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds like someone needs to edit Wikipedia to make this hypothesis fit a little better...

    --
    This guy's the limit!
  11. NOT About Mass Extinctions! by markk · · Score: 5, Informative

    The title of the summary is totally wrong. This has nothing to do with mass extinctions. Its looking at fossil Species and Family counts vs time correlated with Solar motion. The 62 MY cycle barely touches the Mass extinction events.
    Better summary title - "Life's Diversity changes with Solar Galactic Orbit". Or something like that.