Reading over the original scientific study, we discover that the research team came to a rather important conclusion for the study of the development of biological species. Traditionally, it has been hypothesized that the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (the KT boundary) was the precipitating even that led to the diversification of mammalian species as they expand to fill ecological niches left by the dinosaurs. This is a short fuse hypothesis: species diversification occurred rapidly because of a single event. In fact, Bininda-Emonds et al. (2007) found-through an examination of fossil and molecular data of 4,510 mammalian species-that the KT boundary was not significant. Diversification of mammals occurred in two spikes: one roughly 93 million year ago, and then again slowly over the Eocene and Oligocene epochs. This long fuse hypothesis finds that diversification took longer to occur than previously thought, the KT boundary was not a contributor to diversification, and the mechanism of mammalian diversification is very much unknown.
             Wilford's (2007) report of this research in The New York Times was remarkably consistent with the original tenor and conclusions of the research teams' findings (Bininda-Emonds et al., 2007). Wilford accurately reports the researchers' sample size and composition, the purpose of the study, and the major conclusions that were drawn from the study. One noticeable deviation is a greater emphasis on the implications of the research over the raw data that is presented in the original research. Wilford (2007) emphasizes the significance of this study for our understanding of species development and diversification by stressing that the research undermines the traditional short fuse hypothesis that the KT boundary was the precipitating event that facilitated species diversification. Since this study favors a long fuse approach to mammalian diversification, it challenges our understanding of what c...