Article: Randomness and diversification in the Phanerozoic: a simulation

The essential features of the pattern of marine animal diversification in the Phanerozoic are reproduced by a stochastic, quasi-random simulation. The model assumes only (i) random variation in the origination and extinction of lineages and (ii) occurrence of two extraordinary events: 'Late Cambro-Ordovician radiation' and 'Late Permo-Triassic extinction'. It can mimic the shape of the curve of global diversity as well as the pattern of so-called evolutionary faunas.