The Sixth Extinction Essay

Extinction is the end of an organism or group of taxa.  Extinctions occur when a species becomes unfit for survival in its natural habitat usually to be replaced by another, better-suited species. An organism becomes ill-suited for survival because its environment is changed or because its relationship to other organisms is altered as stated from Credo Reference. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that particular species. Mass extinctions, however

In the course of Earth’s history, there have been five major extinction events: the Ordovician-Silurian, Late Devonian, Permian-Triassic, Triassic-Jurassic, and Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction events. Now, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert, we are entering another one that is caused by a single species: ours. Human beings have decimated the rainforest, hunted animals like the great auk to extinction, pumped billions of tons of pollution into our atmosphere and oceans

Are we on the brink of a sixth mass extinction? Many say yes, but there is also hard evidence saying no. Nonetheless, scientists can prove five mass extinctions in history. The first mass extinction happened roughly around 445 million years ago. It was named the Ordovician Extinction. The species affected were known as Graptolite, which are different types of sea creatures. Their demise on Earth lasted around only one million years. Around sixty to seventy percent of the species disappeared, and

The History of Earth's Mass Extinctions The four billion year history of earth has witnessed five mass extinctions, and some scientists believe that we are on the verge of the sixth.1[1] If we are in the midst of the next mass extinction, we are in the very early stages of an evolving, and escalating process. The most recent, or fifth mass of the extinctions occurred 65 million years ago at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. Images of an asteroid colliding with the

The Triassic-Jurassic extinction occurred about 210 million years ago, killing about 80 percent of all living species (“End-Triassic Extinction”). Most species were hit hard, but there were no major full-on extinctions. Still, cephalopods, sponges, corals, reptiles, and pollen and spore producing plants were hit hard. The dinosaurs, however, were lucky and survived the extinction intact. This allowed them to reign supreme for the next geological epoch (“End-Triassic Extinction”). During the time of

Scientists believe, that the earth in the middle of a sixth ongoing mass extinction, which was given the name of The Holocene extinction due to our modern Holocene epoch. Discussion The Holocene epoch continues from 11 500 years ago until the nowadays and still keep going. Sixth Extinction event can be blamed for significant loss of larger mammals (woolly mammoth, cave lion, cave bear and etc.) during the end of Ice Age extinction event 9 000 to 13 000 years ago, which was caused by climate change

Palaeontologists characterize mass extinctions as times in Earth’s history when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short period of time. This has occurred 5 times over the past 540 million years, and scientists are now suggesting it is happening a 6th time. We are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction that has the potential to wipe out many species of importance, and humans have a profound impact on it. Essentially, there have been 5 mass extinctions during the history of

ecosystems of the Earth. Besides that, it is irrefutable that calamity may surface due to the integration of wildlife into civilization. However, the Earth’s sixth mass extinction is afoot. Thus, the need to rewild is increasingly urgent, if humans continue with their selfish ways the world will see to mass extinction as its fate (“The Sixth Extinction”, 2013). Despite the risks involved in rewilding,

consequence. Many signs point to a great extinction occurring at this moment and it has correlation with the beginning of the Homo-sapiens’ expansion, more increasingly with the rise of the Industrial Era. Human hands have managed to touch every species on earth in one shape or another, and there is nowhere for them to escape to. This great extinction, though not to the magnitude of the five previous mass extinctions has the potential to rival them. The sixth mass extinction has its origin starting back to

searching for answers regarding the rapidly diminishing amounts, and in some cases, extinction of many of Earth’s species. Scientists are coming out with results that show current anthropogenic climate change is the main culprit for Earth’s continuing loss of biodiversity. With estimations showing future continuing rapid decreases and losses in biodiversity, climate change is likely leading Earth into its sixth mass extinction. Across history there have been many cycles of change in Earth’s climate, whether