In the great Permian extinction, about 250 million years ago, about 95% of ocean dwellers and 70% of land dwellers disappeared. Many species of fish, corals, reptiles, insects, and plants were eliminated. This was just one of five mass extinctions and there have also been over twenty smaller ones. Dinosaurs, which once dominated life on earth, disappeared. These were dramatic extinctions, but many species are disappearing quietly all the time -- beaten by a changing environment, volcanism, meteor impacts, aggressive predators or competition for food and living space. Earth’s inhabitants and its climate are always changing. Even now, we live in an era of recurring ice ages where life ebbs and flows as the ice comes and goes. Probably over 95% of all species that have ever lived on earth are now extinct. It should not be surprising that many species now on earth are headed for the exit door. The natural world is not a still life, where even the most fragile and...(Read Full Post)