Extinction rate among plant and animal species has surprisingly slowed down

NEW DELHI: Prominent new research challenges the widely held belief that Earth is currently undergoing a sixth mass extinction, suggesting instead that extinction rates peaked about a century ago and have since declined.

Scientists Kristen Saban and John Wiens from the University of Arizona analysed nearly 2 million species over the past 500 years and found that extinctions among plants, arthropods, and land vertebrates were highest around 100 years ago and are not rapidly accelerating as previously thought.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, reveals that many past extinctions driving earlier forecasts were primarily caused by invasive species on isolated islands rather than widespread threats like habitat loss.

While islands saw extinctions largely from inv