The
Holocene extinction, or
Anthropocene extinction,
[3][4] is the ongoing
extinction event during the
Holocene epoch. The
extinctions span numerous families of
plants[5][6][7] and
animals, including
mammals,
birds,
reptiles,
amphibians,
fish,
invertebrates, and affecting not just terrestrial species but also large sectors of
marine life.
[8] With widespread degradation of
biodiversity hotspots, such as
coral reefs and
rainforests, as well as other areas, the vast majority of these extinctions are thought to be undocumented, as the species are undiscovered at the time of their extinction, which goes unrecorded. The current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural
background extinction rates,
[9][10][11][12][13] and is increasing.
[14]
During the past 100–200 years, biodiversity loss and species extinction have accelerated,
[10] to the point that most
conservation biologists now believe that
human activity has either produced a period of mass extinction,
[15][16] or is on the cusp of doing so.
[17][18] As such, after the
"Big Five" mass extinctions, the Holocene extinction event has also been referred to as the
sixth mass extinction or
sixth extinction;
[19][20][21] given the recent recognition of the
Capitanian mass extinction, the term
seventh mass extinction has also been proposed for the Holocene extinction event.
[22][23]