Mass Extinction Event

An extinction event (also known as: mass extinction; extinction-level event, ELE) is a sharp decrease in the number of species in a relatively short period of time. Mass extinctions affect most major taxonomic groups present at the time — birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates and other simpler life forms. They may be caused by one or both of

Over 99% of species that ever lived are now extinct, but extinction occurs at an uneven rate. Based on the fossil record, the background rate of extinctions on Earth is about two to five taxonomic families of marine invertebrates and vertebrates every million years. Marine fossils are mostly used to measure extinction rates because they are more plentiful and cover a longer time span than fossils of land organisms.

Since life began on earth, several major mass extinctions have significantly exceeded the background extinction rate. The most recent, the Cretaceous--Tertiary extinction event, occurred 65 million years ago, and has attracted more attention than all others because it killed the dinosaurs. In the past 540 million years there have been five major events when over 50% of animal species died. There probably were mass extinctions in the Archean and Proterozoic Eons, but before the Phanerozoic there were no animals with hard body parts to leave a significant fossil record.

Estimates of the number of major mass extinctions in the last 540 million years range from as few as five to more than twenty. These differences stem from the threshold chosen for describing an extinction event as "major", and the data chosen to measure past diversity.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• mass
• extinction
• event
• climate
• change
• global
• warming

[dogsofeternity]

Sadly, evolution doesn't favor intelligence.

[acvossius]

Nature will find it`s own balance. Mass extinction provides chanches for other species to florish. Life on earth will go on, maybe just without us. Will we naturally deselect ourselfs?

[IstrebitelMinsk]

@dogsofeternity Well, that's not exactly. Evolution does, involution doesn't.

[daggertoungeomega]

i got my 33 degree a long tome ago my suffering will be your inheritance.

[daggertoungeomega]

if I wouldnt of pass the age 33 meaning if i would of been murdered just to give you all an understanding it would of wiped everything out on this planet. just to give you an idea if it would of happened. i dont think they people who sold out realize that it's like the doomsday that these fools talk about all the time. not hapening that was three years ago and some change. wake up people your breath is my breath this earth react to how you treat me and my pain grows everyday

[aallppiinnee]

environmentalists are creationist, Gaia worshiping morons.

Biodiversity has not been higher than it is now in HALF A BILLION YEARS.

The planet is 4x more diverse than it was during the age of the dinosaurs.

[Chinkeyface]

@TheMrUZB actually thats false we as a species have the only oppertunity to defeat our demise in the next two hundred years the only threat that could possibly destroy us would either be self destruction through nuclear war or perhaps if we are really, really, really, really! unlucky we might have a large gamma ray burst hit earth at some point in which case nothing would survive and the atmosphere would be gone and no species would ever walk the earth again!

[MrAppleseed88]

funny how these super smart guys fail to inform all you that al lthe other planets are warming up as well. So man made GW is total fucking bullshit.

[MrAppleseed88]

The event is happening now, and will last another 90 some years. This is why they are trying to get as many mud people into the west, because they know the 3rd world is dead. they are too stupid weak and lazy to fend for themselves. We have to kill the 3rd world to save the planet.

[metropol18]

somebody could say, what film has it been taken from?

[acvossius]

@WhiteXboxes You`ve missed my point. Mass extinction has taken place more than once. Humanity itself is a result of it. The video and my comment were concerned with the continued existence of life in general, not humanity in particular I think, it was after all a year ago since i made it . Try and let go of your homocentric approach for a while. No reason to assume biped mammals are here te stay. So try and stay on topic, which was near total extinction of all live.

[TheMrUZB]

humans are the main cause of their own destruction.

we are part of this nature, thus we depend on it as much as it depends on us.

Humans must organize a full scale war against those who violate the laws of nature. Sooner or later humans are going to be extinct and replaced by some of the stronger and better adapted creatures, the process of extinction is unavoidable! But people can try to live in harmony with the nature, and sort of slow down this process.