A comparison is made between compilations of times of origination and extinction of fossil marine animal families published in 1982 and 1992. As a result of ten years of library research, half of the information in the compendia has changed: families have been added and deleted, low-resolution stratigraphic data have been improved, and intervals of origination and extinction have been altered. Despite these changes, apparent macroevolutionary patterns for the entire marine fauna have remained constant. Diversity curves compiled from the two data bases are very similar, with a goodness-of-fit of 99%; the principal difference is that the 1992 curve averages 13% higher than the older curve. Both numbers and percentages of origination and extinction also match well, with fits ranging from 83% to 95%. All major events of radiation and extinction are identical. Therefore, errors in large paleontological data bases and arbitrariness of included taxa are not necessarily impediments to the analysis of pattern in the fossil record, so long as the data are sufficiently numerous.

中文翻译：

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图书馆十年：新数据证实了古生物学模式

比较了1982年和1992年出版的海洋化石科的起源和灭绝时间汇编。经过十年图书馆研究，该纲要中一半的信息发生了变化：增加和删除了科，改进了低分辨率地层数据，改变了起源和灭绝的间隔。尽管有这些变化，整个海洋动物群的明显宏观进化模式仍然保持不变。从两个数据库编译的多样性曲线非常相似，拟合优度为 99%；主要区别在于 1992 年的曲线平均比旧曲线高出 13%。起源和灭绝的数量和百分比也匹配得很好，拟合范围从 83% 到 95%。辐射和灭绝的所有重大事件都是相同的。因此，只要数据足够多，大型古生物学数据库的错误和包含的分类群的随意性并不一定会阻碍化石记录中的模式分析。