Biological annihilation: Earth undergoing sixth mass extinction

New Delhi: Scientists have warned that the Earth, our home planet, is undergoing sixth mass extinction and is more severe than previously thought.

Calling the loss of wildlife a "biological annihilation" that represents a "frightening assault on the foundations of human civilisation", they say billions of regional or local populations have been lost.

Scientists held human overpopulation and overconsumption responsible for the massive loss of wildlife.

Previous studies have shown species are going extinct at a significantly faster rate than for millions of years before, but even so extinctions remain relatively rare giving the impression of a gradual loss of biodiversity.

The new work instead takes a broader view, assessing many common species which are losing populations all over the world as their ranges shrink, but remain present elsewhere.

The scientists found that a third of the thousands of species losing populations are not currently considered endangered and that up to 50 per cent of all individual animals have been lost in recent decades.

Almost half of land mammals have lost 80 per cent of their range in the last century, 'The Guardian' reported.

The scientists found billions of populations of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians have been lost all over the planet, leading them to say a sixth mass extinction has already progressed further than was thought.

"The resulting biological annihilation obviously will have serious ecological, economic and social consequences," researchers said.

"Humanity will eventually pay a very high price for the decimation of the only assemblage of life that we know of in the universe," they said.

In the study, researchers analysed the population trends of 27,500 land vertebrate species, including a detailed analysis of 177 species of mammals, and found that the ranges of a third have shrunk in recent decades.

The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

(With PTI inputs)