Extinction

The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) is an example of a recently extinct species.

Palaeotherium is an example of an extinct genus that is only recorded from fossil records before the existence of hominids.

Conservation status by IUCN Red List category
Extinct
Extinct (EX) (list) Extinct in the Wild (EW) (list)
Threatened
Critically Endangered (CR) (list) Endangered (EN) (list) Vulnerable (VU) (list)
Lower Risk
Near Threatened (NT) (list) Conservation Dependent (CD) (list) Least Concern (LC)
Other categories
Data Deficient (DD) (list) Not Evaluated (NE)
Related topics
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) IUCN Red List NatureServe status Lists of organisms by population
Comparison of Red List classes above and NatureServe status below
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Extinction is the termination of a taxon by the death of its last member. A taxon may become functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to reproduce and recover. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence.

More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species,^[1] are estimated to have died out.^[2][3][4][5] It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryotes globally,^[6] and possibly many times more if microorganisms, such as bacteria, are included.^[7] Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, palaeotheres, saber-toothed cats, dodos, mammoths, ground sloths, thylacines, trilobites, golden toads, and passenger pigeons.

Through evolution, species arise through the process of speciation—where new varieties of organisms arise and thrive when they are able to find and exploit an ecological niche—and species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or against superior competition. The relationship between animals and their ecological niches has been firmly established.^[8] A typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years of its first appearance,^[5] although some species, called living fossils, survive with little to no morphological change for hundreds of millions of years.

Mass extinctions are relatively rare events; however, isolated extinctions of species and clades are quite common, and are a natural part of the evolutionary process.^[9] Only recently have extinctions been recorded and scientists have become alarmed at the current high rate of extinctions.^{[10][11][12][13][14]} Most species that become extinct are never scientifically documented. Some scientists estimate that up to half of presently existing plant and animal species may become extinct by 2100.^[15] A 2018 report indicated that the phylogenetic diversity of 300 mammalian species erased during the human era since the Late Pleistocene would require 5 to 7 million years to recover.^[16]

According to the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by IPBES, the biomass of wild mammals has fallen by 82%, natural ecosystems have lost about half their area and a million species are at risk of extinction—all largely as a result of human actions. Twenty-five percent of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction.^[17][18][19] In a subsequent report, IPBES listed unsustainable fishing, hunting and logging as being some of the primary drivers of the global extinction crisis.^[20]

In June 2019, one million species of plants and animals were at risk of extinction. At least 571 plant species have been lost since 1750, but likely many more. The main cause of the extinctions is the destruction of natural habitats by human activities, such as cutting down forests and converting land into fields for farming.^[21]

A dagger symbol (†) placed next to the name of a species or other taxon normally indicates its status as extinct.