Long-Range Correlations in the Fossil Record and the Fractal Nature of Macroevolution

Ricard V. Sole, Susanna C. Manrubia, Juan Perez-Mercader, Michael Benton and Per Bak

Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute

Abstract: Recent studies on the fossil record time series has shown that there is consistent evidence for self-similarity i.e., long-range correlations with power-law behavior. The existence of such fractal structures means that, when looking at a given time frame, some basic properties remain the same if a change of scale is performed. To sum up: there is no characteristic time scale, as we could expect if some type of periodic or other low-dimensional dynamics were present. A possible explanation for such long-range order is a dynamical process operating at all scales, as it is the case for systems in the neighborhood of critical points. In this paper these results are further explored by extending previous data analysis and examining the relevance of recent theoretical approaches to the statistical features of the fossil record.

Submitted to Proc. Roy. Soc. London B.

Keywords: Self-organized criticality; macroevolution; extinctions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:safiwp:98-11-096

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().