Extinct Animals. E-book. Formato EPUB - 9791222025636

Extinct Animals. E-book. Formato EPUB. Extinct is a classification category on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature&rsquo;s (IUCN) Threatened Species List.<br />Extinction occurs when a species &mdash; also called &ldquo;taxon&rdquo; for the list &mdash; no longer exists anywhere on earth. When scientists have done extensive research and agree that there is no longer a single individual specimen of the species they declare it extinct. Essentially, extinction represents the termination of a taxon.<br />There are six main reasons why species become extinct:<ul> <li>Habitat loss</li> <li>Introduction of a foreign species</li> <li>Hunting</li> <li>Pollution</li> <li>Disease</li> <li>Loss of genetic variation</li></ul>Human actions play a huge role in species extinction, but they&rsquo;re not the only culprit. Incredibly, 99 percent of species that have ever lived on the planet have gone extinct. Typically, species have a lifespan of about 10 million years, but there are some that stick around for hundreds of millions. Take jellyfish; they have shimmied around the world&rsquo;s oceans for about 550 million years! However, just because most animals eventually go extinct doesn&rsquo;t mean we should not be concerned with their conservation status. When species are unnaturally dying out, to maintain the planet&rsquo;s ecological balance, we must make an effort to ensure their survival.