More Than 500 Vertebrate Species Are on the Brink of ‘Biological Annihilation’

A new study finds further evidence that humans are driving the world’s sixth mass extinction. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Monday, this research focuses on terrestrial vertebrates—amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles—and found that more than 500 species are “on the brink of extinction,” per the paper. The extinction of vertebrates isn’t just about losing beautiful creatures to admire. Each and every species plays some type of ecological function. The loss of a single one can have a cascading effect on the rest of the species within its ecosystem, effects that can impact humans as well. “The current extinction crisis is one of the more urgent global environmental problems and the only one [that is] truly irreversible,” author Gerardo Ceballos, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Institute of Ecology, told Earther in an email. “Once a species is gone, there is no way to bring it back. Our paper indicates that is vastly speeding up.”...MORE