Mass Extinctions Part I
1. What could kill dinosaurs but not affect mammals? (this is from Raup)
2. What are background extinctions?
3. Could there be a theoretical "stable equilibrium" of global extinction rates? I think of this is terms of Island Biogeography.
4. If you knew of a coming mass extinction event and wanted to design a taxa to survive it, what biological characteristics would you give your designer taxa? Let's say the extinction event is going to be caused by a meteor.
5. What are the inherent flaws in calling the current biodiversity crisis the 6th mass extinction?
6. Are mass extinctions beneficial to evolutionary pulses? i.e. the evolution of fitness innovations.
7. Would we have punctuated equilibrium without mass extinctions?
8. Would you expect that ALL extinctions that took place during a mass extinction event were random or non-random? Or, is there a phylogenetic correlation to species/genus/family/order extinctions?
9. What about the inverse to question 8? Are taxa phylogenetically predisposed to surviving such an event?
10. Would mass extinctions affect tropical or temperate systems more?
11. How reliable do you think it is to use marine extinctions to extrapolate terrestrial responses to mass extinction events?
2. What are background extinctions?
3. Could there be a theoretical "stable equilibrium" of global extinction rates? I think of this is terms of Island Biogeography.
4. If you knew of a coming mass extinction event and wanted to design a taxa to survive it, what biological characteristics would you give your designer taxa? Let's say the extinction event is going to be caused by a meteor.
5. What are the inherent flaws in calling the current biodiversity crisis the 6th mass extinction?
6. Are mass extinctions beneficial to evolutionary pulses? i.e. the evolution of fitness innovations.
7. Would we have punctuated equilibrium without mass extinctions?
8. Would you expect that ALL extinctions that took place during a mass extinction event were random or non-random? Or, is there a phylogenetic correlation to species/genus/family/order extinctions?
9. What about the inverse to question 8? Are taxa phylogenetically predisposed to surviving such an event?
10. Would mass extinctions affect tropical or temperate systems more?
11. How reliable do you think it is to use marine extinctions to extrapolate terrestrial responses to mass extinction events?
I had a thought on Raup's "Kill Curve" (pg. 85). What is the implication of this curve for background extinction? The extinction rate should never drop to zero - you should have, say, one extinction every five years. What is the natural background extinction rate?
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