Earth's Sixth Mass Extinction Coming?
 

Mankind may have unleashed the sixth known mass extinction in Earth's history, according to a paper released by the science journal Nature.

But in the last five centuries, at least 80 out of 5,570 mammal species have bitten the dust, providing a clear warning of the peril to biodiversity.

What these frog scientists might have missed?

Over 400 new mammal species have been named since 1993!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110304...20110304055833

http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzool...al_species.php

Love Carlin :tro:

I'll still be here.

[quote]Wow! Someone might mistakenly think that means that 400 new species have appeared, to replace the 80 that are gone. Which would be really wrong. LOL !

[quote=Riot;758145]Or that the froggy numbers are wrong?

[quote=dellinger63;758174]Or that you didn't understand the relationship between the two articles quoted?

OK mammals who 'have bitten the dust' 80 (last 500 years) v. mammals discovered and named (last 25 years) over 400. Huge difference!

Or that you fail to understand, even after it was explained to you, that animals who have gone extinct are one thing. Animals who have existed a long time, but are just newly discovered and named, are not newly created species replacing extincts in biological niches, etc. You cannot compare apples to oranges.

But when you consider 400 have been discovered in the last 25 years one could presume an equal or even higher amount will be discovered every quarter century with technolgy advancing, so we can add 8,000 new species over the next 5 centuries staying at the same discovery rate.

Using the frog numbers and adjusting for undiscovered mammals, 80/13,570 have become extinct over the past 5 centuries or 1/2 of 1 percent of mammals.

I'd say the world should be proud :tro::tro: not alarmed.....:eek:

????? No. Not in the world of reality. Guessing bad. Fact-driven epidemiology good.