An extinction event is a wide scale and rapid decline of biodiversity on earth, particularly fauna. About 18 extinction events have occurred on earth, with 5 of them being mass extinctions. A sixth mass extinction is stated by biologists to currently be taking place. The 6th extinction coincides with the arrival of humanity on earth. All extinction events, major and minor, are marked by faunal turnovers. Mass extinction are different from most regular extinctions due to the enormous decrease of biodiversity that existed before the extinction event took place.
List of extinctions[]
Extinction events from oldest to youngest:
- Great Oxidation Event (the Oxygen Catastrophe)
- Precambrian-Cambrian Extinction
- Guzhangian–Paibian Extinction
- Cambrian-Ordovician Extinction
- Ordovician-Silurian Extinction (1st Mass Extinction)
- Silurian-Devonian Extinction
- Frasnian-Famennian Extinction (Mostly referred to as the Late Devonian Extinction; 2nd Mass extinction)
- End-Devonian Extinction (Mostly referred to as the Devonian-Carboniferous Extinction)
- Carboniferous-Permian Extinction
- Capitanian Extinction
- Permian-Triassic Extinction (3rd Mass Extinction)
- Triassic-Jurassic Extinction (4th Mass Extinction)
- Jurassic-Cretaceous Extinction
- Cretaceous-Paleocene Extinction (Mostly referred to as the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction; 5th Mass Extinction)
- Paleocene-Eocene Extinction
- Eocene-Oligocene Extinction
- Oligocene-Miocene Extinction
- Miocene-Pliocene Extinction
- Pliocene-Pleistocene Extinction
- Holocene (Anthropocene) Extinction (6th Mass Extinction)