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Dryad

Data for: A persistent influence of supernovae on biodiversity over the Phanerozoic

Data files

Mar 20, 2023 version files 41.60 MB

Abstract

Paper abstract: It is an open question what has constrained macro-evolutionary changes of marine animal diversity on the time scale of the Phanerozoic. Here we will show that supernovae appear to have significantly influenced the biodiversity of life. After normalizing diversity curves of major animal marine genera by the changes in the area of shallow marine margins, a close correlation between supernovae frequency and biodiversity is obtained. The interpretation is that supernovae influence Earth's climate, which controls the ocean and atmospheric circulation of nutrients. With this, supernovae influence ocean bioproductivity and are speculated to affect genera-level diversity. The implication is a surprisingly influential role of stellar processes on evolution. 

Data provided: Here is the R-code to extract data from "The Paleobiology Database" (https://paleobiodb.org) and calculate genius-level diversity curves used in the study. In addition, are data files on temporal changes in the areas of shallow marine margins used to normalize the genus-level diversity curves.