10 Animals That May Go Extinct in the Next 10 Years - The Dodo may soon have some august company
Extinction is a natural process. As evolution hums along, species disappear and new species emerge in an ongoing dynamic called "background extinction." Geologic history has also been punctuated by five great "mass extinctions"—precipitous declines in the number of species spurred by dramatic events such as an asteroid impact or changing sea levels.
Today we are witnessing what some experts believe to be the "sixth wave of extinction," a species diminution that appears to be the handiwork of humankind. Experts estimate that the current extinction rate is somewhere between 100 and 1,000 times higher than the background rate (others say it is even higher, up to 10,000 times the usual background extinction rate).
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