Can mankind survive a 6th mass extinction ?

During this mass extinction event, many groups of crocodile ancestors went extinct, allowing the dinosaurs to rise to dominance. Dunhill said: "The fact that the insurance against extinction given by a wide geographic distribution disappears at a known mass extinction event is an important result. Many groups of crocodile-like animals become extinct after the mass extinction event at the end of the Triassic era, despite being really diverse and widespread beforehand. In contrast, the dinosaurs which were comparatively rare and not as widespread pass through the extinction event and go on to dominate terrestrial ecosystems for the next 150 million years."

Over the course of history there have been five mass extinction events (that we know of). At present, many scientists believe we are entering a sixth mass extinction. Stanford scientist Paul Ehrlich recently published a study in Science Advances finding that the next mass extinction event is here "without any significant doubt" and under even conservative estimates. He found species are disappearing around 100 times faster than normal rates.

Willis said their latest research shows how mass extinction events do not follow regular rules of survival: "Although we tend to think of mass extinctions as entirely destructive events, they often shake up the status quo, and allow groups that were previously sidelined to become dominant. Something similar happened much later with the extinction of the dinosaurs making way for mammals and ultimately ourselves. However, our study shows that the 'rules' of survival at times of mass extinctions are very different from those at 'normal' times: nothing is ever really safe."

Dunhill added: "These results shed light on the likely outcome of the current biodiversity crisis caused by human activity. It appears a human-driven sixth mass extinction will affect all organisms, not just currently endangered and geographically restricted species."

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