Re: acid Sig-Lipps

[jlipps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jere H. Lipps)]

Very important point.  Recovery is more interesting than extinction, but
not as exciting or Time-ly.

>I largely agree with Jere regarding the role of paleontology in analyzing
>mass extinctions - although I think this is largely true for what Underwood
>termed "pulse" events - very rapid catastrophic events.  This may not be
>true for "press" events which have a longer duration. In contrast to Stanley's
>recent Science Paper, I think the P/Tr was a rather prolongued event, with
>a very rapid extinction pulse close to the apparent P/Tr boundary.  The
>F/F seems to be a series of several stepped extinctions, whether press or
>pulse isn't really clear.  This distinction may also have important implication
>s for the nature of the recoveries following mass extinctions.
>Doug Erwin

Jere H. Lipps
Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
Director, Museum of Paleontology
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
510-642-9006 fax 642-1822
jlipps@ucmp1.berkeley.edu