Everything alive today is a descendant of Earth’s fifth mass extinction, when a 10-kilometer-wide asteroid smashed into the Yucatan Peninsula, wiping out 75 percent of our planet’s plants and animals 66 million years ago. This time around, we are the “asteroid.” Says Dr. Joe Hanson, “Now we’re erasing species faster than we can name them.” He explains in this episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart.
ARVE error: need id and provider
The Permian-Triassic extinction event 250 million years ago was the worst the world has ever seen. That was followed closely by the extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Recent research published in The American Journal of Science says the amount of extinctions happening now around the world is beginning to look like what scientists are calling Earth’s sixth mass extinction event. Join Hank Green for the details in this edition of SciShow, plus a look at the world’s first transparent animal–the see-through mouse.
ARVE error: need id and provider
