• DOI:10.1126/SCIENCE.11542058
Corpus ID: 23012011

Biological extinction in earth history.

@article{Raup1986BiologicalEI,
  title={Biological extinction in earth history.},
  author={D. Raup},
  journal={Science},
  year={1986},
  volume={231},
  pages={
          1528-33
        }
}

• D. Raup
• Published 1986
• Medicine
• Science

Virtually all plant and animal species that have ever lived on the earth are extinct. For this reason alone, extinction must play an important role in the evolution of life. The five largest mass extinctions of the past 600 million years are of greatest interest, but there is also a spectrum of smaller events, many of which indicate biological systems in profound stress. Extinction may be episodic at all scales, with relatively long periods of stability alternating with short-lived extinction… Expand