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Re: Life Expectancy / Escape

897 views · Published 23 July 2008 · 7:53 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Footnotes2Plato · 2008 · People & Blogs

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the current mass extinction event:

"The background level of extinction known from the fossil record is about one species per million species per year, or between 10 and 100 species per year (counting all organisms such as insects, bacteria, and fungi, not just the large vertebrates we are most familiar with). In contrast, estimates based on the rate at which the area of tropical forests is being reduced, and their large numbers of specialized species, are that we may now be losing 27,000 species per year to extinction from those habitats alone."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/2/l_032_04.html

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