Click on image to enlarge clear from the fossils that about every 26 million years , a mass extinction occurs on Earth, wiping millions of species and leaving only a few survivors. Many scientists have blamed for catastrophic meteorite impacts these regular mass extinctions. But now a paper copy of the "Physical Review" suggests that the cause could be much closer to home. Adam Lipowski, a physicist at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland has developed a computer model that shows that the periodic mass extinctions may have been caused by the evolution of a "super-predator." Most of the time, the model is populated by predators of average efficiency, but sometimes genetic mutations involving the evolution of a highly efficient beast. "This is a fast, super-predator species consuming and quickly decimates the prey population, which in turn leads to its decline," he says. Any creature that survives to this destruction is gradually changing to fill the new ecological niches and the cycle begins again. Possonoessere men future super-predators? "It 's the feeling we have, but our model is too abstract to say this for sure, "says Lipowski.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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