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Originally Posted by multiweb
Are those past climate changes and massive extinctions event peaks linked to changes in earth orbit in the past you reckon?
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Some of those mass extinction events probably brought about massive climate change and some may have been initially triggered by them. However, the extinction event peaks occur at roughly 30-35 million year intervals, which might be due to the orbit of the solar system about the galaxy. We pass through the area of the spiral arms once every 30-35 million years or so. It appears that the extinction events of medium to large magnitude follow that time span approximately. The really big events, like the K-T or the Permian event seem to occur at around double or a bit more, than that time span. But, it's also probably safe to say that an extinction event can happen at anytime.
Changes in the Earth's orbit (as well as axial tilt, etc) would most certainly cause climate changes and local to regional extinction events. They actually have and the evidence is found in the geological record.