Question

Man made extinction of species represents a very severe depletion of biodiversity known as

• A. mass extinction
• B. anthropogenic extinction
• C. natural extinction
• D. human extinction

Answer 1

The correct option is B anthropogenic extinction

Extinction is a natural process due to which some species have disappeared from the surface of the earth and new ones have evolved to take their place over the long geological history of the Earth. It is of three types - natural extinction, mass extinction, or anthropogenic extinction.

Natural extinction:
With the change in the environment conditions, some species disappear and others, which are more adapted to changed conditions, take their place. Such loss of species which has occurred in the geological past at a very slow rate is called natural extinction.

Mass extinction:
There have been several periods in the Earth’s geological history when large numbers of species have become extinct because of catastrophes.

Anthropogenic extinction:
An increasing number of species are disappearing from the face of the Earth due to human activities. This man-made mass extinction represents a very severe depletion of biodiversity within a very short span of time. Such man-made extinctions are also called anthropogenic extinctions and the current rate of anthropogenic mass extinction is 100-1000 times faster compared to the mass extinction episodes in the past.