Extinctions: The End of Biodiversity
Name:
Hour
Date Assignment is due: after quiz Thursday
Day of Week
Date:
Why late?
Date
by C Kohn, Waterford WI
Score: +
✓ -
If your project was late, describe why
Directions: use the accompanying PowerPoint (http://bit.ly/extinction-ppt) to complete the questions below. This sheet
will be due upon the completion of the PowerPoint in class. These assignments are graded on a +/√/- scale.
1. Extinctions occur when the last individual of a species
a.
occur when individuals remain but the odds of sustainable
reproduction are low. The species is effectively
2. Was the passenger pigeon extinct before Martha died? Explain:
3. Extinctions occur when
4. This means that a species’
5. Extinctions can be
6. Extinctions occur
have gone extinct.
7. There have been
,
, or
. Nearly
of the living species on earth
major extinctions in previous geological history. List them below:
1
mya
2
mya
3
mya
4
mya
5
mya
8. The
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are no longer sufficient in allowing that species to
extinction is the most recent mass extinction and is still ongoing.
Copyright 2011 Craig A. Kohn. Dept. of Agricultural Sciences, Waterford WI. File may be used freely provided author is cited.
9. Catastrophic extinctions, as was the case when an asteroid-strike wiped out the dinosaurs, actually took
a. The current extinction rate
10.
of all large
have disappeared in the last 50 years due to over-fishing.
11. The Audubon Society reports that
significant decline.
12. One in
of North American
species are in
plant species are in danger of extinction within the next 30 years.
13. The current rate of extinction is
times greater than the normal,
14.
and
of
15. One species is going extinct every
extinction rate.
species will be gone in 200 to 300 years
minutes.
16. List and describe the four major modern causes of extinction:
1
2
3
4
17. Of about
million currently existing species, we have still only identified
18. Biologists estimate that since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, more than
subspecies, and varieties of our
plants and animals have become extinct.
19. There is nothing
20. More than a
in plants and animals.
about today’s
of extinction.
% of living species so far!
species of edible plants but fewer than
23. Ecosystem services are estimated to be worth
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species,
of all prescriptions written annually in the United States contain chemicals discovered
21. We have only discovered
22. There are almost
world’s food.
million.
produce
of dollars annually.
Copyright 2011 Craig A. Kohn. Dept. of Agricultural Sciences, Waterford WI. File may be used freely provided author is cited.
percent of the