Astrovirology and terrestrial life survival
Paul Shapshak, Milad Zandi, Charurut Somboonwit, John T. Sinnott

TL;DR
The paper explores how viruses and microbes may have influenced mass extinctions and how new theories can help understand virus evolution in diverse environments.
Contribution
It introduces the importance of non-linear theories in understanding virus dynamics and evolution in complex planetary environments.
Findings
Viruses likely worsened life decline during mass extinctions.
Exoplanet studies show diverse environments that could support novel life forms.
Non-linear theories are crucial for modeling virus evolution.
Abstract
Microbial organisms have been implicated in several mass extinction events throughout Earth's planetary history. Concurrently, it can be reasoned from recent viral pandemics that viruses likely exacerbated the decline of life during these periods of mass extinction. The fields of exovirology and exobiology have evolved significantly since the 20th century, with early investigations into the varied atmospheric compositions of exoplanets revealing complex interactions between metallic and non-metallic elements. This diversity in exoplanetary and stellar environments suggests that life could manifest in forms previously unanticipated by earlier, more simplistic models of the 20th century. Non-linear theories of complexity, catastrophe, and chaos (CCC) will be important in understanding the dynamics and evolution of viruses.
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
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Taxonomy
TopicsOrigins and Evolution of Life · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life · Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
