What is the Holocene Extinction Event?
The Holocene extinction event is a term used to refer to the ongoing extinction of numerous animal species due to human activities. It is named after the geologic period of the Holocene, which began 11,550 years ago (about 9600 BC) and continues to the present. The Holocene extinction has eliminated between 20,000 and several hundred thousand species over the course of the last 12,000 years. The Holocene extinction is composed of two major pulses: one pulse 13,000 to 9,000 years ago, during the end of the last glacial period, when much of the Pleistocene megafauna went extinct, and a recent pulse, starting around 1950, when mass deforestation and other human activities have resulted in the extinction of many species. Animal species extinct from the first pulse of the Holocene extinction include several species of mammoth, the dire wolf, short-faced bear, cave lion, cave bear, cave hyena, dwarf elephants, giant swan, giant rat, mastodon, American cheetah, ground sloths, marsupials of ma
