linkedin post 2018-01-14 07:29:05

SO ENDS this first of two weekend Fragments on extinctions versus diversity explosions during the history of life. The staggering facts that 99% of life that ever existed has gone extinct, amounting to an estimated 5 billion species, are a snapshot of both the robustness of life, and that it hangs like a thread in the flow of time. Looking around at the diversity around us, it seems hard to fathom. But each expansive radiation of life post-extinction takes about 5 million years, as we will see next weekend. Breathtaking numbers.

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