A new model of mass extinctions

Distribution of extinction sizes constructed from original fossil records exhibits not a single, but a double power-law, with tail exponents being roughly the same in different scales, i.e., for species, families and orders. Moreover, time correlations of extinction sizes decrease with a power-law suggesting long range dependence and/or criticality in extinction events. A thorough analysis of paleobiological data is followed by an introduction of a model, which describes the behavior of complex systems with random interactions and uniquely leads to a double power-law observed in extinctions data.