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No fractals in fossil extinction statistics

Author

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  • James W. Kirchner

    (University of California)

  • Anne Weil

    (University of California)

Abstract

Statistical analyses of the fossil record seek to discover the mechanisms controlling biotic diversity throughout the Earth's history. Solé et al.1 reported that many extinction time series are statistically self-similar, with 1/f power spectra, suggesting that extinctions are driven by self-organized criticality or by other scale-free internal dynamics of the biosphere. Here we show that the apparent self-similarity and 1/f scaling reported by Solé et al. are artefacts of their interpolation methods. Extinction records that are not interpolated show no evidence of fractal scaling.

Suggested Citation

  • James W. Kirchner & Anne Weil, 1998. "No fractals in fossil extinction statistics," Nature, Nature, vol. 395(6700), pages 337-338, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:395:y:1998:i:6700:d:10.1038_26384
    DOI: 10.1038/26384
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    Cited by:

    1. Sornette, D & Helmstetter, A, 2003. "Endogenous versus exogenous shocks in systems with memory," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 318(3), pages 577-591.
    2. M. E. J. Newman & Gunther J. Eble, 1998. "Power Spectra of Extinction in the Fossil Record," Working Papers 98-12-109, Santa Fe Institute.
    3. Gunther J. Eble, 1999. "Originations: Land and Sea Compared," Working Papers 99-04-028, Santa Fe Institute.
    4. Ricard V. Sole & Susanna C. Manrubia & Juan Perez-Mercader & Michael Benton & Per Bak, 1998. "Long-Range Correlations in the Fossil Record and the Fractal Nature of Macroevolution," Working Papers 98-11-096, Santa Fe Institute.
    5. D. Sornette & A. Helmstetter, 2002. "Endogeneous Versus Exogeneous Shocks in Systems with Memory," Papers cond-mat/0206047, arXiv.org.

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