BioConcepts

background extinctionHintergrundaussterben (ger.)

• The normal rate of extinction of species, which reflects changes in local environmental conditions, in the absence of human influences. (Oxford Dict. of Environment and Conservation 2007)
  category death

  1978

  the Permo-Triassic and Cretaceous-Tertiary intervals can be interpreted to be short periods of marked increase in the background extinction rate.

  Raup, D.M. (1978). Cohort analysis of generic survivorship. Paelobiol. 4, 1-15: 8.

  1982

  the total rate of background extinction has decreased from about 4.6 to 2.0 fm [families] per million years since the Early Cambrian.

  Raup, D.M. & Sepkoski, J.J. Jr. (1982). Mass extinction in the marine fossil record. Science 215, 1501-1503: 1502.