Extinct species

According to google an extinct specie is any species whose last known specimen dies without leaving a genetic heir. In the past 100 years, about 200 species have died. Based on this around 2 species die per year.

Extinction is a natural phenomenon: after all, more than 90% of all organisms that have ever lived on Earth are no longer alive today.

But humans have contributed, accelerating natural extinction rates through our role in habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, disease, overfishing and hunting.

Dozens of new species become extinct every day, and scientists say that more than 20,000 plants and animals are on the verge of disappearing forever. A quarter of known mammal species are threatened with extinction.

Stages of extinction

The first mass extinction is called the Ordovician-Silurian Extinction. It occurred about 440 million years ago, at the end of the period that paleontologists and geologists call the Ordovician, and followed by the start of the Silurian period. In this extinction event, many small organisms of the sea became extinct.

At the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago, many North American animals went extinct, including mammoths, mastodons, and glyptodonts. While climate changes were a factor, paleontologists have evidence that overhunting by humans was also to blame.

Many species have become extinct because of hunting and overharvesting, the conversion of wetlands and forests to croplands and urban areas, pollution, the introduction of invasive species, and other forms of human-caused destruction of their natural environments.

The US Endangered Species Act (ESA) is our nation's most effective law to protect at-risk species from extinction, with a stellar success rate: 99% of species listed on it have avoided extinction.

Actions to avoid species from becoming extinct

The National Wildlife Federation works to defend, strengthen, fund, and ensure effective implementation of the Endangered Species Act and other core wildlife protection laws.

• Defending and strengthening the Endangered Species Act, 

• Holding federal agencies and others accountable 

• Advocating for increased funding 

• Protecting, restoring, and connecting the habitats

• Reducing threats to wildlife