How to see a mass extinction if it’s right in front of you

January 5, 2016

A Yale-led study urges scientists to move their focus from species extinction to species rarity in order to recognize, and avoid, a mass extinction in the modern world.

Writing in the journal Nature the week of Dec. 16, Yale’s Pincelli Hull and colleagues from the Smithsonian Institution argue that modern extinction rates may be a poor measure of whether we’re in the midst of a mass extinction event today — something many scientists suspect may be happening. Instead, Hull and her co-authors contend, the best way to see a mass extinction in real time is by studying changes in species and ecosystems.

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