On the statistical detection of cycles in extinctions in the marine fossil record

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Abstract
Periodicity has recently been reported in the extinction rates of fossil marine families since the Permian. The analysis used appears particularly sensitive to parameter estimation techniques, particularly in the definition of mass extinctions. It also fails to incorporate autocorrelation in the fossil record into its null hypothesis and rests on an inappropriatea posterioricomparison to the null hypothesis. An alternative analysis, examining the time-lags between periods of high extinction rates, produces no evidence of a cycle.