Extinction (optical mineralogy)

Gene

Ecosystem

Biodiversity

Sociology

Demography

Paleontology

Endangered species

Habitat

Ecology

Threatened species

Vertebrate

Population

Extinction event

Biological dispersal

Biochemistry

Biology

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Significance The ongoing sixth mass extinction may be the most serious environmental threat to the persistence of civilization, because it is irreversible. Thousands of populations of critically endangered vertebrate animal species have been lost in a century, indicating that the sixth mass extinction is human caused and accelerating. The acceleration of the extinction crisis is certain because of the still fast growth in human numbers and consumption rates. In addition, species are links in ecosystems, and, as they fall out, the species they interact with are likely to go also. In the regions where disappearing species are concentrated, regional biodiversity collapses are likely occurring. Our results reemphasize the extreme urgency of taking massive global actions to save humanity’s crucial life-support systems.

Vertebrates on the brink as indicators of biological annihilation and the sixth mass extinction