title: Periodicity of mass extinctions without an extraterrestrial cause.
abstract: We study a lattice model of a multispecies prey-predator system. Numerical results show that for a small mutation rate the model develops irregular long-period oscillatory behavior with sizeable changes in a number of species. The periodicity of extinctions on Earth was suggested by Raup and Sepkoski [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 81, 801 (1984)], but thus far is lacking a satisfactory explanation. Our model indicates that this might be a natural consequence of the ecosystem dynamics and not the result of any extraterrestrial cause.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, 61-614 Pozńan, Poland.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lipowski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003198:Computer Simulation; D018534:Earth, Planet; D017753:Ecosystem; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D005716:Game Theory; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D010507:Periodicity; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate