4Uchenye: On Earth, the mass extinction – BFM.Ru

The rate of extinction of animals on the planet closer to the rate of extinction of the dinosaurs. Man, according to the researchers, also die out, and fast enough

An international team of biologists reported that the world is going on the 6th mass extinction. In his study, experts use data on rates of extinction of species of flora and fauna in the past. This is stated in an article in the journal Science Advances.

See also: Scientists have found a link between the Chelyabinsk meteorite and the extinction of the dinosaurs The rate of extinction of animals closer to the rate of extinction of the dinosaurs, marine reptiles and pterosaurs, they note.

A biologist from the Autonomous University of Mexico Gerardo Ceballos sure that the world will need millions of years to recover the lost biodiversity. The man, in his opinion, will also disappear, and fast enough.

«If the current trend continues, life will have to spend many millions of years to recover the lost biodiversity, and our own species, most likely, will also disappear quickly enough “- said Ceballos

The biologists found that in the period preceding century man, endangered species of mammals on the two ten thousand every 100 years. In the XX-th century, this figure rose to 114 times: many species are now extinct, as previously disappeared for ten thousand years.

The scientists conducting the study, not to exaggerate, but rather conservative approach studying the issue , the calculations “grossly underestimate the scale of the modern extinction».

According to the researchers, it is humanity there is still time to reduce the size of animal extinctions, but this time window is rapidly closing. Today, according to the researchers, 40% of amphibians are threatened with extinction, and about a quarter of mammals are threatened with extinction.

«In order that we can avoid the really large-scale sixth extinction of animals, we must instantly enhance and expand measures to protect species that are already threatened with extinction, and to remove the load from the populations of such animals – namely, the loss of habitat, overfishing and climate change, “- said the project manager, should be replaced with the ecologist Paul Ehrlich.

The reason for the modern the disappearance of a group of animals called human activities are biologists.