IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v471y2011i7336d10.1038_nature09678.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony D. Barnosky

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Paleontology
    University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology)

  • Nicholas Matzke

    (University of California)

  • Susumu Tomiya

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Paleontology
    University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology)

  • Guinevere O. U. Wogan

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology)

  • Brian Swartz

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Paleontology)

  • Tiago B. Quental

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Paleontology
    Present address: Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil)

  • Charles Marshall

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Paleontology)

  • Jenny L. McGuire

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Paleontology
    University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
    Present address: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, 2024 W. Main Street, Suite A200, Durham, North Carolina 27705, USA.)

  • Emily L. Lindsey

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Paleontology)

  • Kaitlin C. Maguire

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Paleontology)

  • Ben Mersey

    (University of California
    Human Evolution Research Center)

  • Elizabeth A. Ferrer

    (University of California
    University of California Museum of Paleontology)

Abstract

Mass extinctions: are we there yet? Palaeontologists recognize five major extinction events from the fossil record, with the most recent, the Cretaceous mass extinction, ending some 65 million years ago. Given the many species known to have disappeared in the past few thousand years, some biologists suggest that a sixth such event is now under way. Barnosky et al. set out to review the evidence for that claim, and conclude that the recent loss of species is dramatic and serious, but not yet in the mass extinction category — usually defined as a loss of at least 75% of Earth's species in a geologically short time frame. But that said, there are clear indications that the loss of species now classed as 'critically endangered' would soon propel the world into its sixth mass extinction.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony D. Barnosky & Nicholas Matzke & Susumu Tomiya & Guinevere O. U. Wogan & Brian Swartz & Tiago B. Quental & Charles Marshall & Jenny L. McGuire & Emily L. Lindsey & Kaitlin C. Maguire & Ben Mers, 2011. "Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?," Nature, Nature, vol. 471(7336), pages 51-57, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:471:y:2011:i:7336:d:10.1038_nature09678
    DOI: 10.1038/nature09678
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09678
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature09678?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chunrong Mi & Liang Ma & Mengyuan Yang & Xinhai Li & Shai Meiri & Uri Roll & Oleksandra Oskyrko & Daniel Pincheira-Donoso & Lilly P. Harvey & Daniel Jablonski & Barbod Safaei-Mahroo & Hanyeh Ghaffari , 2023. "Global Protected Areas as refuges for amphibians and reptiles under climate change," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. World Bank, 2021. "Banking on Protected Areas," World Bank Publications - Reports 35737, The World Bank Group.
    3. Ioannis P. Kokkoris & Konstantinos Kougioumoutzis & Ioannis Charalampopoulos & Ektor Apostolidis & Ilias Apostolidis & Arne Strid & Panayotis Dimopoulos, 2023. "Conservation Responsibility for Priority Habitats under Future Climate Conditions: A Case Study on Juniperus drupacea Forests in Greece," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Yacine, Youssef & Loeuille, Nicolas, 2022. "Stable coexistence in plant-pollinator-herbivore communities requires balanced mutualistic vs antagonistic interactions," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 465(C).
    5. Naudé, Wim, 2023. "Melancholy Hues: The Futility of Green Growth and Degrowth, and the Inevitability of Societal Collapse," IZA Discussion Papers 16139, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Beacham, Austin, 2023. "Extraction, Contestation, and Conservation: Natural Resource Dependence and Protected Area Designation," Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series qt0d40d2z8, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California.
    7. Onggarbek Alipbeki & Gauhar Mussaif & Chaimgul Alipbekova & Aizada Kapassova & Pavel Grossul & Meirzhan Aliyev & Nursultan Mineyev, 2023. "Untangling the Integral Impact of Land Use Change, Economic, Ecological and Social Factors on the Development of Burabay District (Kazakhstan) during the Period 1999–2021," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-36, May.
    8. Larissa Fornitano & Jéssica Abonizio Gouvea & Rômulo Theodoro Costa & Marcelo Magioli & Rita Bianchi, 2024. "Large Protected Areas Safeguard Mammalian Functional Diversity in Human-Modified Landscapes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-19, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:471:y:2011:i:7336:d:10.1038_nature09678. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.