In Charles Darwin's day, scientists did not yet know about giant asteroid impacts, flood basalt volcanic eruptions, and most of the other violent extremes of Earth's geological history. Consequently, Darwin didn't consider that extinction could happen on a mass scale, or that it played a major role in evolution. Indeed, Victorian-era scientists were reluctant to accept any kind of "catastrophe theory," in part because it smacked of biblical fundamentalism. The irony of that resistance is not lost on Norman MacLeod, paleontology curator at London's Natural History Museum.
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