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Compared to other aspects of geological controversy, the debate over mass extinction is fairly new. ... Being the first to recognize that certain species no longer exist, such as the mammoth and giant sloth, he conceived the notion of mass extinction. ... De Beaumont aided in increasing the number of adherents to the concept of mass extinction, but still most geologists refused to support any catastrophic hypotheses. They believed that the competition for food and land was the cause for extinction rather than alterations to the natural environment. ... A few years later, Harold Urey (1973) contended that numerous extinction events had occurred in the past 50 million years due to comets coming in contact with the earth. ... As all plant life died out, animals would die as well due to starvation, leading to an episode of mass extinction. ... This has remained the footing for more detailed study of mass extinction through the present day.
Those in accord with the concept attempted to find further evidence towards mass extinction at the K-T boundary. ... This helped to connect the extinction of both land and sea animals and strengthen the argument for an episode that’s influence was felt throughout the entire world. ... As postulated in the theory, this would have shut out sunlight and lowered the global temperature enough to cause extinction. ...
Through the controversy over mass extinction, there have been numerous men who have tried to falsify the hypothesis. ... “A complex interaction of physical and biological factors was invoked instead to account for the increase in extinction rate at the end of the Cretaceous. ...
Charles Office and Charles Drake (1983) were the two geophysicists who posed the most comprehensive argument against Alvarez’s theory. ...
There are many key issues to consider in the debate over mass extinction, but most of these topics have no clear-cut implications. ...
As for the relationship between the study of mass extinctions and the philosophy of science, Kuhn’s concepts seem to relate much more accurately to this specific topic.
Approximate Word count = 2778
Approximate Pages = 11.1
(250 words per page double spaced)
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