Life on Earth as we know it is a result of millions of years of evolutionary processes. These processes are not immune to changes in the environment; changes in evolutionary processes will ultimately result in changes in biodiversity, which will necessarily affect life on Earth, including humans.
Go to the website www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/myers_knoll.html and read the article “How Will the Sixth Extinction Affect Evolution of Species?” which discusses the effects of the sixth mass extinction on evolution. (If the URL above does not take you to the article, search for it by title at www.actionbioscience.org.)
Evaluate the website and work with the information to answer the following questions:
Is this a reliable information source? Does it have a clear and transparent agenda?
Who runs this website? Does this person’s/group’s credentials make this source reliable/unreliable? Explain.
Who are the authors? What are their credentials? Do they have the scientific background and expertise that lends credibility to the article?
In your own words, explain why the authors think that the current mass extinction will change evolutionary processes.
What changes in particular do they think will impact future evolution?
What types of evidence do they provide to support their arguments? Give specific examples.
The sixth mass extinction is attributed to human impact. Go to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) “Species of the Day” website (www.iucnredlist.org/species-of-the-day/archives).
Choose five species at random that are identified as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. Read about each species and list the reasons for their endangerment.
Create one master list of all the threats you encountered for your five species and categorize them as either human caused or caused by natural events. Which list is longer?
Does human impact play a role in the endangerment of these species? What actions would be most useful to address these threats?
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