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7.4: Extinction

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    Extinction (the complete disappearance of a species from Earth) is an important part of the evolution of life on Earth. The current diversity of species is a product of the processes of extinction and speciation throughout the previous 3.8 billion year history of life. Raup (1991) assumed that there might be 40 million species alive today, but between 5 and 50 billion species have lived at some time during the history of the Earth. Therefore, Raup estimated that 99.9% of all the life that has existed on Earth is now extinct); a species is assumed to be extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died (IUCN, 2002). However, extinction has not occurred at a constant pace through the Earth’s history. There have been at least five periods when there has been a sudden increase in the rate of extinction, such that the rate has at least doubled, and the extinctions have included representatives from many different taxonomic groups of plants and animals; these events are called mass extinctions. The timing of these mass extinctions is shown in Table \(\PageIndex{1}\).

    Table \(\PageIndex{1}\) Major Extinction Events
    Era Period Epoch Approximate Duration of Era, Period or Epoch (millions of years before present) Major Extinction Evens
    CENOZOIC Quaternary Holocene present - 0.01

    \(6^{th}\) major extinction ?

    \(5^{th}\) major extinction (end of Cretaceous; K-T boundary)

    \(4^{th}\) major extinction (end of Triassic)

    \(3^{th}\) major extinction (end of Permian)

    \(2^{nd}\) major extinction (Late Devonian)

    \(1^{st}\) major extinction (end of Ordovician)

    Pleistocene 0.01-1.6
    Tertiary Pliocene 1.6-5.3
    Miocene 5.3-23
    Oligocene 24-37
    Eocene 37-58
    Paleocene 58-65
    MESOZOIC Cretaceous 65-144
    Jurassic 144-208
    Triassic 208-245
    PALEOZOIC

    Permian

    245-286

    (Carboniferous) Pennsylvanian

    286-325
    (Carboniferous) Mississippian 325-360
    Devonian 360-408
    Silurian 408-440
    Ordovician 440-505
    Cambrian 505-570
    PRECAMBRIAN 570-4500

    Each of the first five mass extinctions shown in Table \(\PageIndex{1}\) represents a significant loss of biodiversity - but recovery has been good on a geologic time scale. Mass extinctions are apparently followed by a sudden burst of evolutionary diversification on the part of the remaining species, presumably because the surviving species started using habitats and resources that were previously "occupied" by more competitively successful species that went extinct. However, this does not mean that the recoveries from mass extinction have been rapid; they have usually required some tens of millions of years (Jablonski, 1995).

    It is hypothesized that we are currently on the brink of a "sixth mass extinction," but one that differs from previous events. The five other mass extinctions predated humans and were probably the ultimate products of some physical process (e.g. climate change through meteor impacts), rather than the direct consequence of the action of some other species. In contrast, the sixth mass extinction is the product of human activity over the last several hundred, or even several thousand years. These mass extinctions, and their historic and modern consequences are discussed in more detail in the modules on Historical perspectives on extinction and the current biodiversity crisis, and Ecological consequences of extinctions..

    Glossary

    Extinct
    a species is assumed to be extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died (IUCN, 2002)
    Extinction
    the complete disappearance of a species from Earth
    Mass extinction
    a period when there is a sudden increase in the rate of extinction, such that the rate at least doubles, and the extinctions include representatives from many different taxonomic groups of plants and animals

    This page titled 7.4: Extinction is shared under a CC BY 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Nora Bynum via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.