TNPSC Thervupettagam

Threat of a sixth mass extinction

September 28 , 2023 426 days 510 0
  • Humans are driving the loss of entire branches of the “Tree of Life,” warning of the threat of a sixth mass extinction.
  • The study is largely based on the species listed as extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and focuses on vertebrate species (excluding fish).
  • Out of some 5,400 genera – which comprises some 34,600 species – 73 had become extinct in the last 500 years.
  • Based on the extinction rate in the previous million years we would have expected to lose two genera. But we lost 73.
  • A mass extinction defined as the loss of 75 per cent of species over a short period of time.

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