title: Large-body impact and extinction in the Phanerozoic.
abstract: The kill curve for Phanerozoic marine species is used to investigate large-body impact as a cause of species extinction.  Current estimates of Phanerozoic impact rates are combined with the kill curve to produce an impact-kill curve, which predicts extinction levels from crater diameter, on the working assumption that impacts are responsible for all "pulsed" extinctions.  By definition, pulsed extinction includes the approximately 60% of Phanerozoic extinctions that occurred in short-lived events having extinction rates greater than 5%.  The resulting impact-kill curve is credible, thus justifying more thorough testing of the impact-extinction hypothesis.  Such testing is possible but requires an exhaustive analysis of radiometric dating of Phanerozoic impact events.
authors.affiliation: Department of the Geological Sciences, University of Chicago, Illinois 60637.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Raup
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D005580:Fossils; D055593:Geological Phenomena; D005844:Geology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010163:Paleontology; D016082:Solar System; D013997:Time Factors