Mass Extinction & Biodiversity Through Deep Time (2D)

This simulator turns the Phanerozoic diversity curve — the record of how many genera were alive at each point in Earth's history — into a scrolling 2D skyline that grows in real time. A logistic origination/extinction model advances a simulated clock from the Cambrian explosion (541 million years ago) to the present, and every bar of the skyline freezes at the diversity value the instant the clock passes that age, so the terrain you are watching form is the diversity curve. Toggle the real "Big Five" mass extinctions on or off, tune how fast new genera originate versus how fast the background rate erodes them, or reach in and trigger your own extinction pulse to see how quickly the biosphere recovers afterward. Drag to pan along deep time and scroll to zoom in on any interval.