Humans are driving the loss of entire branches of the « Tree of Life, » according to a new study published on Monday which warns of the threat of a sixth mass extinction.
Humans are driving the loss of entire branches of the « Tree of Life, » according to a new study published on Monday which warns of the threat of a sixth mass extinction.
« The extinction crisis is as bad as the climate change crisis. It is not recognized, » said Gerardo Ceballos, professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and co-author of the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
« What is at stake is the future of mankind, » he told AFP.
The study is unique because instead of merely examining the loss of a species, it examines the extinction of entire genera.
In the classification of living beings, the genus lies between the rank of species and that of family. For example, dogs are a species belonging to the genus canis—itself in the canid family.
« It is a really significant contribution, I think the first time anyone has attempted to assess modern extinction rates at a level above the species, » Robert Cowie, a biologist at the University of Hawaii who was not involved in the study, told AFP.
« As such it really demonstrates the loss of entire branches of the Tree of Life, » a representation of living things first developed by Charles Darwin.
