Regardless of Climate Change, Human Beings Are Extinction-Proof: Anthropologist

A leading anthropologist has put forward a new theory that claims extinction of human beings is almost a certainty. Darren Curnoe, a senior Lecturer at University of New South Wales, made the argument in an article published on academic website on The Conversation.

He advances the theory that comparing historical extinction rates among humans and animals shows how the advent of mass farming some 8,000 years ago fundamentally altered our evolution.

"Farming gave our species level assurance that the biological isn't always inevitable. The odds have shifted to such a degree that we may now be, with or without climate change, extinction-proof," the Daily Mail quoted Curnoe as saying.

He explained that while extinction for the human race sounds apocalyptic, in biological terms it is almost a matter of certainty.

Humans - Homo sapiens - are just one of the 4,500 species of mammal and in our seven million years of evolution from apes some 30 or so species of two-footed ape have evolved and become extinct.

That is a 95 percent loss of hominin biodiversity, whereas about one third of animal species becomes extinct every 10million years, which means the rate of extinction among hominins is three timers that of normal animals; we are prone to extinction, according to his theory. (ANI)

Advertisement

Source-ANI