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Periodic Extinctions Have Been the Rule for Life on Earth. Extinction has been wide spread. Cambrian - 80% of families - > 90% of species Permian - 60% families 90% species Cretaceous - 20% families > 50% species.
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Periodic Extinctions Have Been the Rule for Life on Earth • Extinction has been wide spread. • Cambrian - • 80% of families - • > 90% of species • Permian - • 60% families • 90% species • Cretaceous - • 20% families • > 50% species
Is it possible that life has not been a process of ever expanding diversity? • Could speciation and diversification be a process of periodic extinction and subsequent reradiation?
So How Old is the Earliest living Organism? Gunflint Chert in Banded Iron formation -- Lake Superior about 1.9 b.y. old
Stromatolites - bacterial tufts Western Australia & elsewhere Contain fossil bacteria (cyanbobacteria) 3.5 - 4.0 b.y. old
New Techniques have discovered much more diversity, leading to revision of classification