Are we Overdue for Extinction?

Today's article is a worrying one if the evidence it is based on is correct. Basically, scientists have found that there is somehow a cyclic pattern of mass extinction about every 62 million years for the past 500 million years. The last mass extinction occurred 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs died, which means we are about 3 million years overdue!

This surprising discovery came after researchers painstakingly entered 500 million years of fossil records into a computer database and a pattern became apparent. The problem is that scientists have no explanation for what causes these mass extinctions at such regular intervals, which is troubling. Without an explanation, we cannot hope to prepare for whatever the mass extinction event is. In fact (hopefully), it may have already passed without us noticing...

With surprising and mysterious regularity, life on Earth has flourished and vanished in cycles of mass extinction every 62 million years, say two UC Berkeley scientists who discovered the pattern after a painstaking computer study of fossil records going back for more than 500 million years.

Their findings are certain to generate a renewed burst of speculation among scientists who study the history and evolution of life. Each period of abundant life and each mass extinction has itself covered at least a few million years -- and the trend of biodiversity has been rising steadily ever since the last mass extinction, when dinosaurs and millions of other life forms went extinct about 65 million years ago.

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