Biodiversity

A detailed Summary of Biodiversity

Extinction is defined as the end of existence of a group of organisms, caused by their inability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Throughout the existence of our planet there have been large amounts of species extinctions. For instance, the dodo, a species of flightless pigeon formerly living on the island of Mauritius, became extinct in 1665. About 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, the most of the woolly mammoths and the last of the mastodons, both members of the elephant family, died. Also about 245 million years ago at the end of the Paleozoic Era, an entire class of primitive marine animals called trilobites disappeared forever.

Over the years we have learned that extinction is a natural and ongoing phenomenon. In effect, of the hundreds of millions of species that have lived on Earth over the past 3.8 billion years, more than 99 percent are already extinct. This extremely high rate of extinction can be linked to several factors. Some of this happens as the natural result of competition between species, and is known as natural selection. According to natural selectio

n, living things must compete for food and space. Those species incapable of adapting are faced with imminent extinction. This constant rate of extinction is sometimes called background extinction. Normal rates of background extinction are usually about five families of organisms lost per million years.

Extinctions effect human kind in more ways then one would think. By continuing with this destructive behaviour that is leading to mass extinctions and dangers realities we are only hurting ourselves. As a species that is continuously being killed by fatal diseases we are only reducing our chances of finding cures for prevalent diseases that in some way or another touch us all. A subspecies of the endangered chimpanzee, for example, has recently been identified as the probable origin of the human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).These animals are widely hunted in their West African habitat, and just as researchers learn of their significance to the AIDS epidemic, the animals face extinction. If they become extinct, they will

Some common words found in the essay are:
Paleozoic Era, West African, , mass extinctions, existence planet, background extinction, natural selection, life earth, rate extinction, throughout existence,

Approximate Word count = 731
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science

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Biodiversity

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