Diversity of land species has remained the same for 60 million years

The amount of biodiversity we have on land today has remained the same for at least 60 million years, soon after the dinosaurs were wiped out. An international team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham has found that the number of species has increased only occasionally throughout time, with sudden spikes in diversity being followed by plateaus lasting tens of millions of years. Scientists have previously theorized that diversity increased steadily throughout time, which would mean that biodiversity today is much greater than it …