According to the IUCN Red List, a total of 777 animal species have become extinct since 1500, some naturally occurring, others due to human activities – you can read Life Science-Me. But according to a study published in the journal Biological Review in 2022, that's a very small number, as as many as 150,000 to 260,000 of all known species may have gone extinct since about 1500.
The study’s lead author, Robert Cowie, was shocked by the numbers, but the rough estimate doesn’t seem to be too far-fetched. Of the roughly two million known species, 100,000 may have gone extinct in the past 500 years alone. However, unknown animal species are not included in this calculation.
According to a study published in the journal PLOS Biology in 2011, there are about 7.7 million animal species, and using the above calculations, the number of extinctions attributed to humans is 381,150.
John Alroy, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University in Australia, works on measuring diversity and extinction, but says it’s almost impossible to calculate modern extinction rates. To understand the overall extinction rate, researchers first need to know how many species exist, but even that is difficult, as previously unknown species regularly appear in the tropics.
In addition, insects have more species than any other animal group, but we know little about them, especially compared to other animal groups (mammals, birds). However, according to Alroy, there is no question that humans are increasing the rate of extinction and are certainly harming the Earth's biodiversity.
Follow the index on Facebook too!
