We've Wiped Out So Many Mammals, Earth Will Need 5 Million Years to Evolve Replacements

[Judi Lynn]

So much damage in just 50 years.


PETER KOTECKI, BUSINESS INSIDER
16 OCT 2018

Humans will cause so many mammal species to go extinct in the next 50 years that the planet's evolutionary diversity won't recover for 3 to 5 million years, a team of researchers has found.

The Earth may be entering its sixth mass extinction: an era in which the planet's environments change so much that most animal and plant species die out.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature predicts that 99.9 percent of critically endangered species and 67 percent of endangered species will be lost within the next 100 years.

The five other times a mass extinction has occurred over the past 450 million years, natural disasters were to blame. But now, human activity is killing mammal species.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/mammals-can-t-evolve-fast-enough-to-escape-the-current-extinction-crisis

[Tobin S.]

1. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert is very informative on this issue.

[cstanleytech]

3. Question is are we the sole cause or merely a contributor albeit a major one?

Now I admit I am biased as I think we are the cause as there is nothing else that explain it but on the other hand I could be wrong especially since our world has had a number of prior massive extinctions which we had nothing to do with and its about due for another one.

[Tobin S.]

6. I think Kolbert would say it's entirely human caused.

It's been a few years since I read the book, but it seems like I remember her tying human activity to mass extinction starting perhaps thousands of years ago.

[Boomer]

2. "evolve replacements"?

Oh ffs, evolution doesn't work that way. That's almost as bad as "intelligent design".

Species evolve to survive, not to fill in a slot in some grand scheme.

[defacto7]

4. For sure, the title is stupid.

The article refers to evolutionary diversity.

[Boomer]

7. It gets worse there, not better

"Evolution is the planet's defence mechanism against the loss of biodiversity."

This is fantasy, not science. There is no imperative to maintain a certain level of biodiversity, and evolution is not a "defense mechanism" against loss. Biodiversity is the RESULT of evolution, not some mystical goal.

I hate junk science articles that spread half-baked understanding as if it's fact.

[defacto7]

9. omg

Scheiß. I should have read it or I'm glad I didn't. It sounded badly written to begin with.

[NickB79]

8. "Evolve to fill empty ecological niches" would be more accurate

[Duppers]

5. And it's just going to get MUCH worse..

Because...humans.