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New theory for mass extinctions

A new theory on just what causes Earth's worst mass extinctions may help settle the endless scientific dust-up on the matter. Whether you favor meteor impacts, volcanic eruptions, cosmic rays, epidemics or some other cause for the worst mass extinction events in Earth's history, no single cause has ever satisfied all scientists all the time for any extinction event. That may be because big extinctions aren't simple events.

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Keywords: theory, mass, extinctions, extinction

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1. Extraterrestrial impact likely source of sudden Ice Age extinctions
   09-24-2007 · EurekAlert!
   What killed the wooly mammoths? An international team of scientists, including Peter Schultz of Brown University, suggests that a comet or meteorite exploded over the planet roughly 12,900 years ago, causing the abrupt climate changes that led to the extinction of the wooly mammoth and other giant prehistoric beasts. Their theory is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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2. Going Under Down Under: Early people at fault in Australian extinctions
   01-20-2007 · Science News Online
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3. Recovering from a mass extinction
   01-18-2008 · EurekAlert!
   The full recovery of ecological systems, following the most devastating extinction event of all time, took at least 30 million years, according to new research from the University of Bristol. Previous work indicates that life bounced back quite quickly, but this was mostly in the form of 'disaster taxa' (opportunistic organisms that filled the empty ecospace left behind by the extinction).
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   01-23-2008 · EurekAlert!
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5. November GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY Media Highlights
   11-05-2007 · EurekAlert!
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7. Mass extinction's cause: 'Sick Earth'
   10-20-2006 · EurekAlert!
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8. Birth rate, competition are major players in hominid extinctions
   02-16-2007 · EurekAlert!
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9. Fossil record supports evidence of impending mass extinction
   10-24-2007 · EurekAlert!
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    07-16-2007 · EurekAlert!
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