Cycles in Fossil Diversity (paper from Nature). See also diversity data parsed in 171 different ways (pdf file). In the 10 March 2005 issue of Nature, graduate student Robert Rohde and I report the discovery of a strong 62 Myr cycle in fossil diversity. (Click for pdf copy.) The cycle is huge, and it does not have a ready explanation. I show below a plot from our paper that shows the number of shorter-duration genera back to 545 Million years ago. (Incidentally, I was misquoted in a newspaper account. No, I have not abandoned the Nemesis idea.) PBS broadcast an interview with me on the subject, but the link is broken; if anybody finds it, please let me know and I'll post the link here. The old (now dead) link was
http://131.243.129.75:554/ramgen/Teid/TABL/Mar-18-2005-CBC-Muller.rm
http://131.243.129.75:554/ramgen/Teid/TABL/Mar-18-2005-CBC-Muller.rm
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