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RAPID RESTART. “We emphasise the astonishing speed of biological diversification following a ‘catastrophic’ mass extinction. We could refer to this feature as ‘catastrophic biological diversification’.” https://lnkd.in/eRbPBJq View in LinkedIn

PEA APHIDS. "These insects live in groups of close kin, and their death prevents their body from producing parasites that would then attack their siblings. Death therefore increases the individual’s inclusive fitness, or equivalently, increases the fitness of the kin group." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

NOVELTY HOTSPOTS. “Certain habitats and regions, such as onshore marine settings, and the tropics in both marine and terrestrial settings, appear to be important sources of postextinction evolutionary novelty.” http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5393.full/Donnie) View in LinkedIn

APHID SUICIDE. "Observations of organismal suicide have been carefully researched and documented. Pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) that are parasitized by the Braconid wasp Aphidius ervi drop from the host plant, causing their own death." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

TIMEFRAMES. “The fossil record shows that destructive and generative aspects of extinction generally operate in different time frames. Recoveries of different biomes, clades, or communities may have different postextinction lag times.” http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5393.full/Donnie) View in LinkedIn

BURSTS OF INNOVATION. “Attempts to predict evolutionary behavior after major extinction events can only operate in broad generalities, and always with the caveat, “expect the unexpected.” http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5393.full/Donnie) View in LinkedIn

NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL. “Although the evolutionary response to mass extinction has sometimes been depicted simply in terms of the reoccupation of preextinction adaptive peaks (“reinventing the ecological wheel), evolution is both too opportunistic and too constrained by inherited body plans for this to be wholly true.” http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5393.full/Donnie) View in LinkedIn

EXUBERANT RADIATION. “Postextinction bursts of diversification have been extensively discussed and documented for many extinction events, both morphologically and at several taxonomic levels.” http://www.pnas.org/content/98/10/5393.full/Donnie) View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend on the theme of mass extinctions, and how life on this planet has teetered between explosive diversity and near extinction five times in its short history. Despite these near fatal wipeout situations, enough individuals survive to repopulate the world. But, curiously, after the great Cambian explosion of diversity, no new phyla have evolved. View in LinkedIn

ITEROPAROUS ORGANISMS "have multiple reproductive episodes during the life cycle, as opposed to a solitary event. In these species, senescence leading to death is less abrupt and dramatic, but is ubiquitous nonetheless. Although data are difficult to collect, a high rate of death due to senescence in iteroparous species has been documented for some species even in the wild." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn