The five mass extinctions of the Phanerozoic, as defined by the percentage of extinct genera of marine animals. Each mass extinction is highlighted by a red number (1–5) and the percentage of extinct species with respect to the total. The orange line represents the background extinction rates (note that not all extinction bursts above background rates are considered mass extinctions). Geological periods: O, Ordovician; S, Silurian; D, Devonian; C, Carboniferous; P, Permian; Tr, Triassic; J, Jurassic; K, Cretaceous; Pg, Paleogene; N, Neogene. Based on Raup and Sepkoski ().If we take these estimates as a measure, the current anthropogenic biodiversity crisis does not qualify as a comparable mass extinction, as the number of species that went extinct during the past 500 years ranges between 0.5 and 0.01% of the documented and the estimated number of living species, respectively. However, if we consider the average rate of 180 extinctions per century, 75% of the total known species (1.4 million species) would be extinct in 800,000 years, and 75% of the total estimated species (6.5 million species) would be extinct in 3.6 million years. Thus, the rate of the current biodiversity loss is within the range of a mass extinction. If we added dark and prehistoric extinctions, of which we have no reliable estimates, extinction rates would be even greater and the time for reaching the 75% extinction boundary would be shorter. However, the situation might be even worse, as the IUCN extinction records seem to underestimate the period before 1,800., We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us., Although they cover less than 2 percent of Earth's surface, they house an estimated 50 percent of all life on the planet. The immense numbers of creatures that inhabit the tropical rainforests are so great--an estimated 5-50 million species--they are almost incomprehensible..