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115-494: The Ljubljana Marsh is a place of great biodiversity . Since 2008, the major part of the Ljubljana Marsh, covering an area of 135 km (52 sq mi), has been protected as a landscape park . The most preserved parts had been already before protected as nature reserves and as natural monuments . The Ljubljana Marsh was inhabited in prehistoric times, when it was a shallow lake. Prehistoric pile dwellings and

230-653: A disaster fauna , a group of survivor animals with low diversity and cosmopolitanism (wide geographic ranges). Temnospondyli recovered first and evolved into large aquatic predators during the Triassic. Other reptiles also diversified rapidly, with aquatic reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and sauropterygians proliferating in the seas. On land, the first true archosaurs appeared, including pseudosuchians (crocodile relatives) and avemetatarsalians (bird/dinosaur relatives). The Middle Triassic spans from 247 million to 237 million years ago. The Middle Triassic featured

345-475: A negative feedback that arises from resource limitation, or both. The hyperbolic model implies a second-order positive feedback. The hyperbolic pattern of the human population growth arises from quadratic positive feedback, caused by the interaction of the population size and the rate of technological growth. The character of biodiversity growth in the Phanerozoic Eon can be similarly accounted for by

460-489: A 10% increase in biodiversity, which was canceled out by a loss in low-income countries. This is despite the fact that high-income countries use five times the ecological resources of low-income countries, which was explained as a result of a process whereby wealthy nations are outsourcing resource depletion to poorer nations, which are suffering the greatest ecosystem losses. A 2017 study published in PLOS One found that

575-541: A body mass over 10 kilograms became extinct, and the Age of Dinosaurs came to an end. The Cenozoic featured the rise of mammals and birds as the dominant class of animals, as the end of the Age of Dinosaurs left significant open niches . There are three divisions of the Cenozoic: Paleogene, Neogene and Quaternary. The Paleogene spans from the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, some 66 million years ago, to

690-507: A cooling trend that would continue into the Cenozoic Era. Eventually, the tropical climate was restricted to the equator and areas beyond the tropic lines featured more seasonal climates. Dinosaurs still thrived as new species such as Tyrannosaurus , Ankylosaurus , Triceratops and hadrosaurs dominated the food web. Whether or not pterosaurs went into a decline as birds radiated is debated; however, many families survived until

805-501: A country, endangered species are initially supported on a national level then internationally. Ecotourism may be utilized to support the economy and encourages tourists to continue to visit and support species and ecosystems they visit, while they enjoy the available amenities provided. International biodiversity impacts global livelihood, food systems, and health. Problematic pollution, over consumption, and climate change can devastate international biodiversity. Nature-based solutions are

920-517: A critical tool for a global resolution. Many species are in danger of becoming extinct and need world leaders to be proactive with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework . Terrestrial biodiversity is thought to be up to 25 times greater than ocean biodiversity. Forests harbour most of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity. The conservation of the world's biodiversity is thus utterly dependent on

1035-476: A feedback between the diversity and community structure complexity. It has been suggested that the similarity between the curves of biodiversity and human population probably comes from the fact that both are derived from the superposition on the hyperbolic trend of cyclical and random dynamics. Across the Phanerozoic, the dominant driver of long-term climatic change was the concentration of carbon dioxide in

1150-455: A first-order positive feedback (more ancestors, more descendants) and/or a negative feedback arising from resource limitation. Hyperbolic model implies a second-order positive feedback. Differences in the strength of the second-order feedback due to different intensities of interspecific competition might explain the faster rediversification of ammonoids in comparison to bivalves after the end-Permian extinction . The hyperbolic pattern of

1265-594: A lesser extent shelled cephalopods (such as orthocones ). Almost all phyla of marine animals evolved in this period. During this time, the super-continent Pannotia began to break up, most of which later recombined into the super-continent Gondwana . The Ordovician spans from 485 million to 444 million years ago. The Ordovician was a time in Earth's history in which many groups still prevalent today evolved or diversified, such as primitive nautiloids , vertebrates (then only jawless fish ) and corals . This process

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1380-460: A limit would also cap the number of species. While records of life in the sea show a logistic pattern of growth, life on land (insects, plants and tetrapods) shows an exponential rise in diversity. As one author states, "Tetrapods have not yet invaded 64 percent of potentially habitable modes and it could be that without human influence the ecological and taxonomic diversity of tetrapods would continue to increase exponentially until most or all of

1495-405: A report saying that "biodiversity is being destroyed at a rate unprecedented in human history". The report claims that 68% of the population of the examined species were destroyed in the years 1970 – 2016. Of 70,000 monitored species, around 48% are experiencing population declines from human activity (in 2023), whereas only 3% have increasing populations. Rates of decline in biodiversity in

1610-426: A result, the world was warm and partially tropical, though possibly with short colder intervals. Plesiosaurs , ichthyosaurs and ammonites dominated the seas, while dinosaurs, pterysaurs and other reptiles dominated the land, with species such as Dilophosaurus at the apex. Crocodylomorphs evolved into aquatic forms, pushing the remaining large amphibians to near extinction. True mammals were present during

1725-1029: A severe extinction of sauropods in northern continents, alongside many ichthyosaurs. However, the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary did not strongly impact most forms of life. The Cretaceous is the Phanerozoic's longest period and the last period of the Mesozoic. It spans from 145 million to 66 million years ago, and is divided into two epochs: Early Cretaceous , and Late Cretaceous . The Early Cretaceous Epoch spans from 145 million to 100 million years ago. Dinosaurs continued to be abundant, with groups such as tyrannosauroids , avialans ( birds ), marginocephalians , and ornithopods seeing early glimpses of later success. Other tetrapods, such as stegosaurs and ichthyosaurs, declined significantly, and sauropods were restricted to southern continents. The Late Cretaceous Epoch spans from 100 million to 66 million years ago. The Late Cretaceous featured

1840-532: A supervolcano eruption in Sumatra 74,000 years ago caused a global population bottleneck of humans, a second wave of Homo sapiens migration successfully repopulated every continents except Antarctica. As the Pleistocene drew to a close, a major extinction wiped out much of the world's megafauna , including non- Homo sapiens human species such as Homo neanderthalensis and Homo floresiensis . All

1955-538: A third of the Earth's land mass) and are home to approximately 80% of the world's biodiversity. About 1 billion hectares are covered by primary forests. Over 700 million hectares of the world's woods are officially protected. The biodiversity of forests varies considerably according to factors such as forest type, geography, climate and soils – in addition to human use. Most forest habitats in temperate regions support relatively few animal and plant species and species that tend to have large geographical distributions, while

2070-490: A trend of desiccation which resulted in the creation of the Sahara, Namib and Kalahari deserts. Mammoths , giant ground sloths , dire wolves , sabre-toothed cats and archaic humans such as Homo erectus were common and widespread during the Pleistocene. A more anatomically modern human , Homo sapiens , began migrating out of East Africa in at least two waves, the first being as early as 270,000 years ago. After

2185-950: Is 'planned' diversity or 'associated' diversity. This is a functional classification that we impose and not an intrinsic feature of life or diversity. Planned diversity includes the crops which a farmer has encouraged, planted or raised (e.g. crops, covers, symbionts, and livestock, among others), which can be contrasted with the associated diversity that arrives among the crops, uninvited (e.g. herbivores, weed species and pathogens, among others). Associated biodiversity can be damaging or beneficial. The beneficial associated biodiversity include for instance wild pollinators such as wild bees and syrphid flies that pollinate crops and natural enemies and antagonists to pests and pathogens. Beneficial associated biodiversity occurs abundantly in crop fields and provide multiple ecosystem services such as pest control, nutrient cycling and pollination that support crop production. Phanerozoic The Phanerozoic

2300-429: Is a period in which grass spread further across, effectively dominating a large portion of the world, diminishing forests in the process. Kelp forests evolved, leading to the evolution of new species such as sea otters . During this time, perissodactyls thrived, and evolved into many different varieties. Alongside them were the apes , which evolved into 30 species. Overall, arid and mountainous land dominated most of

2415-405: Is an increase in biodiversity from the poles to the tropics . Thus localities at lower latitudes have more species than localities at higher latitudes . This is often referred to as the latitudinal gradient in species diversity. Several ecological factors may contribute to the gradient, but the ultimate factor behind many of them is the greater mean temperature at the equator compared to that at

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2530-538: Is debated. The Oligocene Epoch spans from 34 million to 23 million years ago. The Oligocene was an important transitional period between the tropical world of the Eocene and more modern ecosystems. This period featured a global expansion of grass which led to many new species taking advantage, including the first elephants , felines , canines , marsupials and many other species still prevalent today. Many other species of plants evolved during this epoch also, such as

2645-491: Is estimated at 5.0 x 10 and weighs 50 billion tonnes . In comparison, the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as four trillion tons of carbon . In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all organisms living on Earth. The age of Earth is about 4.54 billion years. The earliest undisputed evidence of life dates at least from 3.7 billion years ago, during

2760-402: Is greater now than at any time in human history, with extinctions occurring at rates hundreds of times higher than background extinction rates. and expected to still grow in the upcoming years. As of 2012, some studies suggest that 25% of all mammal species could be extinct in 20 years. In absolute terms, the planet has lost 58% of its biodiversity since 1970 according to a 2016 study by

2875-509: Is known as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event or GOBE. Trilobites began to be replaced by articulate brachiopods , and crinoids also became an increasingly important part of the fauna. The first arthropods crept ashore to colonise Gondwana , a continent empty of animal life. A group of freshwater green algae , the streptophytes , also survived being washed ashore and began to colonize

2990-427: Is local biodiversity, which directly impacts daily life, affecting the availability of fresh water, food choices, and fuel sources for humans. Regional biodiversity includes habitats and ecosystems that synergizes and either overlaps or differs on a regional scale. National biodiversity within a country determines the ability for a country to thrive according to its habitats and ecosystems on a national scale. Also, within

3105-550: Is mostly a transitional recovery period between the desolate aftermath of the Permian Extinction and the lush Jurassic Period. It has three major epochs: Early Triassic , Middle Triassic , and Late Triassic . The Early Triassic lasted between 252 million to 247 million years ago, and was a hot and arid epoch in the aftermath of the Permian Extinction. Many tetrapods during this epoch represented

3220-458: Is no concrete definition for biodiversity, as its definition continues to be defined. Other definitions include (in chronological order): According to estimates by Mora et al. (2011), there are approximately 8.7 million terrestrial species and 2.2 million oceanic species. The authors note that these estimates are strongest for eukaryotic organisms and likely represent the lower bound of prokaryote diversity. Other estimates include: Since

3335-401: Is possible to build fractal hyper volumes, whose fractal dimension rises to three moving towards the equator . A biodiversity hotspot is a region with a high level of endemic species that have experienced great habitat loss . The term hotspot was introduced in 1988 by Norman Myers . While hotspots are spread all over the world, the majority are forest areas and most are located in

3450-561: Is so full, that that district produces the most variety which is the most examined." Biodiversity is the result of 3.5 billion years of evolution . The origin of life has not been established by science, however, some evidence suggests that life may already have been well-established only a few hundred million years after the formation of the Earth . Until approximately 2.5 billion years ago, all life consisted of microorganisms – archaea , bacteria , and single-celled protozoans and protists . Biodiversity grew fast during

3565-547: Is the current and the latest of the four geologic eons in the Earth 's geologic time scale , covering the time period from 538.8 million years ago to the present. It is the eon during which abundant animal and plant life has proliferated , diversified and colonized various niches on the Earth's surface , beginning with the Cambrian period when animals first developed hard shells that can be clearly preserved in

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3680-479: Is the variability of life on Earth . It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability , species diversity , ecosystem diversity and phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distributed evenly on Earth . It is greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator . Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than one-fifth of Earth's terrestrial area and contain about 50% of

3795-405: Is uncertainty as to how strongly the fossil record is biased by the greater availability and preservation of recent geologic sections. Some scientists believe that corrected for sampling artifacts, modern biodiversity may not be much different from biodiversity 300 million years ago, whereas others consider the fossil record reasonably reflective of the diversification of life. Estimates of

3910-402: The 2012 balloon crash which occurred on the Ljubljana Marsh, with several people dead and a number of passengers severely burned and injured. New, stricter protocol for pilots was introduced by the authorities to make balloon trips safe. 45°59′14.71″N 14°27′14″E  /  45.9874194°N 14.45389°E  / 45.9874194; 14.45389 Biodiversity Biodiversity

4025-513: The Carboniferous , rainforest collapse may have led to a great loss of plant and animal life. The Permian–Triassic extinction event , 251 million years ago, was the worst; vertebrate recovery took 30 million years. Human activities have led to an ongoing biodiversity loss and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity . This process is often referred to as Holocene extinction , or sixth mass extinction . For example, it

4140-528: The Ediacaran period ( Avalon explosion ) of the preceding Proterozoic eon have since been discovered, and the modern scientific consensus now agrees that complex life (in the form of placozoans and primitive sponges such as Otavia ) has existed at least since the Tonian period and the earliest known life forms (in the form of simple prokaryotic microbial mats ) started in the ocean floor during

4255-792: The Eoarchean era after a geological crust started to solidify following the earlier molten Hadean eon. There are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia . Other early physical evidence of a biogenic substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland .. More recently, in 2015, "remains of biotic life " were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia . According to one of

4370-520: The Messinian salinity crisis . Along with these major geological events, Africa saw the appearance of Australopithecus , the ancestor of Homo . The Isthmus of Panama formed, and animals migrated between North and South America, wreaking havoc on the local ecology. Climatic changes brought savannas that are still continuing to spread across the world, Indian monsoons , deserts in East Asia, and

4485-632: The Ordovician–Silurian extinction , during which 60% of marine invertebrates and 25% of families became extinct. Though one of the deadliest mass extinctions in earth's history, the O–S extinction did not cause profound ecological changes between the periods. The Silurian spans from 444 million to 419 million years ago, which saw a warming from an icehouse Earth. This period saw the mass diversification of fish , as jawless fish became more numerous, and early jawed fish and freshwater species appeared in

4600-657: The Phanerozoic (the last 540 million years), especially during the so-called Cambrian explosion —a period during which nearly every phylum of multicellular organisms first appeared. However, recent studies suggest that this diversification had started earlier, at least in the Ediacaran , and that it continued in the Ordovician . Over the next 400 million years or so, invertebrate diversity showed little overall trend and vertebrate diversity shows an overall exponential trend. This dramatic rise in diversity

4715-461: The Stone Age , species loss has accelerated above the average basal rate, driven by human activity. Estimates of species losses are at a rate 100–10,000 times as fast as is typical in the fossil record. Loss of biodiversity results in the loss of natural capital that supplies ecosystem goods and services . Species today are being wiped out at a rate 100 to 1,000 times higher than baseline, and

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4830-812: The Tethys Sea , and the Americas were separated by the Panamanic Seaway (as the Isthmus of Panama had not yet formed). This epoch featured a general warming trend that peaked at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum , and the earliest modern jungles expanded, eventually reaching the poles. The oceans were dominated by sharks, as the large reptiles that had once ruled had become extinct. Mammals diversified rapidly, but most remained small. The largest tetrapod carnivores during

4945-597: The flood plains and riparian zones , giving rise to primitive land plants . By the end of the Ordovician, Gondwana had moved from the equator to the South Pole , and Laurentia had collided with Baltica , closing the Iapetus Ocean . The glaciation of Gondwana resulted in a major drop in sea level, killing off all life that had established along its coast. Glaciation caused an icehouse Earth , leading to

5060-530: The fossil record . The time before the Phanerozoic, collectively called the Precambrian , is now divided into the Hadean , Archaean and Proterozoic eons. The time span of the Phanerozoic starts with the sudden appearance of fossilised evidence of a number of animal phyla ; the evolution of those phyla into diverse forms; the evolution of plants ; the evolution of fish , arthropods and molluscs ;

5175-426: The terrestrial colonization and evolution of insects , chelicerates , myriapods and tetrapods ; and the development of modern flora dominated by vascular plants . During this time span, tectonic forces which move the continents had collected them into a single landmass known as Pangaea (the most recent supercontinent ), which then separated into the current continental landmasses. The term "Phanerozoic"

5290-504: The tropics . Brazil 's Atlantic Forest is considered one such hotspot, containing roughly 20,000 plant species, 1,350 vertebrates and millions of insects, about half of which occur nowhere else. The island of Madagascar and India are also particularly notable. Colombia is characterized by high biodiversity, with the highest rate of species by area unit worldwide and it has the largest number of endemics (species that are not found naturally anywhere else) of any country. About 10% of

5405-417: The world population growth arises from a second-order positive feedback between the population size and the rate of technological growth. The hyperbolic character of biodiversity growth can be similarly accounted for by a feedback between diversity and community structure complexity. The similarity between the curves of biodiversity and human population probably comes from the fact that both are derived from

5520-512: The "Age of the Fish", the Devonian features a huge diversification in fish such as the jawless conodonts and ostracoderms , as well as jawed fish such as the armored placoderms (e.g. Dunkleosteus ), the spiny acanthodians and early bony fish . The Devonian also saw the primitive appearance of modern fish groups such as chondricthyans ( cartilaginous fish ) and osteichthyans (bony fish),

5635-472: The Age of Reptiles, Age of Dinosaurs or Age of Conifers, the Mesozoic featured the first time the sauropsids ascended to ecological dominance over the synapsids, as well as the diversification of many modern ray-finned fish , insects , molluscs (particularly the coleoids ), tetrapods and plants. The Mesozoic is subdivided into three periods: the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. The Triassic ranges from 252 million to 201 million years ago. The Triassic

5750-500: The Carboniferous as semiaquatic amphibians such as the temnospondyls , and one lineage developed extraembryonic membranes that allowed their eggs to survive outside of the water. These tetrapods, the amniotes , included the first sauropsids (which evolved the reptiles , dinosaurs and birds ) and synapsids (the ancestors of mammal ). Throughout the Carboniferous, there was a cooling pattern, which eventually led to

5865-514: The Earth, and the large amounts of trees sequestered much of the carbon that became coal deposits (hence the name Carboniferous and the term " coal forest "). About 90% of all coal beds were deposited in the Carboniferous and Permian periods, which represent just 2% of the Earth's geologic history. The high oxygen levels caused by these wetland rainforests allowed arthropods, normally limited in size by their respiratory systems , to proliferate and increase in size. Tetrapods also diversified during

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5980-606: The IUCN's critically endangered . Numerous scientists and the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services assert that human population growth and overconsumption are the primary factors in this decline. However, other scientists have criticized this finding and say that loss of habitat caused by "the growth of commodities for export" is the main driver. Some studies have however pointed out that habitat destruction for

6095-599: The Jurassic but remained small, with average body masses of less than 10 kilograms (22 lb) until the end of the Cretaceous. The Middle and Late Jurassic Epochs span from 174 million to 145 million years ago. Conifer savannahs made up a large portion of the world's forests. In the oceans, plesiosaurs were quite common, and ichthyosaurs were flourishing. The Late Jurassic Epoch spans from 163 million to 145 million years ago. The Late Jurassic featured

6210-544: The Late Triassic, and pterosaurs evolved a bit later. Other large reptilian competitors to the dinosaurs were wiped out by the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event , in which most archosaurs (excluding crocodylomorphs , pterosaurs and dinosaurs), most therapsids (except cynodonts ) and almost all large amphibians became extinct, as well as 34% of marine life in the fourth mass extinction event. The cause of

6325-600: The Middle Devonian, shrub-like forests existed: lycophytes , horsetails and progymnosperm . This greening event also allowed the diversification of arthropods as they took advantage of the new habitat. Near the end of the Devonian, 70% of all species became extinct in a sequence of mass extinction events, collectively known as the Late Devonian extinction . The Carboniferous spans from 359 million to 299 million years ago. Tropical swamps dominated

6440-584: The Paleocene were reptiles, including crocodyliforms , choristoderans and snakes . Titanoboa , the largest known snake, lived in South America during the Paleocene. The Eocene Epoch ranged from 56 million to 34 million years ago. In the early Eocene, most land mammals were small and living in cramped jungles, much like the Paleocene. Among them were early primates , whales and horses along with many other early forms of mammals. The climate

6555-486: The Paleozoic Era and ran from 539 million to 485 million years ago. The Cambrian sparked a rapid expansion in the diversity of animals, in an event known as the Cambrian explosion , during which the greatest number of animal body plans evolved in a single period in the history of Earth. Complex algae evolved, and the fauna was dominated by armoured arthropods (such as trilobites and radiodontids ) and to

6670-401: The Phanerozoic correlate much better with the hyperbolic model (widely used in demography and macrosociology ) than with exponential and logistic models (traditionally used in population biology and extensively applied to fossil biodiversity as well). The latter models imply that changes in diversity are guided by a first-order positive feedback (more ancestors, more descendants) or

6785-582: The World Wildlife Fund. The Living Planet Report 2014 claims that "the number of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish across the globe is, on average, about half the size it was 40 years ago". Of that number, 39% accounts for the terrestrial wildlife gone, 39% for the marine wildlife gone and 76% for the freshwater wildlife gone. Biodiversity took the biggest hit in Latin America , plummeting 83 percent. High-income countries showed

6900-812: The ancestors of modern mammals. The first conifers evolved during this period, then dominated the terrestrial landscape. The Permian ended with at least one mass extinction , an event sometimes known as " the Great Dying ", caused by large floods of lava (the Siberian Traps in Russia and the Emeishan Traps in China). This extinction was the largest in Earth's history and led to the loss of 95% of all species of life. The Mesozoic ranges from 252 million to 66 million years ago. Also referred to as

7015-458: The atmosphere, though some studies have suggested a decoupling of carbon dioxide and palaeotemperature, particularly during cold intervals of the Phanerozoic. Phanerozoic carbon dioxide concentrations have been governed partially by a 26 million year oceanic crustal cycle. Since the Devonian, large swings in carbon dioxide of 2,000 ppm or more were uncommon over short timescales. Variations in global temperature were limited by negative feedbacks in

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7130-461: The available eco-space is filled." It also appears that the diversity continues to increase over time, especially after mass extinctions. On the other hand, changes through the Phanerozoic correlate much better with the hyperbolic model (widely used in population biology , demography and macrosociology , as well as fossil biodiversity) than with exponential and logistic models. The latter models imply that changes in diversity are guided by

7245-697: The beginnings of the Sahara Desert . The Earth's continents and seas moved into their present shapes. The world map has not changed much since, save for changes brought about by the Quaternary glaciation such as Lake Agassiz (precursor of the Great Lakes ). The Quaternary spans from 2.58 million years ago to present day, and is the shortest geological period in the Phanerozoic Eon . It features modern animals, and dramatic changes in

7360-887: The beginnings of the break-up of Pangaea as rifting commenced in north Pangaea. The northern part of the Tethys Ocean , the Paleotethys Ocean, had become a passive basin, but a spreading center was active in the southern part of the Tethys Ocean, the Neotethys Ocean. Phytoplankton , coral, crustaceans and many other marine invertebrates recovered from the Permian extinction by the end of the Middle Triassic. Meanwhile, on land, reptiles continued to diversify, conifer forests flourished, as well as

7475-553: The biomass of insect life in Germany had declined by three-quarters in the last 25 years. Dave Goulson of Sussex University stated that their study suggested that humans "appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse." In 2020 the World Wildlife Foundation published

7590-627: The boundaries of the Holocene epoch. Human activity is blamed for an ongoing mass extinction that began roughly 10,000 years ago, though the species becoming extinct have only been recorded since the Industrial Revolution . This is sometimes referred to as the " Sixth Extinction " with hundreds of species gone extinct due to human activities such as overhunting , habitat destruction and introduction of invasive species . It has been demonstrated that changes in biodiversity through

7705-564: The climate. It is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene . The Pleistocene lasted from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago. This epoch was marked by a series of glacial periods ( ice ages ) as a result of the cooling trend that started in the mid-Eocene. There were numerous separate glaciation periods marked by the advance of ice caps as far south as 40 degrees N latitude in mountainous areas. Meanwhile, Africa experienced

7820-416: The continents were affected, but Africa was impacted to a lesser extent and retained many large animals such as elephants, rhinoceros and hippopotamus . The extent to which Homo sapiens were involved in this megafaunal extinction is debated. The Holocene began 11,700 years ago at the end of Younger Dryas and lasts until the present day. All recorded history and so-called " human history " lies within

7935-406: The cooling climate even as more archaic forms died out. By the end of the Eocene, whales such as Basilosaurus had become fully aquatic. The late Eocene Epoch saw the rebirth of seasons, which caused the expansion of savanna-like areas with the earliest substantial grasslands . At the transition between the Eocene and Oligocene epochs there was a significant extinction event , the cause of which

8050-540: The current sixth mass extinction match or exceed rates of loss in the five previous mass extinction events in the fossil record . Biodiversity loss is in fact "one of the most critical manifestations of the Anthropocene " (since around the 1950s); the continued decline of biodiversity constitutes "an unprecedented threat" to the continued existence of human civilization. The reduction is caused primarily by human impacts , particularly habitat destruction . Since

8165-519: The dawn of the Neogene 23 million years ago. It features three epochs : Paleocene , Eocene and Oligocene . The Paleocene Epoch began with the K–Pg extinction event, and the early part of the Paleocene saw the recovery of the Earth from that event. The continents began to take their modern shapes, but most continents (and India) remained separated from each other: Africa and Eurasia were separated by

8280-555: The earlier Archean eon. The Proterozoic –Phanerozoic boundary is at 538.8 million years ago. In the 19th century, the boundary was set at time of appearance of the first abundant animal ( metazoan ) fossils , but trace fossils of several hundred groups ( taxa ) of complex soft-bodied metazoa from the preceding Ediacaran period of the Proterozoic eon, known as the Avalon Explosion , have been identified since

8395-512: The end of the Maastrichtian , just before that extinction event. However, many other taxa were affected by this crisis, which affected even marine taxa, such as ammonites , which also became extinct around that time. The biodiversity of the past is called Paleobiodiversity. The fossil record suggests that the last few million years featured the greatest biodiversity in history . However, not all scientists support this view, since there

8510-428: The end of the Cretaceous, alongside new forms such as the gigantic Quetzalcoatlus . Mammals diversified despite their small sizes, with metatherians ( marsupials and kin) and eutherians ( placentals and kin) coming into their own. In the oceans, mosasaurs diversified to fill the role of the now-extinct ichthyosaurs, alongside huge plesiosaurs such as Elasmosaurus . Also, the first flowering plants evolved. At

8625-600: The end of the Cretaceous, the Deccan Traps and other volcanic eruptions were poisoning the atmosphere. As this was continued, it is thought that a large meteor smashed into Earth, creating the Chicxulub Crater and causing the event known as the K–Pg extinction , the fifth and most recent mass extinction event, during which 75% of life on Earth became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. Every living thing with

8740-481: The end of the last ice age partly resulted from overhunting. Biologists most often define biodiversity as the "totality of genes , species and ecosystems of a region". An advantage of this definition is that it presents a unified view of the traditional types of biological variety previously identified: Biodiversity is most commonly used to replace the more clearly-defined and long-established terms, species diversity and species richness . However, there

8855-451: The estimated global value of ecosystem services (not captured in traditional markets) at an average of $ 33 trillion annually. With regards to provisioning services, greater species diversity has the following benefits: With regards to regulating services, greater species diversity has the following benefits: Greater species diversity Agricultural diversity can be divided into two categories: intraspecific diversity , which includes

8970-584: The evergreen trees. The long term cooling continued and seasonal rain patterns established. Mammals continued to grow larger. Paraceratherium , one of the largest land mammals to ever live, evolved during this epoch, along with many other perissodactyls . The Neogene spans from 23.03 million to 2.58 million years ago. It features two epochs: the Miocene and the Pliocene . The Miocene spans from 23.03 million to 5.333 million years ago and

9085-428: The expansion of agriculture and the overexploitation of wildlife are the more significant drivers of contemporary biodiversity loss, not climate change . Biodiversity is not evenly distributed, rather it varies greatly across the globe as well as within regions and seasons. Among other factors, the diversity of all living things ( biota ) depends on temperature , precipitation , altitude , soils , geography and

9200-460: The extinction is debated, but likely resulted from eruptions of the CAMP large igneous province . The Jurassic ranges from 201 million to 145 million years ago, and features three major epochs: Early Jurassic , Middle Jurassic and Late Jurassic . The Early Jurassic epoch spans from 201 million to 174 million years ago. The climate was much more humid than during the Triassic, and as

9315-550: The first flies. The Late Triassic spans from 237 million to 201 million years ago. Following the bloom of the Middle Triassic, the Late Triassic was initially warm and arid with a strong monsoon climate and with most precipitation limited to coastal regions and high latitudes. This changed late in the Carnian period with a 2 million years-long wet season which transformed the arid continental interior into lush alluvial forests . The first true dinosaurs appeared early in

9430-718: The fossil record. Arthropods remained abundant, and some groups, such as eurypterids , became apex predators in the ocean. Fully terrestrial life established itself on land, including early fungi , arachnids , hexapods and myriapods . The evolution of vascular plants (mainly spore -producing ferns such as Cooksonia ) allowed land plants to gain a foothold further inland as well. During this time, there were four continents: Gondwana (Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, India), Laurentia (North America with parts of Europe), Baltica (the rest of Europe), and Siberia (Northern Asia). The Devonian spans from 419 million to 359 million years ago. Also informally known as

9545-491: The genetic variation within a single species, like the potato ( Solanum tuberosum ) that is composed of many different forms and types (e.g. in the U.S. they might compare russet potatoes with new potatoes or purple potatoes, all different, but all part of the same species, S. tuberosum ). The other category of agricultural diversity is called interspecific diversity and refers to the number and types of different species. Agricultural diversity can also be divided by whether it

9660-547: The glaciation of Gondwana as much of it was situated around the South Pole . This event was known as the Permo-Carboniferous Glaciation and resulted in a major loss of coal forests, known as the Carboniferous rainforest collapse . The Permian spans from 299 million to 251 million years ago and was the last period of the Paleozoic era. At its beginning, all landmasses came together to form

9775-596: The interactions between other species. The study of the spatial distribution of organisms , species and ecosystems , is the science of biogeography . Diversity consistently measures higher in the tropics and in other localized regions such as the Cape Floristic Region and lower in polar regions generally. Rain forests that have had wet climates for a long time, such as Yasuní National Park in Ecuador , have particularly high biodiversity. There

9890-682: The interference of the hyperbolic trend with cyclical and stochastic dynamics. Most biologists agree however that the period since human emergence is part of a new mass extinction, named the Holocene extinction event , caused primarily by the impact humans are having on the environment. It has been argued that the present rate of extinction is sufficient to eliminate most species on the planet Earth within 100 years. New species are regularly discovered (on average between 5–10,000 new species each year, most of them insects ) and many, though discovered, are not yet classified (estimates are that nearly 90% of all arthropods are not yet classified). Most of

10005-473: The last of which includes fish , amphibians and the fully terrestrial amniotes ( synapsids and sauropsids ). The Mesozoic features the evolution of crocodilians , turtles , dinosaurs (including birds ), lepidosaurs ( lizards and snakes ) and mammals . The Cenozoic begins with the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs , pterosaurs and marine reptiles , and features the great diversification in birds and mammals. Humans appeared and evolved during

10120-536: The latter of which include two clades — the actinopterygians ( ray-finned fish ) and sarcopterygians ( lobe-finned fish ). One lineage of sarcopterygians, Rhipidistia , evolved the first four-limbed vertebrates , which would eventually become tetrapods . On land, plant groups diversified after the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution ; the first woody ferns and the earliest seed plants evolved during this period. By

10235-877: The montane forests of Africa, South America and Southeast Asia and lowland forests of Australia, coastal Brazil, the Caribbean islands, Central America and insular Southeast Asia have many species with small geographical distributions. Areas with dense human populations and intense agricultural land use, such as Europe , parts of Bangladesh, China, India and North America, are less intact in terms of their biodiversity. Northern Africa, southern Australia, coastal Brazil, Madagascar and South Africa, are also identified as areas with striking losses in biodiversity intactness. European forests in EU and non-EU nations comprise more than 30% of Europe's land mass (around 227 million hectares), representing an almost 10% growth since 1990. Generally, there

10350-461: The most recent part of the Cenozoic. The Paleozoic is a time in Earth's history when active complex life forms evolved, took their first foothold on dry land, and when the forerunners of all multicellular life on Earth began to diversify. There are six periods in the Paleozoic era: Cambrian , Ordovician , Silurian , Devonian , Carboniferous and Permian . The Cambrian is the first period of

10465-408: The oldest wooden wheel in the world are among the most notable archaeological findings from the marshland. Excavations in the area were led by Tatjana Bregant from 1969. Since 2011, the area of pile dwellings near Ig has been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The first road through the marsh, connecting Ljubljana to Studenec (now Ig ), was begun in 1825 and completed in 1827. The work

10580-514: The phosphorus cycle, wherein increased phosphorus input into the ocean would increase surficial biological productivity that would in turn enhance iron redox cycling and thus remove phosphorus from seawater; this maintained a relatively stable rate of removal of carbon from the atmosphere and ocean via organic carbon burial. The climate also controlled the availability of phosphate through its regulation of rates of continental and seafloor weathering. Major global temperature variations of >7 °C during

10695-468: The planet's species went extinct prior to the evolution of humans. Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86% have not yet been described. However, a May 2016 scientific report estimates that 1 trillion species are currently on Earth, with only one-thousandth of one percent described. The total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth

10810-546: The poles. Even though terrestrial biodiversity declines from the equator to the poles, some studies claim that this characteristic is unverified in aquatic ecosystems , especially in marine ecosystems . The latitudinal distribution of parasites does not appear to follow this rule. Also, in terrestrial ecosystems the soil bacterial diversity has been shown to be highest in temperate climatic zones, and has been attributed to carbon inputs and habitat connectivity. In 2016, an alternative hypothesis ("the fractal biodiversity")

10925-412: The present global macroscopic species diversity vary from 2 million to 100 million, with a best estimate of somewhere near 9 million, the vast majority arthropods . Diversity appears to increase continually in the absence of natural selection. The existence of a global carrying capacity , limiting the amount of life that can live at once, is debated, as is the question of whether such

11040-729: The rate of extinction has increased, many extant species may become extinct before they are described. Not surprisingly, in the animalia the most studied groups are birds and mammals , whereas fishes and arthropods are the least studied animals groups. During the last century, decreases in biodiversity have been increasingly observed. It was estimated in 2007 that up to 30% of all species will be extinct by 2050. Of these, about one eighth of known plant species are threatened with extinction . Estimates reach as high as 140,000 species per year (based on Species-area theory ). This figure indicates unsustainable ecological practices, because few species emerge each year. The rate of species loss

11155-584: The rate of extinctions is increasing. This process destroys the resilience and adaptability of life on Earth. In 2006, many species were formally classified as rare or endangered or threatened ; moreover, scientists have estimated that millions more species are at risk which have not been formally recognized. About 40 percent of the 40,177 species assessed using the IUCN Red List criteria are now listed as threatened with extinction —a total of 16,119. As of late 2022 9251 species were considered part of

11270-913: The researchers, "If life arose relatively quickly on Earth...then it could be common in the universe ." There have been many claims about biodiversity's effect on the ecosystem services , especially provisioning and regulating services . Some of those claims have been validated, some are incorrect and some lack enough evidence to draw definitive conclusions. Ecosystem services have been grouped in three types: Experiments with controlled environments have shown that humans cannot easily build ecosystems to support human needs; for example insect pollination cannot be mimicked, though there have been attempts to create artificial pollinators using unmanned aerial vehicles . The economic activity of pollination alone represented between $ 2.1–14.6 billion in 2003. Other sources have reported somewhat conflicting results and in 1997 Robert Costanza and his colleagues reported

11385-693: The species of the Earth can be found in Colombia, including over 1,900 species of bird, more than in Europe and North America combined, Colombia has 10% of the world's mammals species, 14% of the amphibian species and 18% of the bird species of the world. Madagascar dry deciduous forests and lowland rainforests possess a high ratio of endemism . Since the island separated from mainland Africa 66 million years ago, many species and ecosystems have evolved independently. Indonesia 's 17,000 islands cover 735,355 square miles (1,904,560 km ) and contain 10% of

11500-424: The supercontinent Pangaea , surrounded by one expansive ocean called Panthalassa . The Earth was relatively dry compared to the Carboniferous, with harsh seasons , as the climate of the interior of Pangaea was not moderated by large bodies of water. Amniotes still flourished and diversified in the new dry climate, particularly synapsids such as Dimetrodon , Edaphosaurus and therapsids , which gave rise to

11615-507: The systematic study of those forms started in the 1950s. The transition from the largely sessile Precambrian biota to the active mobile Cambrian biota occurred early in the Phanerozoic. The Phanerozoic is divided into three eras : the Paleozoic , Mesozoic and Cenozoic , which are further subdivided into 12 periods . The Paleozoic features the evolution of the three most prominent animal phyla, arthropods , molluscs and chordates ,

11730-419: The terrestrial diversity is found in tropical forests and in general, the land has more species than the ocean; some 8.7 million species may exist on Earth, of which some 2.1 million live in the ocean. It is estimated that 5 to 50 billion species have existed on the planet. Assuming that there may be a maximum of about 50 million species currently alive, it stands to reason that greater than 99% of

11845-773: The way in which we interact with and use the world's forests. A new method used in 2011, put the total number of species on Earth at 8.7 million, of which 2.1 million were estimated to live in the ocean. However, this estimate seems to under-represent the diversity of microorganisms. Forests provide habitats for 80 percent of amphibian species , 75 percent of bird species and 68 percent of mammal species. About 60 percent of all vascular plants are found in tropical forests. Mangroves provide breeding grounds and nurseries for numerous species of fish and shellfish and help trap sediments that might otherwise adversely affect seagrass beds and coral reefs, which are habitats for many more marine species. Forests span around 4 billion acres (nearly

11960-630: The world's flowering plants , 12% of mammals and 17% of reptiles , amphibians and birds —along with nearly 240 million people. Many regions of high biodiversity and/or endemism arise from specialized habitats which require unusual adaptations, for example, alpine environments in high mountains , or Northern European peat bogs . Accurately measuring differences in biodiversity can be difficult. Selection bias amongst researchers may contribute to biased empirical research for modern estimates of biodiversity. In 1768, Rev. Gilbert White succinctly observed of his Selborne, Hampshire "all nature

12075-597: The world's species. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity for both marine and terrestrial taxa. Since life began on Earth , six major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity. The Phanerozoic aeon (the last 540 million years) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion . In this period, the majority of multicellular phyla first appeared. The next 400 million years included repeated, massive biodiversity losses. Those events have been classified as mass extinction events. In

12190-654: The world, as did grazers. The Tethys Sea finally closed with the creation of the Arabian Peninsula and in its wake left the Black , Red , Mediterranean and Caspian seas. This only increased aridity. Many new plants evolved, and 95% of modern seed plants evolved in the mid-Miocene. The Pliocene lasted from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years ago. The Pliocene featured dramatic climatic changes, which ultimately led to modern species and plants. The Mediterranean Sea dried up for hundreds of thousand years in

12305-415: Was already mentioned as a place in the 18th century and was settled in the 1870s, when peat extraction was a major economic activity. The name Havptmance probably refers to the fact that the provincial governor ( German : Landeshauptmann ) had his hunting grounds in the area. The Ljubljana Marsh is very popular among balloonists . On 23 August 2012, a pilot without a valid pilot certificate caused

12420-477: Was carried out under Mayor Johann Nepomuk Hradeczky (1775–1846) and the provincial governor, Baron Joseph Camillo von Schmidburg (1779–1846). Emperor Francis I of Austria and Empress Caroline Augusta of Bavaria inspected the road in 1830, and a monument was erected to the achievement in 1833. The marshland includes a number of hamlets that belong to the city of Ljubljana: Ilovica, Volar, Pri Strahu, Pri Maranzu, Kožuh, and Havptmance (from north to south). Ilovica

12535-548: Was coined in 1930 by the American geologist George Halcott Chadwick (1876–1953), deriving from the Ancient Greek words φανερός ( phanerós ), meaning "visible"; and ζωή ( zōḗ ), meaning "life". This is because it was once believed that life began in the Cambrian , the first period of this eon, due to the lack of Precambrian fossil record back then. However, trace fossils of booming complex life from

12650-448: Was estimated in 2007 that up to 30% of all species will be extinct by 2050. Destroying habitats for farming is a key reason why biodiversity is decreasing today. Climate change also plays a role. This can be seen for example in the effects of climate change on biomes . This anthropogenic extinction may have started toward the end of the Pleistocene , as some studies suggest that the megafaunal extinction event that took place around

12765-483: Was marked by periodic, massive losses of diversity classified as mass extinction events. A significant loss occurred in anamniotic limbed vertebrates when rainforests collapsed in the Carboniferous , but amniotes seem to have been little affected by this event; their diversification slowed down later, around the Asselian / Sakmarian boundary, in the early Cisuralian (Early Permian ), about 293 Ma ago. The worst

12880-401: Was proposed to explain the biodiversity latitudinal gradient. In this study, the species pool size and the fractal nature of ecosystems were combined to clarify some general patterns of this gradient. This hypothesis considers temperature , moisture , and net primary production (NPP) as the main variables of an ecosystem niche and as the axis of the ecological hypervolume . In this way, it

12995-492: Was settled relatively late, starting in 1838, and had only six farms by 1860. Volar lies between the Iščica and Ljubljanica rivers and was settled after 1830, when it was also officially designated Karolinska zemlja ( German : Karolinengrund ), literally 'Caroline's land', in honor of Caroline Augusta of Bavaria. Kožuh lies further south, and Havptmance east of Kožuh. Havptmance (also spelled Haupt - and -man(i)ca or -manice )

13110-567: Was the Permian-Triassic extinction event , 251 million years ago. Vertebrates took 30 million years to recover from this event. The most recent major mass extinction event, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event , occurred 66 million years ago. This period has attracted more attention than others because it resulted in the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs , which were represented by many lineages at

13225-635: Was warm and humid, with little temperature gradient from pole to pole. In the Middle Eocene Epoch, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current formed when South America and Australia both separated from Antarctica to open up the Drake Passage and Tasmanian Passage , disrupting ocean currents worldwide, resulting in global cooling and causing the jungles to shrink. More modern forms of mammals continued to diversify with

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