New theory of mass extinction – animals were responsible and not meteorite strike or volcanos

A recent study has indicated that there is a misconception about how the mass extinction of species occurred millions of years ago. It had been generally accepted that the extinction was due to impact of some meteorite or the result of some super volcano.
The study suggests that animals were responsible - the blame lies with the emergence of complex animals that can change their environment. And, that led to the world's first known mass extinction, which took place about 540 million years ago.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 3 September 2015.

In the opinion of Simon Darroch, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, US., it has to be accepted that biological organisms can also drive mass extinction.
This conclusion is based on a comparative study of several communities of Ediacarans which are the world's first multicellular organisms. The study strengthens the concept that it was the appearance of complex animals capable of altering their environments, which we define as 'ecosystem engineers,' that resulted in the disappearance of the Ediacaran.
The study was carried out by researchers and covered extensive palaeoecological and geochemical analysis of the youngest known Ediacaran community exposed in hillside strata in southern Namibia. The site is identified as Farm Swartpunt and it is believed to be 545 million years old.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Scientists have cautioned – Earth is entering its sixth phase of mass extinction

A study conducted by the universities of Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley, has revealed that vertebrates were disappearing at a rate 114 times faster than normal. There are apprehensions that the Earth is entering its sixth phase of mass extinctions – and humans could be the first casualty.
The last such event occurred 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs were wiped out – probably as a result of a large meteor hitting the Earth as reported in bbc.com dated 19 June 2015.

One of the authors of the study has indicated that humans are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event and, unless it is checked life would take many millions of years to recover and the human would possibly disappear early on. The scientists arrived at the conclusion by examining historic rates of extinction for vertebrates - animals with backbones - by assessing fossil records. They found that the current extinction rate was more than 100 times higher than in periods when Earth was not going through a mass extinction event.
Since 1900, the report says, more than 400 more vertebrates had disappeared. The worry is that such a loss would normally be seen over a period of up to 10,000 years – but, it has happened within 115 years!!
This can be attributed to known causes like climate change, pollution and deforestation. The study also shows that given the knock-on effect of ecosystems being destroyed, the benefits of nature like pollination by bees could be lost within three human generations.
It can be said that we are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on. In the opinion of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), at least 50 species of animals are inching towards extinction every year. Also, nearly 41% of all amphibians and 25% of mammals are threatened with extinction.
As an example - 94% of all lemurs are under threat and more than a fifth of all lemur species are classed as "critically endangered". Their habitat in Madagascar has been wiped out by illegal logging and they are also regularly hunted for their meat.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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