Periodicity of mass extinctions without an extraterrestrial cause
Other Condensed Matter
2009-11-10 v2 Statistical Mechanics
Populations and Evolution
Abstract
We study a lattice model of a multi-species prey-predator system. Numerical results show that for a small mutation rate the model develops irregular long-period oscillatory behavior with sizeable changes in a number of species. The periodicity of extinctions on Earth was suggested by Raup and Sepkoski but so far is lacking a satisfactory explanation. Our model indicates that this is a natural consequence of the ecosystem dynamics, not the result of any extraterrestrial cause.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0411729,
title = {Periodicity of mass extinctions without an extraterrestrial cause},
author = {Adam Lipowski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0411729},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, accepted in Phys.Rev. E