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Evaluating Paleontologic Data Relating to Bio-Events

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Global Events and Event Stratigraphy in the Phanerozoic

Abstract

Measurements of diversity and extinction intensity around bio-events in local stratigraphic sections and global taxonomic data bases include some degree of uncertainty, or potential error. Sources of uncertainty involve failure to sample rarer species in all collections and imprecise age correlations and species counts, among others. This chapter presents several methods for evaluating this paleontologic uncertainty. For fossil ranges in local sections, methods are reviewed that might help to discriminate between true gradual (or stepwise) extinction and apparent gradual decline resulting from sampling effects. For tabulated extinctions in regional or global data bases, methods are evaluated for measuring extinction intensity and procedures are presented for calculating relative uncertainty.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA

    J. John Sepkoski Jr.

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, 23529, USA

    Carl F. Koch

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  1. J. John Sepkoski Jr.
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  2. Carl F. Koch
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut und Museum für Geologie und Paläontologie, Goldschmidtstrasse 3, D-37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Otto H. Walliser

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Sepkoski, J.J., Koch, C.F. (1996). Evaluating Paleontologic Data Relating to Bio-Events. In: Walliser, O.H. (eds) Global Events and Event Stratigraphy in the Phanerozoic. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79634-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79634-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-79636-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-79634-0

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