Meteor showers bombarded the Earth around 600 to 700 million years ago, carrying large

amounts of water and amino acids with it. Life began in the form of single-cell bacteria. Since
then, bacteria have developed into more complex forms though different beings have also become
extinct.
Geologists divide the periods into a number of eras based on the fossil records. There are
only five eras which have drastically reduced the population of living beings on earth to warrant
the label of mass extinction. According to Barnosky, species go extinct all the time. But new
species also evolve constantly, which means that biodiversity usually stays constant. Mass
extinctions happen when that balance goes out of whack. Unexpectedly, extinctions far outpace
the genesis of new species, and the old rules for species survival go out the window.
Many recent books, notably Elizabeth Kolbert's “The Sixth Extinction”, have documented
the vanished species and explored the idea that we might be entering a new period of human-
caused mass extinction — the kind of biological annihilation so massive, that left an obvious scar
on the fossil record.
They found that the overall rate of extinction is, in fact, between three to 80 times higher
than non-mass extinction rates. Most likely, species are going extinct three to 12 times faster than
would be expected if there were no crisis. (Ferrer, 2018) The current rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times
faster, approaching one species per hour. A recent report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
revealed that worldwide, population declines of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have averaged
60% in the last 40 years. In addition, global trends in insect populations are not known but rapid
declines in some locations have also been well documented.
All these suggest around a million species now face extinction within decades, a rate of
destruction tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past years. The earth is now
entering its sixth mass extinction event. The big question here is, “Is the pace of evolution in
wildlife we're seeing today over these short time intervals usual or unusual? Is it ethical for us
humans to influence the alteration of the homelands of the massive number of wildlife?”
The "worldwide web" might have referred to the complex systems of connections between
living organisms and their environments before the internet. We often refer to it as the food web,
though it includes many more factors than just diet. The living web, like a tapestry, is held together
not by tacks or glue, but by interdependence—one strand stays in place because it is entwined with
many others.
The same concept keeps our planet working. Plants, animals and humans depend on each
other as well as microorganisms, land, water, and climate to keep our entire system alive and well.
Remove one piece, one species, and small changes lead to big problems that aren't easy to fix.
"When you remove one element from a fragile ecosystem, it has far-reaching and long-lasting
effects on biodiversity." (WWF, n.d.)
In most major land-based habitats, the average abundance of native species has fallen by
at least 20 percent, mostly since 1900. More than 40% of amphibian species, nearly 33% of reef-
forming corals, and more than one-third of all marine mammals are endangered. Since the 16th
century, at least 680 vertebrate species have been driven to extinction and by 2016, more than 9%
of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agriculture have become extinct, with at
least 1,000 more breeds still at threatened. (IPBES, 2019)

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 According to the study of James Estes et. al., removing the large predators at the top of the
food chain, the "apex species," could be the most significant human impact on nature. Such large
species are more vulnerable as they live longer. They reproduce more slowly, have small
populations, and need more food and habitat.
Rinderpest – an infectious virus, wiped out many plant-eating wildebeest and buffalo in
East Africa in the late 1800’s, plants flourished. During the dry season, this over-abundance of
vegetation spurred an increase in wildfires. In the 1960’s, after rinderpest was eliminated through
vaccinations, the wildebeest and buffalo returned. The ecosystem went from shrubbery to
grasslands again, decreasing the amount of combustible vegetation, and the wildfires decreased.
(Estes, 2011)
A number of industries have been economically impacted by species loss. The collapse of
bee populations has hurt many in the $50 billion-a-year global honey industry. The total flying
insect biomass decreased by more than 75 percent over 27 years in protected areas. (Cho, 2019) In
the Mascarene Archipelago, at least 30 frugivores became extinct (18 birds, 2 mammals, 10
reptiles), including the dodo, the Mauritian giant skink, Leiolopisma mauritiana, and an entire
genus of giant tortoises, Cylindraspis spp. (Heinen, 2018)
The pace of agricultural expansion into intact ecosystems has varied from country to
country. Losses of intact ecosystems have occurred primarily in the tropics, home to the highest
levels of biodiversity on the planet. A 100 million hectares of tropical forest were lost from 1980
to 2000, resulting mainly from cattle ranching in Latin America – about 42 million hectares, and
plantations in South-East Asia – about 7.5 million hectares, of which 80% is for palm oil, used
mostly in food, cosmetics, cleaning products and fuel among others. All told, three-quarters of the
world’s land area has been significantly altered by people, the report found, and 85 percent of the
world’s wetlands have vanished since the 18th century. (United Nation, n.d.)
In Indonesia, the replacement of rain forest with palm oil plantations has ravaged the
habitat of critically endangered orangutans and Sumatran tigers. In Mozambique, ivory poachers
helped kill off nearly 7,000 elephants between 2009 and 2011 alone. In Argentina and Chile, the
introduction of the North American beaver in the 1940’s has devastated native trees. (Plumer,
2019)
Researchers found that phytoplankton globally decreased by 40 percent since 1950,
attributing the decline to rising sea surface temperatures. The scientists speculated that the
warming surface waters did not mix well with the cooler, deeper waters rich in nutrients that
phytoplankton need. In addition, zooplankton are very sensitive to slight changes in the amount of
oxygen in the ocean, and may be unable to adapt as areas of low oxygen expand due to climate
change. (Morello, 2010)
An extreme heatwave in Australia has led to the deaths of more than 90 wild horses in the
outback, due to the temperatures which have exceeded 42°C for almost two weeks. Several other
wildlife species have also suffered, with a mass deaths of native bats in New South Wales. (BBC
News, 2019)
“We saw a knock-on effect of such extinctions.” (Heinen, 2018) Loss of biodiversity is
therefore shown to be not only an environmental issue, but also a developmental, economic,

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security, social and moral issue as well. This loss is a direct result of human activity and constitutes
a direct threat to human well-being in all parts of the world.
There is no question that the rate at which the extinction of species is very high, and we
might well be for a mass extinction of "Big Sixth". Yet, we also know that the Big Five mass
extinctions of the past half billion years ultimately led to increases in diversity. Massive extinction
may happen again as the current rate at which new animals and plants come into existence is
unusually high and it may be the highest ever. We are on the verge of Sixth Mass Genesis – a
million or so years from now, the world could end up supporting more species as a consequence
of the evolution of us, the Homo sapiens.
The processes of evolution continue, as animals, plants and microbes adjust to the way
humans are altering the world around them. Fish have evolved to breed when they are smaller and
younger, increasing the chances that they will escape the fisherman’s nets, and butterflies have
changed their diets to make used of human-altered habitats. Life on Earth is no longer the same as
it was before humans arrived on the scene.
According to Gerardo Ceballos, nearly 40% of the new mammal species from 1993 to the
time of publication of their paper in 2007 resulted from the exploration of new areas, such as in
eastern tropical forests of West Africa and the Congo, the Himalaya foothills of northeast India
and the Amazonian basin. “There are cases of new species being found in museum collections,
where they were collected 50 or 100 years ago and at the time nobody looked at the specimens
closely enough,” said Raxworthy.
Technology has led to even more animals being identified. New species today are regularly
detected through DNA. Often, two species live relatively near to each other and look exactly alike,
which means they were formerly categorized as only one genus. But analyzing their DNA shows
enough dissimilarities in their genes to now classify them as separate species.
Scientists have documented a total of 224 new living species from 18 different groups. This
includes a new species of black nightshade plant (Solanum caatingae), two rattlesnakes (Crotalus
polisi and Crotalus thalassoporus), and a legless amphibian known as a caecilian that was found
in the Seychelles (Hypogeophis montanus). They have also found 12 new species of lizard, four
new species of frog and a shieldtail snake that also makes a living burrowing through the soil
(Uropeltis bhupathyi). These have hailed from all over the country, from the Western Ghats in the
east to the Khasi Hills in the west. (Davis, 2018)
In 2017, science described around 18,000 new plant and animal species. Some resemble
figures from popular culture, others a nightmare come to life. Some were found lurking
underground or beneath the sea, while many had been hiding in plain sight all along. According to
the list’s inaugural year in 2008, more than 200,000 species have been discovered and named.
(Greene, 2017)
There are currently over 5,500 known mineral species globally, with around 100 new
species being added to the list each year. In 2018, Museum scientists managed to describe an
impressive 11 new minerals and one new meteorite. “New minerals are rarely found in large
amounts but their importance lies in the fact that they may have new chemistries or structures
which could prove to be of use in the material science world.”, Dr. Chris Stanley said.

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 Entirely new species have even come into existence. The “apple fly” has evolved in North
America, due to European colonials bringing fruit trees to the New World. The house sparrows
mated with Mediterranean “Spanish” sparrows somewhere on an Italian farm. Their descendants
represent a brand new species, the Italian sparrow. Britain has gained about 2,000 new species
over the past two millennia, because the forests were converted into managed woodlands, orchards,
meadows, wheat fields, roadsides, hedgerows, ponds and ditches, as well as gardens and urban
sprawl, each providing new opportunities. (Thomas, 2017)
One of the most unusual discoveries this year has to be the hot pink, blind swamp eel
(Monopterus rongsaw). While most fish are known to live in the water, this one was instead found
burrowing through the damp rainforest soil of north-eastern India. Likely blind, it breathes not
with gills but through the lining of its mouth and skin. (Mlot, 2018)
The remarkable London Underground mosquito is believed to have evolved from an above-
ground species which moved into tunnels being excavated to construct the London underground
rail system in the 1850s. Today the underground mosquito's aggressive bite gives commuters hell,
while the above-ground species only feeds off birds. The two species can no longer interbreed and
have become separate in just 150 years. (Schwarz, 2018)
The olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) is the first carnivore species to be discovered in the
American continents in 35 years. The two-pound mammal has large eyes and woolly orange-brown
fur. It is native to the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, as its scientific name, "neblina"
(Spanish for "fog"), hints. A team, led by Smithsonian scientist Kristofer Helgen, spent 10 years
examining hundreds of museum specimens and tracking animals in the wild in the cloud forests of
Ecuador. The result, the newest species of mammal known to science, the olinguito. (Gurney,
2018)
In the human-altered world, which brings more new species to the shores and lands.
Evolution gone into overdrive, which is unusual. Just as some species are thriving on a human-
dominated planet, many species are surviving better than we might have expected because they
are becoming adapted to the human-altered world. Many species have evolved – hybrids, and
species that evolve immunity to medicines or crop pests become resistant to insecticides.
The processes of ecological and evolutionary change which brought all of Earth’s existing
biological diversity into being – including ourselves, is continuing to generate new diversity in
today’s human-altered world. Change is ultimately the means by which species survive and turn
into new species. So, perhaps we should not spend quite so much time mourning the losses that
have already taken place, and trying to recreate some imagined past world. We cannot rewind
history. It might be more effective for us to facilitate future biological gains even if, in so doing,
we move further away from how the world used to be.
This does not let us off the hook – species are genuinely dying out, but it does mean that
we should not regard change as negative. It is very rational to fight those losses, particularly when
it is the loss of an entire species that may be difficult or impossible to get back in the future and
which may have some unknown future value to us. But we are also living in a world in which there
are biological gains. We should perhaps think of ourselves as inmates and molders of a dynamic,
changing world, rather than as despoilers of a formerly pristine land.

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