If you're not already panicked enough about the "overdue" killer flu pandemic, Guardian science editor Robin McKie offers a new periodic cause for alarm.

Every 62 million years, the species of Earth suffer a mass extinction:

After analysing the eradication of millions of ancient species, scientists have found that a mass extinction is due any moment now.

Their research has shown that every 62 million years -- plus or minus 3m years -- creatures are wiped from the planet's surface in massive numbers.

I love the use of "any moment now" alongside a prediction with a three-million-year margin of error.

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