Clumpy Cold Dark Matter and Biological Extinctions

Cosmological models with cosmic string and texture seeded universes predict a present abundance of very dense clumps of Cold Dark Matter particles. Their crossing through the solar system would induce a non-negligible amount of radiation damage to all living tissue; the severity of such an episode is assessed. The estimated frequency of these crossings agrees with the apparent periodicity of the paleontological record of biological extinctions. (Phys. Lett. B, in press)