Investigations into the impact of astronomical phenomena on the terrestrial biosphere and climate
PhD thesis — Ruperto-Carola-University of Heidelberg, Germany, 2015. Full text: https://archive.org/details/arxiv-1505.07856
Evidence
Investigations into the impact of astronomical phenomena on the terrestrial biosphere and climate
A rigorous negative result — the fashionable "galactic causes of extinctions" hypothesis fails a Bayesian test, the weird comet orbits need no Nemesis planet, and the ice ages answer to orbital tilt.
Mass extinctions over the past 550 million years are explained just as well by a uniform random distribution as by any galactic mechanism — no clear link between the Sun's galactic orbit and Earth's extinction record; meanwhile the Sun's motion through the Galaxy does not significantly influence the impact-cratering rate, and Earth's own obliquity (tilt) is the dominant trigger of ice-age deglaciations over the past 2 million years.
Why it matters
A rigorous negative result — the fashionable "galactic causes of extinctions" hypothesis fails a Bayesian test, the weird comet orbits need no Nemesis planet, and the ice ages answer to orbital tilt.
Use when: Test the null first — extinction events fit pure randomness as well as any exotic cosmic mechanism; you can only claim a galactic cause after the null fails.