Throughout the history of our planet, biodiversity has suffered a series of mass extinctions that have made up to 90% of the existing species disappear.
Although the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event is the best known because it is the one that caused the disappearance of the dinosaurs , throughout Earth’s history there have been other mass extinction events, some even more devastating than the late Cretaceous and early Paleogene (first Cenozoic period).
What are mass extinctions? These are periods in Earth’s history when large numbers of species die simultaneously or within a limited time frame in an unusual way.
During all the time that has elapsed since the first living organism appeared until today, there have been five catastrophes of immense magnitude that have occurred on our planet. They were of such magnitude that they affected the entire ecosystem, eliminating many species and altering the geographical structure of the globe.
The most serious extinction occurred at the end of the Permian period, when 96% of all species perished. The truth is that, at least, each of these 5 great extinctions wiped out half of all species (at least).
These events, which unfolded over millions of years, are probably the most disconcerting and tragic events our planet has ever experienced. The ‘positive’ side of these events is that the Earth matures and prepares for evolutionary changes, as new species develop to take the place of extinct ones.
Although there are still many unanswered questions about how and why these great extinctions began, today we try to delve into each of them with the information that the experts have gathered so far.
Today, scientists fear that we are at the epicenter of a sixth extinction, stronger even than the last , caused by the abuse of nature by humans.
Hopefully this list does not increase and the people who live in the future can count on most of the biodiversity that our beautiful planet currently boasts.
