Scientists have conducted a study which suggests that the rate of extinction of vertebrates in the past century has increased several dozen times. It is reported by the magazine Science Advances.
According to biologists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and several US universities, extinction is not related to natural phenomena, but the main reason – human activity.
The researchers did It concluded that to anthropogenesis (the period after the appearance of Homo sapiens – Homo sapiens) once in a hundred years extinct species of mammals, two out of ten thousand existed. In the last century, this figure rose to 114.
Scientists note that the rate of extinction of vertebrates in the world over the last century come close to what they were 66 million years ago, when dinosaurs disappeared from the planet.
According to biologists, mankind is now living during the sixth mass extinction of species. The most massive of them – the Permian-Triassic extinction event (The Great Dying), occurred 252 million years ago. Then it killed 96 percent of marine and 70 percent of all vertebrate species.
Environmentalists say that now 40 percent of amphibians and 25 percent of mammals are on the verge of extinction. According to them, it is necessary to prevent a catastrophe, to take immediate measures for the conservation of species.
No comments:
Post a Comment