Can you please place in historical context the extinctions during the “Holocene Holocaust” relative to other mass extinction events?
Some information can be found at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/extinction/massext/index.html Here is Dana Geary’s response: Absolute numbers or percentage extinct is tricky because we are so ignorant about how many species are alive today. However, most estimates of the current extinction trajectory (your “Holocene Holocaust”) put it in the ballpark of four of the five major mass extinctions. Extinctions in the Late Ordovician, Late Devonian, end-Triassic, and end-Cretaceous all resulted in the loss of 11-14% of families, with estimated species extinction rates ranging from 50-80%. If we continue on our current trajectory, most people think we will see this magnitude of extinction in the next few decades. The most major mass extinction ever was in the Late Permian, when 50% of all families died (80-95% of species). We are not to that level yet. Important to note is that the major mass extinctions, particularly the Late Permian, but also the end-Cretaceous, were not caused by a sin
