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Extinction is the termination of a taxon by the death of its last member.A taxon may become functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to reproduce and recover.
Nuclear war is an often-predicted cause of the extinction of humankind. [1]Human extinction or omnicide is the hypothetical end of the human species, either by population decline due to extraneous natural causes, such as an asteroid impact or large-scale volcanism, or via anthropogenic destruction (self-extinction), for example by sub-replacement fertility.
This may represent the fact that groups with higher turnover rates are more likely to become extinct by chance; or it may be an artefact of taxonomy: families tend to become more speciose, therefore less prone to extinction, over time; [3] and larger taxonomic groups (by definition) appear earlier in geological time. [95]
VHEMT was founded in 1991 by Les U. Knight, an American activist who became involved in the American environmental movement in the 1970s and thereafter concluded that human extinction was the best solution to the problems facing the Earth's biosphere and humanity. Knight publishes the group's newsletter and serves as its spokesman.
Ammonite genera became extinct at or near the K–Pg boundary; there was a smaller and slower extinction of ammonite genera prior to the boundary associated with a late Cretaceous marine regression, and a small, gradual reduction in ammonite diversity occurred throughout the very late Cretaceous. [73]
Species naturally become extinct from islands over time; this can be either local extinction if the species also occurs elsewhere, or in cases of island endemism, outright extinction. The number of species an island can support is limited by its geographical size.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is pushing for added protections for the monarch butterfly after suggesting multiple populations could go extinct in mere decades.
This is along with natural forces that may create stress on the species or cause an animal population to become extinct. [7] Currently the biggest reason for species extinction is human interaction resulting in habitat loss. [8] Species rely on their habitat for the resources needed for their survival.