What we lose when animals go extinct Animals are disappearing at hundreds of times the normal rate, primarily because of shrinking habitats. Their biggest threat: humans.

But just how many animal species have humans driven to extinction? Scientists don't have an exact answer to this question, and it's a tricky number to estimate.

They discovered that the average predicated rate for freshwater animals and plants today is three orders of magnitude higher than it was during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Many scientists think we're entering an extinction crisis that threatens the future of life on Earth. Find out why it is so difficult to determine what animals are going extinct.

A new UN report about the world's biodiversity found that up to 1 million species face extinction. Here's a breakdown of what could disappear.

The aerial photograph on the left shows the Transamazonian highway just after completion. The satellite photograph on the right shows a much larger area, revealing the wake of destruction fanning ...

Nature is in crisis, and it's only getting worse. As species vanish at a rate not seen in 10 million years, more than 1 million species are currently on the brink.

MAMMALS Perhaps one of the most striking elements of the present extinction crisis is the fact that the majority of our closest relatives — the primates — are severely endangered.

Why Animals Living on Islands Are at Greater Risk of Extinction Warm-blooded island species tend to evolve a slower metabolic rate compared with their mainland counterparts, making it harder for ...

Human Population Growth and extinction We're in the midst of the Earth’s sixth mass extinction crisis. Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson estimated that 30,000 species per year (or three species per hour) ...