Confidence intervals for the duration of a mass extinction

• Published in: Paleobiology
• Main Authors: Wang, Steve C., Zimmerman, Aaron E., McVeigh, Brendan S., Everson, Philip J., Wong, Heidi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2012
• Subjects: Paleontology; General Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Ecology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Seymour; Seymour Island; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1666/11016.1; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0094837300000579

A key question in studies of mass extinctions is whether the extinction was a sudden or gradual event. This question may be addressed by examining the locations of fossil occurrences in a stratigraphic section. However, the fossil record can be consistent with both sudden and gradual extinctions. Ra...