The woolly mammoth, a species that lived from about 300,000 years ago up until about 10,000 years ago, went extinct due to a combination of factors, including climate change and human activities such as hunting.

The extinction of the woolly mammoth is believed to have occurred due to a combination of climate change and human hunting, with the warming of the climate leading to a reduction in vegetation, which was essential for the survival of mammoths.

Climate change is considered a primary driver of the extinction of many Ice Age species, including the Neanderthals and possibly the woolly mammoths.

The requirement for a large range to roam in may have ultimately hastened the extinction of the species once the climate warmed and the shaggy grazers were hemmed in by shifting vegetation patterns.

The warming climate and shifting vegetation patterns would have left woolly mammoths more vulnerable to predators, including human hunters.

The extinction of the woolly mammoth and other megafauna is linked to human activities, such as overhunting and habitat destruction.

The woolly mammoth is believed to have gone extinct due to a combination of factors, including climate change and human hunting, although the exact cause is still debated among scientists.

The analysis of fossil records, genetic data, and other proxies can provide insights into the relative importance of climate change versus human activities in driving the extinction of woolly mammoths.

The study of the extinction of woolly mammoths and other megafauna can provide valuable lessons for the conservation of modern species and the management of ecosystems.

The loss of megafauna, including woolly mammoths, has had a significant impact on the environment, with the decline of these large animals leading to a reduction in the dispersal of seeds and nutrients.

The presence of humans has led to a significant increase in the rate of extinctions, with the current rate being over 100 times higher than it would be without human activities.

The speed of climate change was a critical factor in the extinction of woolly mammoths, as they were unable to adapt quickly enough to the rapid transformation of their habitat and the resulting scarcity of food.

The researchers' models suggest that human activity had no significant impact on the mammoth populations, and that climate change was the primary driver of their extinction.

The study of fossil records, genetic data, and other proxies can help to reconstruct the evolutionary history of megafauna and provide insights into the factors that contributed to their extinction.

The current rate of global warming is unprecedented in human history, with the world's average temperature increasing by over 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) since the dawn of the industrial revolution.

Human-caused climate change is fueling more frequent and intense heat waves, with the World Weather Attribution research team reporting that the July heat waves in Southern Europe and the US would be 'virtually impossible' without human-caused climate change.

The rapid warming of the climate at the end of the last ice age led to a change in vegetation, making the typical habitats and pastures of woolly mammoths more marshy and reducing the availability of their typical food sources.

The reduction in food supply and the fragmentation of habitats led to a decline in the population of woolly mammoths and a reduction in their genetic diversity, making them more vulnerable to extinction.

Climate change is considered a critical factor in the extinction of woolly mammoths and possibly other megafauna.

The low genetic diversity of the remaining mammoth populations made them more vulnerable to extinction.

The discovery of three enormous mammoths in an Austrian wine cellar is considered the most significant find of its kind in over 100 years, and could provide insights into the relationship between humans and the prehistoric beasts.

The bones are estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000 years old and belonged to at least three woolly mammoths.

The discovery of multiple mammoth bones in one location is rare and could indicate that they were bunched together by humans.

The site may be the remains of a Holocene Epoch cookout, suggesting that humans hunted and slaughtered the mammoths.

Most archaeologists agree that humans used spears and other tools to hunt woolly mammoths and other megafauna.

The process of hunting woolly mammoths would have required coordination and planning among Paleolithic people.

It is possible that humans set a trap for mammoths at the discovered site.

The loss of megafauna, including woolly mammoths, has had a significant impact on the environment, with the decline of these large animals leading to a reduction in the dispersal of seeds and nutrients.

The presence of humans has led to a significant increase in the rate of extinctions, with the current rate being over 100 times higher than it would be without human activities.

The study of the extinction of woolly mammoths and other megafauna can provide valuable lessons for the conservation of modern species and the management of ecosystems.

The conservation of modern species requires a comprehensive approach that takes into account the impacts of climate change, human activities, and other environmental factors.

The protection of biodiversity is critical for maintaining healthy and resilient ecosystems, and requires a coordinated effort from governments, conservation organizations, and individuals to address the impacts of climate change and human activities.

The woolly mammoth, a species that lived from about 300,000 years ago up until about 10,000 years ago, went extinct due to a combination of factors, including climate change and human activities such as hunting.

Title:

Content: What we know as the Ice Age, the last long period during which global temperatures dropped dramatically and the polar ice expanded to cover much of the earth, is more properly called the Last Glacial Period (as there have been multiple ice ages).

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It started around 115,000 years ago and lasted for over 100,000 years. In that time many animal lineages rose and fell. In particular, it is known that many large mammal species went extinct during the transition from the Ice Age to the present interglacial period (from around 50,000 to 5,000 years ago).

These extinctions are thought to have occurred due to a combination of a quickly changing climate, changing vegetation and increases in human hunting. These megafauna included some truly huge and charismatic animals, from the iconic woolly mammoth to huge cave bears, to giant sloths standing nearly 12 feet tall! In this list you will find out about some extraordinary (now extinct) animals that lived during the age of ice and snow.

10 now-extinct animals from the Ice Age

1. Neanderthals

Our own species, Homo sapiens, emerged about 300,000 years ago, so persisted through the last ice age. We were not the only ancient humans around, however. Surviving the frigid temperatures along with us were our evolutionary cousins, the Neanderthals. This species of hominid emerged at a similar time to us but went extinct around 40,000 years ago – during the Ice Age.

Theories as to why they went extinct vary, from outcompetion from or diseases introduced by Homo sapiens to assimilation into the human gene pool. However, recent theories suggest that the primary driver might have been climate change. It is thought that despite behavioural and biological adaptations to the cold they simply struggled to survive the frigid conditions and lack of available food. How we survived and they didn’t is an interesting question.

2. Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius)

Probably the most well-known of all Ice Age animals is the woolly mammoth (in part thanks to the film character Manny!). Woolly mammoths lived from about 300,000 years ago up until about 10,000 years ago. The appearance of these elephant-sized animals is perhaps the best known of any prehistoric creature, due to the many frozen specimens that have been found, with soft tissue preserved.

With their thick coat of hair, large fat reserves, and specially adapted 'antifreeze' blood they were very well adapted to the cold. They were also very important to the survival of ancient humans throughout the Ice Age; their coats, meat and bones provided valuable sources of warmth, food and building materials for homo sapiens and Neanderthals alike.

3. Giant ground sloth (Megatherium americanum)

These beasts were very different to the sloths we know and love today! Standing at a whopping 3.7m when up on hind legs and weighing up to four tonnes (as opposed to the 5kg of a modern sloth), they were truly colossal.

With its ability to walk on its hind legs, it was in fact the largest bipedal mammal of all time. They lived in the woodlands and grasslands of South America, and fossils have been found dating back from around 400,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. Despite its huge fearsome claws, it was actually a vegetarian, feeding on leaves and grasses.

4. Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus)

Slightly more modest in size, though still pretty massive, was the cave bear. Weighing in at between 400 and 1,000kg, the largest cave bears were comparable in size to modern-day polar bears. They could be found across Europe and Asia, including in the UK.

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We have a very good idea of what they looked like, as in 2020 a perfectly preserved specimen was found in the Russian Arctic, its remains revealed by melting permafrost. Even its teeth and nose were intact.

The specimen was dated to between 22,000 and 39,500 years old, living towards the end of the time of the cave bears, who are thought to have gone extinct 24,000 years ago. It is thought that hunting by humans, as well as competition with them over caves, may have contributed to their disappearance.

5. Dire wolf (Canis dirus)

That’s right, dire wolves are not just fictional pets from Game of Thrones, they were real animals. However, despite the name, and a lot of physical similarities, recent genetic analysis has revealed that they were not actually very closely related to grey wolves at all and were relatively closer to African jackals.

These canids were seemingly a common feature of the American Late Pleistocene landscape (approx. 250,000 to 13,000 years ago), roaming the grasslands, plains, and woods and preying on megafauna including giant ground sloths. There is almost an overabundance of fossil data on this species, with over 4,000 individuals excavated from California’s La Brea tar pits alone.

6. Sabre Tooth Cat (Smilodon genus)

The La Brea tar pits have also been responsible for giving us insights about another iconic Ice Age predator – the sabre tooth cat. More than 3,000 fossilised individuals have been pulled from the ooze, and their teeth in particular have been a valuable source of information about their diets and lifestyle.

Scientists have been able to examine the wear patterns on their iconic gnashers to determine that rather than bringing down very large prey like bison on the open plains, as was previously thought, they most likely fed primarily on smaller forest-dwelling animals like tapirs and deer. They were ambush predators similar to many modern-day big cats.

7. Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus)

As you can probably guess from the scientific name, this species of deer was BIG. They stood at over 1.8m tall at shoulder height and had the largest antlers of any known deer, extinct or living. These colossal antlers must have been something to behold, spanning up to a whopping 3.5 metres.

Despite the name, this elk was not restricted to Ireland, but some of the most well-preserved fossil specimens have been found there. The most recent remains come from western Russia and have been dated to approximately 7,700 years ago – seemingly another victim of the megafaunal extinction event that occurred around the end of the Ice Age.

8. Giant Beaver (Castoroides genus)

Continuing the theme of larger versions of modern-day animals is the giant beaver, with an average length of about 1.8m. Its teeth were large to match, with some reaching up to 15cm, about the size of a hot dog.

There is no definitive evidence that they built dams as modern beavers do, but it is plausible that these immense incisors could have been used for woodcutting. What we do know is that they had smaller, smoother brains than modern-day beavers, which could indicate that they had less behavioural and social complexity.

9. Megalania (Varanus priscus)

So far this list has focused on mega-mammals, but what about other Ice Age species? Understandably it was hard for cold-blooded species like reptiles to survive frozen ice age temperatures across much of the globe, but in fact, not all of the world was icy, and some places remained habitable.

One of these places was Australia, where giant reptiles ruled. These included huge land-living crocodiles, massive snakes and Megalania – a truly monstrous relative of the Komodo dragon. This monitor lizard reached an estimated length of 7 metres and was a key land predator, at the very top of the food chain.

It has been suggested that the loss of its mega-reptile predators has left the Australian ecosystem out of kilter, allowing introduced mammals to reign unchecked.

10. Diprotodon (Diprotodon genus)

Another feature of the Australian Ice Age landscape was not a reptile, but a huge marsupial mammal – in fact, the largest marsupial to have ever lived. Diprotodon measured an estimated 4m head to tail tip and weighed as much as 3,500 kg, dwarfing the current largest marsupial, the red kangaroo, which checks in at a mere 2.7m and 90kg.

Their closest modern relatives are actually much smaller: wombats and koalas. It also has the distinction of being the only known seasonally migrating marsupial, trekking very far in search of food and watering holes.

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Main image: Artist's impression of a sabre tooth cat. © Daniel Eskridge/Getty

Authors

Leoma WilliamsAnimal behavior researcher and science writer

Leoma Williams is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Manchester, and writes periodically for both the website and print magazine

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How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

from 300,000 years ago up until 10,000 years ago

When did the wooly mammoth mostly become extinct?

The extinction of the woolly mammoth is believed to have occurred due to a combination of climate change and human hunting, with the warming of the climate leading to a reduction in vegetation, which was essential for the survival of mammoths.

Title:

Content: Woolly Mammoth Bones Unearthed in Austrian Wine Cellar

It wasn’t the first time that ancient artifacts were discovered in one of Kamptal’s wine cellars.

An Austrian winemaker renovating his cellar unearthed a trove of woolly mammoth bones that could expand our understanding of the relationship between humans and the prehistoric beasts.

Andreas Pernerstorfer’s winery is in the notable winemaking and cultural region of Kamptal in northeastern Austria. After stumbling upon the huge bones in the dirt floor, he reported his discovery to Austria’s Federal Monuments Office. The Austrian Archaeological Institute has been excavating the site since March 2024 to a depth of 55 feet below ground and says it’s the first significant paleontology site found in Austria in a century.

The bones are believed to be between 30,000 and 40,000 years old and belonged to at least three woolly mammoths. According to Hannah Parow-Souchon, the paleontologist leading the excavation, the discovery is significant because mammoth bones are rarely found packed together. This could mean they were bunched there by humans, which could indicate they were hunted and slaughtered by humans; the site might be the remains of a Holocene Epoch cookout.

Most archaeologists agree that humans gathered in groups and used spears and other tools to take down woolly mammoths and other megafauna, which would have been immense sources of meat, hides, and bones to use as raw materials for tools. This activity could have contributed to the animals’ extinction

There is some debate whether preying on the massive beasts was a regular practice for Stone Age people, and science is foggy about how a band of simple humans could get the drop on an animal that stood 10 feet tall, weighed as much as six tons, and had fearsome protective tusks. The process would reveal a lot about coordination and planning among Paleolithic people.

Parow-Souchon said in a statement from the Austrian Academy of Sciences that it is possible that humans set a trap for mammoths there. She also said it was the most significant discovery of woolly mammoth remains in more than 100 years; most such sites in Europe have been dug up and hollowed out, with their archaeological value lost over time.

This is not the first such find in Kamptal. About 150 years ago, relics of early human life—including flint artifacts, jewelry fossils, and charcoal—were discovered there in a wine cellar next door.

Title:

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During the last ice age, woolly mammoths were among the largest creatures to walk the North American landscape. Now, a team of American and Canadian researchers has discovered that the elephantine beasts took the “walking” part of their job description quite seriously.

Based on an analysis of a single tusk from an adult male woolly mammoth found in Alaska, the scientists determined that the animal journeyed about 70,000 kilometres over the course of its life – a trip equivalent to nearly twice around the world.

“The range is staggering. ... He definitely moved across a huge, huge area,” said Clement Bataille, an assistant professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Ottawa and a co-author on the study.

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Dr. Bataille said the high degree of mobility may have been part of the mammoth’s mating strategy. In comparison, African elephants can travel a lot, too, he added, and males typically depart from the groups they are born into once they reach sexual maturity.

However, Dr. Bataille and his colleagues note that the requirement for such a large range to roam in may have ultimately hastened the extinction of the species once the climate warmed and the shaggy grazers were hemmed in by shifting vegetation patterns. That, in turn, would have left them more vulnerable to predators, including human hunters.

The study began in 2018 when Matthew Wooller, director of the Stable Isotope Facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, invited Dr. Bataille and other colleagues to join an effort to extract information from a mammoth fossil discovered in 2010 on the north side of the Brooks mountain range, a few hundred kilometres from the Arctic Ocean. The fossil dates back 17,000 years, to a time when much of Alaska was a glacier-free grass plain connected to Siberia by the Bering land bridge.

The researchers nicknamed their specimen “Kik,” after a river system near the place where it was found.

Using the mammoth’s sliced-open tusk, they obtained detailed measurements of oxygen and strontium isotopes that were locked in the ivory material. The mammoth acquired the isotopes, which vary according to local geology, through the vegetation and water it consumed over the course of its life. As the tusks grew at the rate of about five to six centimetres each year, they recorded changes in isotope levels, which reveal when and how often the animal moved between locations with different geology.

The team also tested isotope levels in rodents that were gathered in different parts of Alaska as part of museum collections. That allowed them to match their mammoth isotope measurements to geographic locations. Finally, they used artificial intelligence software to reconstruct possible paths the mammoth may have taken, working backward from the location where it died at the age of 28.

The results suggest that Kik began its life in the Yukon River basin of central Alaska. As a juvenile it moved regularly in a north-south pattern, during a time when it was likely part of a herd, the researchers said. At about age 16 its movements transitioned to longer distance travel, often centred on certain core areas where it stayed for periods of time before setting out for new pastures.

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“It just takes off and goes on these 500- to 600-kilometre trips all at one time, going from one core area to the next,” Dr. Bataille said. The study found that some of the places where the mammoth lingered are frequented today by migrating herds of caribou.

Jeffrey Rasic, a study co-author and archaeologist with the U.S. National Parks Service based in Fairbanks, said the data suggest that Kik followed a predictable sequence of movements. If that was typical for Alaskan mammoths, it would have provided a huge incentive for hunters moving into the area from Asia to situate themselves in places where they could reliably expect to meet their quarry at certain times of the year, rather than pursuing them over a vast landscape.

“That would be an ideal set-up for intercepting a really big ticket meal item like a mammoth,” he said.

Vincent Lynch, an evolutionary biologist at the University at Buffalo who was not involved in the study, said that while it’s not surprising to find animals moving over great distances, it’s quite a different matter to show that it happened in a species that no longer exists.

“That’s the trick that makes this study interesting,” he said. “It helps us better reconstruct the behaviour and ecology of mammoths in a way that’s really remarkable for an extinct species.”

Dr. Lynch, who has studied the genetics of the last known population of woolly mammoths, which died out about 4,000 years ago, said it’s an open question whether large-scale movement was a disadvantage.

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“We tend to think that widely distributed species which are mobile ... might be better able to find new habitats should the environment change. But could mammoths find refuge in a world that was warming?” he said.

One obvious limitation of the study is that its conclusions depend entirely on the movements of a single individual. Dr. Bataille said that he and his colleagues plan to perform a similar analysis on a female mammoth specimen for comparison.

The team’s study was published Thursday in the journal Science.

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Title:

Content: In one of the most common versions of the extinction of giant mamutes, it is claimed that this was caused by the hunting of ancient people.
Our ancestors literally ate most of the animals.
But recent studies say that this is not the case and people have become far from the main reason for the disappearance of mammoths.
Hunger caused by climate change is the real killer.
Searching for gold, but found mammoths: an incredible story with the Yukon
Drawing of a mammoth on the wall of the cave of Arcy-sur-Cure, France / Photo Wikipedia
The Hungry Death of Great Animals
It would seem that mammoths existed for millions of years and survived several ice ages.
That is, climate change did not affect them critically.
But as soon as they encountered humans, they began to die out.
Finally, we were able to prove that the problem was not only climate change, but also the speed of these changes.
This was the last nail in the coffin – the mammoths could not adapt quickly enough when the landscape changed dramatically and food became scarce.
- says the author of the study Eske Willerslev, a professor at the University of Cambridge and director of the Center for Geogenetics of the Lundbeck Foundation at the University of Copenhagen.
The team, led by Prof. Willerslev, sequenced the DNA of plant, animal, and their fossilized excrement, coprolites.
The selection of these samples lasted about 20 years and allowed us to fully understand why the majestic animals died out.
After the end of the last cooling, the glaciers began to melt.
The environment quickly became quite humid, leading to a chain change in flora.
Typical mamut habitats and pastures became increasingly swampy and vegetation changed accordingly.
As a result, there is simply no food left typical for animals.
From birth to death: scientists have fully investigated the life path of the mammoth
Giants did not have time to adapt to rapid changes, so the total number of mammoths was constantly declining.
Because of this, isolated and partially isolated animal populations arose, which already caused little genetic diversity.
It is clear that all this did not positively affect the chances of survival.
Scientists say climate change is critical.
When such changes destroyed mammoths and probably another megafauna.
Today, we live in a time when the average temperature on the planet is rising again, so we need to take this “harsh lesson ” seriously.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
shrank grassland
food sources disappearing

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
shrank grassland
food sources disappearing

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
shrank grassland
food sources disappearing

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
shrank grassland
food sources disappearing

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

Climate change is considered a primary driver of the extinction of many Ice Age species, including the Neanderthals and possibly the woolly mammoths.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The requirement for a large range to roam in may have ultimately hastened the extinction of the species once the climate warmed and the shaggy grazers were hemmed in by shifting vegetation patterns.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The warming climate and shifting vegetation patterns would have left woolly mammoths more vulnerable to predators, including human hunters.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
shrank grassland
food sources disappearing

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The extinction of the woolly mammoth and other megafauna is linked to human activities, such as overhunting and habitat destruction.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The woolly mammoth is believed to have gone extinct due to a combination of factors, including climate change and human hunting, although the exact cause is still debated among scientists.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The analysis of fossil records, genetic data, and other proxies can provide insights into the relative importance of climate change versus human activities in driving the extinction of woolly mammoths.

The study of the extinction of woolly mammoths and other megafauna can provide valuable lessons for the conservation of modern species and the management of ecosystems.

The loss of megafauna, including woolly mammoths, has had a significant impact on the environment, with the decline of these large animals leading to a reduction in the dispersal of seeds and nutrients.

The presence of humans has led to a significant increase in the rate of extinctions, with the current rate being over 100 times higher than it would be without human activities.

Title:

Content: How would the earth be different if modern man did not exist?
The Libyan Observatory Newspaper
LATEST NEWS
The human footprint can be seen across the planet today, from the towering skyscrapers that define our modern capitals to the pyramids and other ancient relics from our past.
Human activity also represents the sprawling open fields of agriculture, the roads that connect everything together.
But what would the world look like if humans didn ’ t exist before?
Some scientists paint a picture of a pure wilderness and an abundance of species, from fashionable to uncommon.
Trevor Worthy, a paleontologist and assistant professor at Flinders University in Australia, told Live Science: “I think it would be a much more vegetative place with a wealth of animals, of great size, spread across all continents except Antarctica. ”
A world without modern humans may also mean that our extinct human relatives, such as Neanderthals, will still exist.
And, of course, they would have changed the scene as well.
Humans shaped the world at the expense of many species, from the dodo (Raphus cucullatus) to the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), which pushed us to extinction through activities such as hunting and habitat destruction.
The rate of extinction on Earth today is more than 100 times what it would have been without humans, according to the most conservative estimates, and has not been higher since the Cretaceous and Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event that wiped out about 80% of animal species, including non-floating dinosaurs, 66 million years ago.
In other words, humans collided with the planet like an asteroid, and the dust continues to settle as wildlife continues to deteriorate.
“My great-grandfather was able to see herds of thousands of parrots in the landscape, my grandfather saw a hundred flocks, my father saw little and I ’ m lucky if I could see two in the woods, ” said Worthy.
The human-driven decline of nature suggests that Earth would be a more wild place without us, with some lost giants, such as moas, standing out the most.
This group of ostrich-like birds, some of which extend up to 11.8 feet (3.6 m) in New Zealand, evolved over millions of years.
Within 200 years of humans reaching their land 750 years ago, all nine species of moa have disappeared, along with at least 25 other vertebrate species, including the giant Haast eagles (Hieraaetus moorei) that hunted moa, according to Worthy.
The giant moa and the Haast vultures are recent examples of large animals whose eventual extinction is linked to human activities, such as unsustainable hunting and the introduction of invasive species into new habitats.
They are also indicators of what our relationship with large animals might be like elsewhere.
The survival of large animals is crucial to speculate on the existence of a land without humans, as these monsters have a significant impact on the landscape.
– Serengeti System
Soren Furby, senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, believes that humans played a key role in the disappearance of many large mammals thousands of years ago.
He led a 2015 study, published in the journal Diversity and Distributions, which suggested that without humans, the Earth would be much like the contemporary Serengeti system, an African ecosystem teeming with life.
In this scenario, extinct animals similar to those found in Serengeti today – including elephants, rhinos and lions – would live across Europe.
For example, instead of African lions (Panthera leo), there are still cave lions (Panthera spelaea), a slightly larger species that lived in Europe until about 12,000 years ago.
Meanwhile, the Americas will be home to relatives of huge elephants and bears, along with unique species, according to Forby.
"In a world without humans, there will be much more diversity than large mammals, and if you see a greater diversity than large mammals, you tend to see a more open habitat," Forby said.
Elephants and other large animals are well identified when finding food, and will not tolerate unnecessary obstacles.
“If you ’ re old enough, it might be easier to knock on a tree and eat fresh leaves on top of it, ” Forby said.
But also, if there are a large number of large mammals, there is a tendency to have fewer wooded plants in the first place, he said.
Large animals, such as elephants, are known as megafauna.
During the last ice age (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), the world was rich in megafauna, but most of them died at the end of the ice age, or in the thousands of years since.
For example, about 38 genera of large animals went extinct in North America at the end of the last ice age, according to a 2020 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Over the past century, scientists have debated whether natural climate changes or human activities, such as overfishing, are the main reason for the decline of these large animals.
A 2021 study published in Nature concluded that climate change ultimately wiped out the woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) and other Arctic megafauna that survived the end of the ice age.
However, humans hunted mammoths.
Scientists who believe humans may have been the main factor in their extinction, such as Forby, argue that mammoths survived climate change before humans appeared and would probably survive to this day had it not been for the added pressure humans placed on them.
Christopher Dottie, an associate professor and ecologist at Northern Arizona University, is modeling how past and present large animals transport seeds and nutrients through eating and defecating.
His work indicates that the transport of elements such as phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, which are important for life, was reduced by more than 90% through the extinction of large animals.
Dotti hypothesizes that without humans, elements would be evenly distributed across the landscape.
This means more fertile soil, which makes ecosystems more productive.
Humans tend to group elements together through practices such as farming and creating fenced areas, so that these areas become less fertile over time compared to terrestrial systems, according to Dauty.
Greater fertility means that plants can devote their resources to more fruit and flowers, so that the world looks more vibrant and feeds more animals.
While it is difficult to determine how humans and megafauna have influenced climate change for thousands of years with evidence obscured over time, it is much easier to judge our impact on Earth ’ s climate today.
Through global warming, caused by activities such as burning fossil fuels, humans have raised the global average temperature by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius) since the beginning of the 20th century.
Therefore, the Earth would have been at least colder without us.
A 2016 study published in the journal Nature concluded that human-induced warming would delay the next ice age by at least 100,000 years.
And it wasn't due for another 50,000 years, though, even without human delay, so it's unlikely that Earth would be in the middle of another ice age today if we didn't exist.
Humans are inevitable.
Scientists aren ’ t sure why Neanderthals went extinct about 40,000 years ago, but because they mate with Homo sapiens, parts of their DNA are found in some of us.
There were probably multiple causes of Neanderthal death, but we're a prime suspect.
Chris Stringer, a professor and research leader in human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, believes competition for resources was a factor in the disappearance of Neanderthals.
“If we weren ’ t around, if we hadn ’ t come to Europe 45,000 or 50,000 years ago, I think they ’ d probably stay here, ” he told Live Science.
According to Stringer, Neanderthals lived a complex life in Europe, similar to modern humans, but they had difficulty adapting to climate change and were relatively few in number, with low genetic diversity.
This is bad news for any species, as it is a sign of inbreeding and ill health.
Stringer said Neanderthals were probably “already in trouble, and when modern humans got there too, I think that ’ s probably what pushed them to the edge. ”
Scientists are still learning about at least one human lineage that lived around the same time as modern humans and Neanderthals: Denisovans.
This lineage appears to be closer to Neanderthals than modern humans in genes and appearance, but it can be distinguished from Neanderthals with very large molars.
There is evidence of DNA in current humans living in places like New Guinea in Oceania — a finding that suggests Denisovans were in Southeast Asia interacting with ancestors of modern humans who later settled in the East, according to a 2012 study published in the journal Science.
These Denisovan interactions, along with fossil evidence, suggest that they had a larger geographic range than Neanderthals, encompassing a variety of environments and, therefore, arguably, were more adaptive than Neanderthals.
DNA evidence also suggests that Denisovans may have had greater genetic diversity than Neanderthals, according to Stringer.
Stringer said: “There ’ s no reason why Neanderthals or Denisovans shouldn ’ t do it eventually, given enough time. ”
He added that they may have overcome any potential intellectual deficiency, which is not clear to them, through evolution.
So maybe the world won ’ t look completely different after all.
Likewise, they could have made the same mistakes we have made since then.
So, global warming could have been here, but with Neanderthals or Denisovans leading it, not us.
"Who knows?"
Source: Live Science

The speed of climate change was a critical factor in the extinction of woolly mammoths, as they were unable to adapt quickly enough to the rapid transformation of their habitat and the resulting scarcity of food.

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The cause of the extinction of mammoths
Scientists have found that mammoths died out due to climate change
Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov / TASS
An international team of researchers found that the cause of the extinction of mammoths in Siberia was primarily a sharp climate change, not human activity.
The article is published in the journal Nature.
Woolly mammoths became extinct only about four thousand years ago.
They were not only the main source of meat of ancient people – the latter made from their bones the basis for dwellings, from their tusks made harpoons and even musical instruments.
Therefore, there is a widespread theory that the main cause of extinction was humans.
Researchers from the Institute of Earth Sciences of St. Petersburg State University together with colleagues from the UK, Denmark, China, Norway and the United States decided to restore the appearance of the tundrosteppe, which was inhabited by mammoths.
To do this, they using the shotgun method — obtaining from a random massive sample of cloned fragments of the original sequence — analyzed the DNA of ancient plants and animals collected from 535 different places in the Arctic, where the mammoth lived, over 20 years.
They also analyzed the DNA of more than 1,500 modern plants and animals.
Researchers were able to map the distribution of populations of mammoths and other representatives of the megafauna of the tundrosteppe.
They saw that over time their populations and genetic diversity became smaller and smaller — making survival increasingly difficult.
With the end of the Pleistocene about 12 thousand years ago and the accompanying retreat of glaciers and the formation of rivers, lakes and marshes, vegetation has decreased in volume, and it has become insufficient to maintain the previous level of populations.
As the climate warms, trees and swamp plants have taken the place of former mammoth pastures.
“We have shown that climate change, in particular rainfall, has directly led to changes in vegetation.
According to our models, people did not have any influence on them [mammoths], ” said the first author of the work, a researcher at the University of Cambridge Yuchen Wang.
However, the extinction of mammoths was influenced not only by the warming of the climate itself.
“His speed was the last nail in the lid of the coffin – they (megafauna tundrosteppe – approx.
“Tape.ru ”) could not adapt quickly enough, when the landscape radically changed and food was not enough, ” said the head of the scientific group, Professor of Copenhagen and Cambridge universities Eske Willerslev.
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According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
food sources disappearing

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The researchers' models suggest that human activity had no significant impact on the mammoth populations, and that climate change was the primary driver of their extinction.

According to most recent research, what cause of wooly mammoth extinction is not as important as previously believed?

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The study of fossil records, genetic data, and other proxies can help to reconstruct the evolutionary history of megafauna and provide insights into the factors that contributed to their extinction.

The current rate of global warming is unprecedented in human history, with the world's average temperature increasing by over 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) since the dawn of the industrial revolution.

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What “record-breaking heat” actually means

Temperature records are falling around the world, but those records aren’t equally meaningful.

Umair Irfan is a correspondent at Vox writing about climate change, Covid-19, and energy policy. Irfan is also a regular contributor to the radio program Science Friday. Prior to Vox, he was a reporter for ClimateWire at E&E News.

Like an overturned truck that had been carrying vinyl LPs, 2023 is overflowing with broken records.

The Atlantic Ocean’s surface temperature is at a record high for this time of year while Antarctic sea ice is at a record low for the season. Earth just broke records for its hottest day and hottest June, and is poised to experience its hottest July. Countries like China, India, and Spain set new record highs, while Greece and Italy are likely to set their own records this month. The bottom of the scale is rising too: Phoenix, Arizona, set its highest low temperature on record last week.

It’s not just heat, either. Rainfall records fell in California, North Carolina, and Vermont, while Kentucky is on track to set one too. Warm air can hold onto more moisture, leading to more torrential downpours. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that thousands of temperature and precipitation records have already been matched or exceeded so far this year, and more are likely to fall.

The point of a record is to put events into context, and the numbers this year show the planet is assuming a state unlike any humanity has experienced before.

El Niño, the warm phase of the Pacific Ocean’s temperature cycle, is especially strong this year, driving up temperatures around the world. It’s aligning with the warm phases of regional cycles in places like Antarctica and the Atlantic Ocean.

Beneath it all, the global climate is changing as humans burn fossil fuels and spew heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. The world’s average temperature has increased just over 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) since the dawn of the industrial revolution in the 1800s. That’s fueling more frequent and intense heat waves. The World Weather Attribution research team, a group of scientists analyzing humanity’s role in extreme weather, reported on Tuesday that the July heat waves in Southern Europe, as well as the heat across the US and Mexico, would be “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change and will become more common.

“A heatwave like the recent ones would occur every 2-5 years in a world that is 2°C [3.6° F] warmer than the preindustrial climate,” the scientists wrote.

However, there’s a lot baked into the idea of a “record” that often goes unspoken. Not every record is equally long or robust. Past measurements may not be as reliable as modern ones. People colloquially use “record” in different ways to mean different things. And too often, these nuances are lost, and “hottest day on record” becomes “hottest day ever” or “all-time high.”

“I cringe when I read that,” said Chip Konrad, director of NOAA’s Southeast Regional Climate Center and a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There were likely higher temperatures before humans walked the Earth, when the continents were in different places and the atmosphere had a different mix of gases. Reporters (including myself) don’t always clarify that “ever” and “all-time” mean “since record-keeping began.” And those records only go back to when weather monitoring stations were installed in a given part of the world.

“The longer a weather station has been there, the more meaningful the record is,” Konrad said. “We have some that go back to the 1800s, but the vast majority were put in around World War II, the middle of the 20th century.” In addition, individual weather monitoring stations can be biased by other human activity like urban sprawl. So not every broken record carries the same weight.

“That being said, it’s still meaningful how impressively warm it’s been this summer,” Konrad said. Just because records only go back so far doesn’t mean scientists can’t figure out what conditions were like before then, and despite the normal chaos of weather, far more heat records are falling than cold records year after year. Their trajectory points toward a world that will continue to heat up.

Strengthening the context of current climate records, then, could clarify what’s in store for the future — and one of the most important ways to do this is to extend our view of the past.

How to put new weather records into context

There are several things to keep in mind when thinking about temperature and rainfall records after a new one is set. As mentioned, it’s worth noting how the record was obtained and how far back observations extend. But it’s also important to understand the conditions leading up to a record and the limitations of measurements.

For example, the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth is 134°F on July 10, 1913, in Death Valley, California. However, weather historian Christopher Burt has argued that this measurement was likely an error. Temperatures from surrounding areas were nowhere near as hot at the time, and the record was several standard deviations higher than average high temperatures recorded in the area before or since. If that’s the case, the world’s actual hottest temperature on record might have occurred this year.

To increase the integrity of new heat records, scientists can take multiple measurements over a wider area, though truly nailing down a new record often requires an investigation that can take weeks or months. NOAA, for instance, will conduct a site analysis around weather instruments to make sure the equipment was working correctly and that nothing nearby, like a highway or a factory, was altering the record-breaking measurement. “We have to make sure there’s no bias there,” Konrad said. “There are very detailed investigations to make sure that that record isn’t spurious.” Such records, validated with hindsight and multiple measurements, are more significant than individual preliminary records.

Scientists can also fill in gaps by using computer models and by augmenting measurements on the ground with readings from space. From there, they can paint a picture of temperatures around the world. That’s how scientists were able to find that global daily average temperatures are at record highs, though these measurements only date back to around 1979, when weather satellites capable of measuring atmospheric air temperature began taking orbit.

But based on other historical records and trends, scientists can then place these temperatures on longer time scales. “Because warmth must be truly global to push these numbers very high, many scientists have concluded it may have been thousands if not more than 100,000 years (since before the last ice age) when global daily temperature was last this high, but this is more of an expert judgment than a calculated finding,” Bob Henson, a meteorologist and journalist with Yale Climate Connections, said in an email.

Events like heat waves and severe rainfall events can also be described in terms of their probabilities. World Weather Attribution researchers said that the July heat wave in China was a one-in-five-year event, but absent human-caused climate change, it would’ve been a one-in-250-year occurrence. The rain that drenched Vermont and New York earlier this month was described as a one-in-1,000-year storm. This is not a description of history, saying that the last such storm was 1,000 years ago. Rather, it’s a statement of probability, that a storm this severe occurs on average once in every 1,000 years, or that there’s a one-in-1,000 chance of this level of rain in any given year.

“Note that these calculations are based on the assumption that climate is stationary, when in fact we know that the most extreme rains are getting heavier in many/most places,” Henson said. “There’s no simple way to adjust for this, other than to point out that what is a ‘100-year rainfall’ may be occurring more often in a warming climate.”

Another way to contextualize a record is to see how far it is from what’s typical. The record-low sea ice in Antarctica right now has been described as a five-sigma event, meaning it’s five standard deviations below the average for this time of year. “Which means that if nothing had changed, we’d expect to see a winter like this about once every 7.5 million years,” Edward Doddridge, an oceanographer at the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Climate researchers are building a wooden bridge backward in time

As the world braces for a warmer future, it’s more critical than ever to understand the past. A number of sites around the world lay claim to being the oldest weather monitoring station. One of the earliest claims, at more than 2,000 years old, comes from the Tower of Winds in Athens, Greece. But continuity is the other key factor, and some of the oldest continuous records date back to 1724 in Beijing, China.

The problem is that most of the continuous temperature and rainfall records were taken in an era when humanity was already altering the planet, if not with fossil fuels, then with deforestation and agriculture. It’s tricky to get a sense of humanity’s influence on heat, rain, and extreme weather and sift out natural variability without a way to compare it to the climate before such impacts. “We are not looking at a clean world when we’re looking at these early records,” explained Sturt Manning, an archaeologist who runs the Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory at Cornell University.

To get a picture of the climate from even further back, before thermometers existed, scientists are piecing together records from proxies like ice cores and rocks, which can reveal the state of the atmosphere and oceans from long ago. One of the most robust sources of historical climate data is tree rings. Trees are abundant in most of the world, and as they grow, they capture annual snapshots of air, water, soil, and sunlight conditions. These tree rings can even reveal trends in extreme weather like hurricanes.

“Hundreds of different tree species produce visible annual tree rings that we can work with and observe, and those relate to calendar years,” Manning said. The record is built from the present using living trees and then extended using fossilized trees or trees preserved in bogs and rivers.

This way, researchers can build a local climate record going back millennia. Already, scientists have reconstructed climate records in Sweden dating back nearly 8,000 years, and with some long-lived Kauri trees found in New Zealand, they could push the timeline back further.

“We have the potential probably, in time, to build maybe 50-, 60,000 years of tree ring records,” Manning said.

These reconstructions likely won’t ever reach a high enough resolution where we can compare the weather on a specific day to a day thousands of years ago, but they provide a sharper picture of the natural variability in the global climate system. That, then, can help explain how we’re changing the planet now, and how future changes will affect us all.

Human-caused climate change is fueling more frequent and intense heat waves, with the World Weather Attribution research team reporting that the July heat waves in Southern Europe and the US would be 'virtually impossible' without human-caused climate change.

The rapid warming of the climate at the end of the last ice age led to a change in vegetation, making the typical habitats and pastures of woolly mammoths more marshy and reducing the availability of their typical food sources.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
shrank grassland
pastures becoming swampy
food sources disappearing

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The reduction in food supply and the fragmentation of habitats led to a decline in the population of woolly mammoths and a reduction in their genetic diversity, making them more vulnerable to extinction.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

restricted habitat
food sources disappearing

Climate change is considered a critical factor in the extinction of woolly mammoths and possibly other megafauna.

According to most recent research, what is the primary cause of wooly mammoth extinction?

How did climate change affect mammoth' habitat?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

What aspects of climate change contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What environmental factors contributed to the wooly mammoth extinction?

The low genetic diversity of the remaining mammoth populations made them more vulnerable to extinction.

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The discovery of three enormous mammoths in an Austrian wine cellar is considered the most significant find of its kind in over 100 years, and could provide insights into the relationship between humans and the prehistoric beasts.

The bones are estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000 years old and belonged to at least three woolly mammoths.

from 300,000 years ago up until 10,000 years ago

The discovery of multiple mammoth bones in one location is rare and could indicate that they were bunched together by humans.

The site may be the remains of a Holocene Epoch cookout, suggesting that humans hunted and slaughtered the mammoths.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

Most archaeologists agree that humans used spears and other tools to hunt woolly mammoths and other megafauna.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The process of hunting woolly mammoths would have required coordination and planning among Paleolithic people.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

It is possible that humans set a trap for mammoths at the discovered site.

How did humans contribute to the wooly mammoth extinction?

What are the causes of the wooly mammoth extinction?

The conservation of modern species requires a comprehensive approach that takes into account the impacts of climate change, human activities, and other environmental factors.

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Biodiversity makes the world go round—from tiny freshwater creatures to giant trees, the living things on planet earth are what makes it flourish. But in recent years, humans haven’t been all too good at preserving biodiversity—research has shown that nature is declining in unprecedented ways. As of 2019, one in four species on earth are at risk of extinction, and rates of extinction now compared to the times before human activity are about a thousand times higher (with higher rates predicted in the future). Humans are directly impacted by biodiversity loss when it comes to things like water availability and agriculture, which can become stressed as species die out or suffer.

This isn’t only devastating purely due to loss of the nature that makes our world special—it’s also a climate change crisis. Not only does climate change power biodiversity loss, but the weakening of natural ecosystems makes it harder to combat growing greenhouse gas emissions. For example, as climate change disasters like droughts and wildfires hit the Amazon rainforest, the trees and wildlife have a harder time bouncing back to normal—hindering their ability to store carbon.  Just last month, the most recent IPCC report stressed the importance of preserving nature—14 percent of all species face a “high rate of extinction” even at the most optimistic warming outcomes.

[Related: Want to better understand the biodiversity of a forest? Ask the locals.]

“Loss of biodiversity, stresses on agricultural productivity, human health risks—the themes highlighted by WGII are not new,” Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy, said in a release last month. “We’ve been tracking most of them for years now. What is emerging is the indisputable evidence for how climate change is acting to compound and conjoin these challenges at a rate humankind is currently struggling to keep pace with, and how these impacts often hit the most vulnerable first.”

Still, even knowing how drastic the effects of biodiversity loss can be, getting information on what species are suffering, and where, can be tricky. Traditionally, maps may focus on the large-scale range of a species, and largely focus on vertebrate animals. A new study out last week in Ecological Applications, however, zooms in on the most likely suitable habitat for thousands of species—ranging from the Santa Cruz Island Cypress to the Twisted Dwarf Crayfish to Cockerell’s Bumble Bee, across the US.

What they found is that in the lower 48 states, there are nearly 300 species of at-risk creatures and plants that fall completely out of currently-protected wildlife zones. These protected areas make up a mere 13 percent of the continental US, or around 316 million acres (though the Biden administration has a lofty goal of getting that number up to 30 percent by 2030).

“When we think of biodiversity, we may reflect on tropical rainforests or coral reefs, where the richness of life is indeed staggering,” author Healy Hamilton, chief scientist at nonprofit NatureServe said in a release, “but our own country harbors globally significant biodiversity. The findings from the Map of Biodiversity Importance show us areas critical for preventing extinction across the nation.”

The most at-risk regions for imperiled species, the map shows, are across the California coast and the Southeast. At-risk freshwater invertebrates are most likely found in the Southeast, including two vulnerable mussel species that are only found in the Escambia River in Florida, and imperiled pollinators appear largely clumped on California’s coast and in the rust belt.

[Related: Conservation and ecology research tackles global issues without global input.]

Additionally, out of the over 800 species investigated, around 85 percent aren’t protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, 326 of which occur primarily on federal multiple-use lands. Around 66 percent of areas of unprotected biodiversity importance were found primarily on private land, and according to the new findings, around 90 percent of Americans live “within 30 miles of an area of high importance to biodiversity conservation,” said Sean T. O’Brien, President and CEO of NatureServe in the release.

“Most people are not aware that we have so many imperiled species in America, much less that almost all of us live close to a conservation hotspot for biodiversity,” O’Brien says.

But there are ways to protect biodiversity no matter where you are located: supporting local farms, planting native plants and bee-friendly flowers in your yard, reducing water use, and supporting local and responsible farmers are all a good way to start. And if you have the spare time, searching for ways to volunteer in local conservation efforts can also help rebuild and protect the land that houses our rarest and most at-risk flora and fauna.

MORE TO READ

The protection of biodiversity is critical for maintaining healthy and resilient ecosystems, and requires a coordinated effort from governments, conservation organizations, and individuals to address the impacts of climate change and human activities.