Extinction Of Animals And Plant Species

Stephen Gould’s essay “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs” completely agrees with Joseph Williams and Gregory Colomb’s essay “Argument, Critical Thinking, and Rationality.” Gould’s essay deals with three theories for the extinction of the dinosaurs, two of which he argues are entirely invalid because they are not in accordance with the basic rules of argument laid out by Williams and Colomb in their essay. Gould also states that the third theory of dinosaur extinction, natural disaster, follows all the rules that Williams and Colomb espouse, and thus is a sound argument. Gould, Williams, and Colomb all state that the world has a problem with irrational arguments being shoved down people’s throats, and call for a

Humans have caused another extinction, one that could possibly take us down in the process, species are exponentially going extinct because of habitat loss, species exportation, and invasive species bullying native species. On the other hand, scientists are trying to safe guard native species, keep animals in captivity whether it be for the animals well-being or for research, and widespread invasion. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting “What Everglades Pythons and Other Invasive Species are Trying to Tell Us,” by Julia Whitty and “The Sixth Extinction,” by Jeff Corwin.

The advent of functional analysis (Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1982/1994) and functional assessments (Dunlap & Kern, 1993) have provided behavior analysists with great ability to provide effective treatment for their clients. One common topic of research is the treatment of escape-maintained behaviors.

In the two essays being discussed we learn that science has a vast range of definitions. Science is the effort to understand (or to understand better), the history of the natural world and how the natural world works with observable physical evidence as the base of understanding. Science is about how the hypothesis is developed and how well it is defended.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History details the continued loss of biodiversity that has occurred since the rise of mankind. Elizabeth Kolbert claims that we are now in the midst of a sixth mass extinction, and that, if precautionary measures are not taken, the loss of biodiversity would be catastrophic. Chapter one begins by describing the golden frogs in the town of El Valle de Antón, and how they were beginning to disappear. The frogs disappeared due to a fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This fungus has spread around the world at a lightning-quick rate, killing all sorts of amphibious organisms at an unnatural rate. The cause of the rapid spreading of the fungus has been theorized to be due to humans inadvertently spreading

Humans have long used and hunted animals for food, weapons, and even clothing; but when did necessities turn into greed and fuel for consumerism? The purpose of this essay is to provide a brief history on the common use of animals and then delve into the current exploitation of animals and the problems that arise from it.

Animal hunting is not only inhumane but can also lead to the extinction of many species. In the essay “Our Animal Rites”, Quindlen asserts that it is “pathetic to consider the firepower” the hunters use in order to “bring down one fair-sized deer” (33). In this quote, she explains that the use of firepower by human to kill innocent animals is unfair and heartrending. Furthermore, Quindlen describes that even though the bears are killed by the “smiling” and triumphant hunters after the “three bear days in the autumn,” the bears look “more dignified than they do” (33). This suggests that hunting animals is not entertaining but rather unacceptable and disgraceful. Furthermore, many species can become extinct due to excessive hunting. In an ecology class, I learned that the extinction rate of species each year is approximately two hundred to two thousand each year. This is an extremely high and alerting rate since there is only around two million species that has been scientifically identified on the planet. In these examples, it can be concluded that the hunting of innocent animals is atrocious and

The surviving species with the right amount of traits take advantage of these niches and live in them. This is called adaptive radiation. http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/120901_afterextinction

Tell us about a community or cultural experience or any group gathering you have participated in recently that meant a lot to you.

Everything changes over time, due to multiple reasons yet things still change for a reasons. Mammals today aren't exactly the same as the mammals 250 million years ago. Mammals were barely classified their own group once the extinction of dinosaurs but scientist have evidence to believe mammals have been around longer than the extinction of dinosaurs, approximately 150 million years before. In 2001, researchers reported that a fossil was found in China in the year 1985. It was the remains of a tiny, furry animal that was believed to be a relative of the living mammals today. Instead it didn’t live in our time, but lived 195 million years ago in the Early Jurassic period. The small ancient mammal had the name of Hadrocodium wui, and the

Although data for terrestrial species is not as complete as for marine species, there is evidence to show that terrestrial life was also severely impacted. The End Permian Extinction is the only one known to have caused the mass extinction of insects; 8 out of the 27 insect orders known to have persisted during the early Phanerozoic eon did not survive past the Permian-Triassic

After calculating a global mean extinction rate and figuring out which factors came into play, Urban concluded that extinction risks rise as global temperature rises. It is important for us to observe the effect that climate change has on extinction because, as Urban mentioned, “0 to 54% of species could become extinct from climate change”.

Since the beginning of life itself, some species have lived and prospered while other species have gone extinct never to be seen again by mankind. Because of this, some would claim that extinction is natural and not significantly problematic to the world that we live in. Others, however, understand that due to climate change, habitat loss, and poaching, more and more species are becoming endangered which leads to a chain reaction that can be devastating to ecosystems. Species such as the Chinook salmon, gorillas, tropical sharks, and polar bears are all directly affected by climate change, species such as northern spotted owls, Sumatran tigers, and lemurs are greatly harmed due to habitat loss, and species such as the sea turtle, Javan rhinoceros, African elephant, and the Red-Fronted Macaw are all affected by poaching driving them all closer and closer to becoming extinct.

There have been five well known extinctions on this earth. The one most well known is the mass extinction that ended the dinosaurs. Mass extinction is often described as the elimination of a large number of species in a short period of time. Despite what many think, the elimination of species is almost commonplace at this point. The Earth is currently in the middle of a sixth mass extinction, and it’s been caused by the human race.

Since before the industrial evolutions humans have been pumping green house gasses—carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons— into the atmosphere however, it wasn’t until recently that the amounts being produced are shoving the Earth into a sixth extinction. While the causes of this upcoming extinction are constantly debated on it has earned itself the name Holocene extinction. This name is derived from the theory that humans are the main contributors to this extinction. To investigate the cause Elizabeth Kolbert, and American journalist and professor at Williams College, took the world on a wild and saddening journey on the human contribution to this looming extinction in her novel, The Sixth Extinction; An Unnatural History. Not only does Kolbert’s book explain how humans have contributed to global warming and its effects on life on land but also ocean acidification and how life under the sea has changed over the years.