The 5 mass extinction events that shaped the history of Earth — and the 6th that s happening now peakoil.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from peakoil.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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For the last 10,000 years, Earth has been in the midst of yet another extinction event that is rapidly removing animals from our planet.
Scientists define a mass extinction as around three-quarters of all species dying out over a short geological time, which is anything less than 2.8 million years, according to The Conversation. Right now, humans find themselves at the beginning of the latest mass extinction, which is moving much faster than any of the others. Since 1970, the populations of vertebrate species have declined by an average of 68%, and currently more than 35,000 species are considered to be threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). During the 20th century alone, as many as 543