Machine Learning Reveals Surprising Patterns in Earth's Mass Extinction Events Written by AZoRoboticsDec 10 2020 Charles Darwin's landmark opus, On the Origin of the Species, ends with a beautiful summary of his theory of evolution. Image Credit: Maksim Shchur/Shutterstock.com "There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." In fact, scientists now know that most species that have ever existed are extinct. This extinction of species has on the whole been roughly balanced by the origination of new ones over Earth's history, with a few major temporary imbalances scientists call mass extinction events.