Selectivity of Extinction Species with broad geographical ranges are the ones that survive the longest, both for mass extinctions and background extinctions. Specialized species were the most likely to go extinct during a change of habitat. This may be true, but evolutionary theory does not predict it because natural selection can't prepare species for upcoming events. Within a higher taxon, extinction rate of species does not depend on the taxon's age. Genetic change within populations and species.
Replacement seems to have been more common in the fossil record.
Thus, mass extinctions may have been paramountly important in the history of life. History of increase in diversity of marine animals is due in part to increases in the occupancy of ecological space due to key innovations. In local fossil faunas, the number of species has increased more than the number of niches, leading to the speculation that specialization has become more common. Due primarily to continental drift creating a strong temperature gradient from equator to pole, separating the two ocean systems, and fragmenting the land masses. Although there undoubtedly is a limit due to finite resources, it probably never has been reached.