Turtles Have Seen Higher Rates of Extinction Linked to the Arrival of Humans

Since the time of the dinosaurs, turtles have existed and are among the oldest living things on the earth.

However, a recent study suggests that this ancient group of creatures may have started to disappear as the progenitors of modern humans began to appear in the evolutionary tree.

Turtles Facing The Threat of Extinction Because of Humans

(Photo : Giorgia Doglioni/Unsplash)

The researchers discovered that during the previous few million years, turtles have seen greater rates of extinction, as per Independent

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, determined that these extinctions could very likely be connected to the appearance of early humans based on the timing and places of these extinctions.

The scientists looked at turtle fossil records from all over the world and noted times when many species appeared to be becoming extinct.

Turtles thrived for a very long time after that; even if some species came and went, the extinction rate was often lower.

But many turtle species began to go extinct once more around five million years ago.

The scientists speculated that these extinctions may have been brought about by the progenitors of contemporary humans because of the pattern of these extinctions.

For one thing, early humans had not yet reached the Americas when the extinction peak began with turtles in Eurasia and Africa.

Additionally, this extinction affected fewer freshwater turtles than land-based turtles.

The scientists remarked that it would have been more challenging to hunt freshwater animals.

This study strengthened arguments made in various scholarly discussions about the causes of extinctions in the last few million years.

Numerous other extinct prehistoric creatures, including woolly mammoths, may also have been brought about by humans, according to some scientists.

Others have suggested that extinct animals like mammoths were wiped off as a result of normal temperature changes on Earth, unconnected to the current climate problem.

In any case, many species in the world today are in danger of going extinct due to human activity as well as the consequences of climate catastrophe, which some have dubbed the sixth great extinction.

Turtles are included in that.

A 2020 study discovered that the extinction threat affects more than half of the numerous turtle species that are still alive today.

Read More: Turtles and Crocodiles at Risk of Extinction among Other Reptiles Species

The Coming of The Sixth Mass Extinction

A new study confirms earlier warnings that the Earth's species have been disappearing at an accelerated rate in the last several centuries, and it claims that the sixth mass extinction of the planet's biodiversity is currently occurring, as per The Guardian.

Five major species die-offs, or extinction events, have occurred on the planet to date, each of which resulted in a significant loss of biodiversity as a result of catastrophic natural phenomena.

However, the study that was published last week in the journal Biological Reviews said that the current one is completely the result of human activity.

According to a statement from the study's lead author, Robert Cowie of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, dramatically increased rates of species extinctions and declining abundances of many animal and plant populations are well known, however, some people contest the idea that these events constitute a total extinction.

Similar to the denial of climate change, many people continue to deny that the ongoing extinction of species constitutes a sixth mass extinction.

They went on to say that this denial was brought on by a skewed perception of the crisis as it was developing that solely focused on mammals and birds while neglecting the mortality rate of invertebrates, which make up around 95% of all known animal species.

Researchers noted that invertebrates, such as bug species, may well be the most likely to be threatened and, as a result, to have gone extinct.

This is because invertebrates are less likely to be assessed than better-known species in other categories.

The study discovered fresh evidence that land species, particularly island species, are experiencing considerably larger die-off rates than continental ones among the living forms on Earth becoming extinct.

Researchers contend that people are the only species with conscious choice over the future of the planet, contrary to claims that this mass extinction is a natural trend and that humans are only another species playing their function on Earth.

The researchers added that denying the situation, admitting it and doing nothing about it, or embracing it and managing it for the feckless advantage of people, defined no doubt by politicians and commercial interests, is an abrogation of moral responsibility.

Related Article: 'Without Doubt,' a Sixth Mass Extinction Event is Here