Recent research and discoveries point out to a sixth mass extinction, which is actually happening throughout the world right now despite being unknown to most people.
Based on a new study, the world is now experiencing the very first time that a mass extinction event involving larger animals is happening. This phenomenon is due to the steady increase of various human activities.
According to Jonathan Payne of Stanford University, "We've found that extinction threat in the modern oceans is very strongly associated with larger body size. This is most likely due to people targeting larger species for consumption first."
New Kind of Mass Extinction
Payne and his team painstakingly examined various fossil evidence of prehistoric mass extinction events 445 million years ago. Every mass extinction event of the past was found out to have the greatest impact on the smaller life forms, specifically smaller sea animals.
In simpler words, size doesn't matter, as everyone was affected by it. Ecology plays a vital part in the harmonious ecosystem of the planet. As of now, the consequences of a possible mass extinction of all large animals is still unknown, leading some to speculate that it would surely be devastating.
According to Payne's colleagues, "The preferential threat to large-bodied marine animals poses a danger to ecosystems disproportionate to the percentage of threatened species."
Catastrophic Mass Extinction Event
The sudden disappearance of the larger marine animals would be a catastrophic scenario for the smaller marine life forms, as the latter relies heavily on the superiorly sized creatures for biodiversity and balance in the marine ecosystem, such as the algae and other microbial life forms that smaller sea creatures digest.
Despite the lack of more credibly proofs that human activity is behind the ongoing mass extinction, the scientists are still very sure that humans are obviously the culprit.
Payne told Maddie Stone, a Gizmodo official, "We have the opportunity to totally avert this if we make the right decisions. To claim we're in a sixth mass extinction is something very enormous. It is a possibility. It is not the reality yet."
