MTTC Integrated Science (Secondary) (094) Practice Test

Catastrophism is the idea that Earth's history has been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent events—like floods or eruptions—that cause mass extinctions and are then followed by repopulation. Georges Cuvier argued from fossil evidence that species disappear abruptly from one layer to the next, with new groups appearing after these catastrophes, rather than gradually transforming over time. This explains the abrupt transitions and gaps seen in the fossil record. It contrasts with uniformitarianism, which emphasizes slow, continuous processes; and with concepts like natural selection or genetic drift, which describe how populations change over generations rather than through sudden catastrophic events.