Earth Sciences: Paleontology: Extinction

A professional technical paper discussing whether the Late Devonian (Frasnian-Famennian) mass extinction was initiated by an extraterrestrial impact or an earth-bound event.

A number of extinction concepts are discussed and loosely defined, followed by a survey of some important extinction and "extinction-like" events, primarily from the Phanerozoic.

Covers patterns and periodicity of extinction, with discussions of major mass extinctions and minor extinction events.