Evolution’s Death Row: Groups surviving mass extinction still go bust
By Kristin Cobb
Sets of species may persist through major extinction events only to die off in the aftermath, new research suggests.
Paleontologists recognize five cataclysmic episodes in Earth’s history, times when 50 to 95 percent of existing species abruptly vanished. Scientists have long studied the causes and casualties of these mass-extinction events (SN: 2/24/01, p. 116: Extinctions Tied to Impact from Space). Recently, focus has shifted to survivors, but only those that went on to “fame and fortune,” not those that later failed, says paleontologist David Jablonski of the University of Chicago.