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Earth Cycled Through Five 'Mega-Climate' States, With Extinctions Spiking at Transitions
Key Takeaways
- A study in Nature Communications identifies five recurring 'mega-climate' states spanning the 539-million-year Phanerozoic Eon.
- The team, including UNM paleobiologist Corinne "Cori" Myers, found CO2 and temperature behavior can be approximated as transitions between these states.
- Periods of elevated extinction, including all five major mass extinctions, frequently occurred as the planet shifted between states.
- Vulnerability scores above zero indicate biosphere stress, and the mass extinctions all plot within that stressed region.
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DT Editorial Team··via phys.org