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3 of the experience of the last few generations. The group of
happily unexperienced events includes large bolide impacts with the
Earth. The evidence for the occurrence of such impacts at intervals
of some tens of millions of years is quite convincing, and Lyell
stands admonished by Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and
earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. " The role
of bolide impacts on the history of life during other portions of
the Phanerozoic Eon is less clear (see Raup and Fischer, both this
volume), and catastrophic changes unrelated to extraterrestrial
processes may have been important (see Holser, this volume).
Changes in the later Precambrian biota are still difficult to
interpret, in part because the preservation of soft-bodied animals
from this period of Earth history is so unusual (see Seilacher,
this volume). During the past billion years or so, bolide impacts
have exerted a significant effect on the Earth's surface and its
inhabitants, but not on its interior. The 3800 Ma rocks at Isua in
West Greenland are the oldest terrestrial rocks that are currently
available for inspection (see Dymek, this volume). They contain
abundant evidence for the operation of chemical and physical
processes that are similar to those of the present day. This
situation could not have prevailed during the entire 700 Ma
preceding the formation of the Isua rocks.
Hypothesis testing is not a straightforward matter in the fossil
record and here, too interactions with biology can be extremely
profitable. Quite simply, predictions regarding long-term
consequences of processes observed in liv ing organisms can be
tested directly using paleontological data if those liv ing
organisms have an adequate fossil record, thus avoiding the
pitfalls of extrapolative approaches. We hope to see a burgeoning
of this interactive effort in the coming years. Framing and testing
of hypotheses in paleon tological subjects inevitably raises the
problem of inferring process from pattern, and the consideration
and elimination of a broad range of rival hy is an essential
procedure here. In a historical science such as potheses
paleontology, the problem often arises that the events that are of
most in terest are unique in the history of life. For example,
replication of the metazoan radiation at the beginning of the
Cambrian is not feasible. How ever, decomposition of such problems
into component hypotheses may at least in part alleviate this
difficulty. For example, hypotheses built upon the role of species
packing might be tested by comparing evolutionary dy namics (both
morphological and taxonomic) during another global diversi
fication, such as the biotic rebound from the end-Permian
extinction, which removed perhaps 95% of the marine species (see
Valentine, this volume). The subject of extinction, and mass
extinction in particular, has become important in both paleobiology
and biology."
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