Earths Wobbly Orbit blamed for Mass Extinctions - Science a GoGo's Discussion Forums

Oct 12. 2006
Scientists have named a prime suspect in the mysterious case of the missing mammals. The reason history is littered with suspiciously regular extinctions is all down to the Earth's wobbly orbit, according to research published today.
Dr van Dam correlated the results with natural cycles in the Earth's orbit and found that every 2.4m years there was a flurry of both mammal extinctions and new species. The extinctions coincided with a cycle that sees the Earth's orbit vary from almost perfectly circular to elliptical. Another cycle of extinctions and emerging species overlapped with changes in the tilt of the Earth's axis, which occur every 1m years. The axis today stands at 23 degrees to the vertical.

Full Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1920051,00.html

Thoughts***
A New and interesting theory, much dependant upon there being dramatic swings in climate.
Which I find hard to equate given the long natural cycles of our Earths orbit, and the adaptation of
the smaller mammals?

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror," .....Mike Kremer

Very interesting. Thank you.

Mike, if you haven't already read it, you'll want to have a look at a novel by Allan W. Ekert called "The HAB Theory". It's a good read.

I rarely read novels, but on your recommendation
I will try to look at a copy this weekend

"...dating to between 24.5m and 2.5m years ago and only a few of which survive today.

Dr van Dam correlated the results with natural cycles in the Earth's orbit and found that every 2.4m years there was a flurry of both mammal extinctions and new species..."

Has anyone been able to find out where we are in that cycle now? There was a mass extinction that occured 70,000 years ago, as identified by human DNA research. Could it have been the apex of the cycle?

I don't know where we are in the big cycle, but I'm almost positive it wasn't 70kya.
This post below is from an Origins forum, but I think it addresses your question about mass extinction. I think the 70kya extinction is referred to as an extinction event though, not as a mass extinction.
~Sam

Quote:

Originally posted by samwik:
>Re: "I have no problem with the idea of multiple >emigrations out of Africa. There just doesn't seem to be >evidence of interbreeding with Neandertals." from -soilguy >(I think?)

Anyway, I haven't looked at the links yet but do any of them refer to how all the populations that left Africa before 70,000 yr. ago were probably wiped out by the big volcano back then. Was it Tambura***, in Indonesia? I'll go check the web, but there was a sort of "nuclear winter" back then which would explain why our diversity mainly traces back 70,000, except within Africa. Neanderthals probably did survive, being far enough away and better adapted. Basically, they could easily be the only 'out of Africa' group, from our lineage, that survived the volcano.
-Sam

***...and the next post corrects it to the volcano Toba (one of the supervolcano eruptions).
~Sam

Quote:

Originally posted by John M Reynolds:
"...dating to between 24.5m and 2.5m years ago and only a few of which survive today.

Dr van Dam correlated the results with natural cycles in the Earth's orbit and found that every 2.4m years there was a flurry of both mammal extinctions and new species..."

Has anyone been able to find out where we are in that cycle now? There was a mass extinction that occured 70,000 years ago, as identified by human DNA research. Could it have been the apex of the cycle?

that one occured at the same time as the last super valcano eruption, which was proven to have lowered the temperature a lot.

edit: sorry sam, i did not see that you posted about this.

Mike, what caused the extinctions in America from about 12,000 years ago, The extinctions in Australia about 45,000 years ago, the extinctions in New Zealand 1000 years ago, Madagascar 2000 years ago. These dates all coincide with the arrival of humans. Sure, the earth's wobly orbit may account for many ancient extinctions but certainly not for all the more recent ones.

Well you see Terry ... people coming to North America were stomping around really hard and created a wobble. Same in the other places you cite.

I just love wobbly ideas.