This article is a list of biological species, subspecies, and evolutionary significant units that are known to have become extinct during the Holocene, the current geologic epoch, ordered by their known or approximate date of disappearance from oldest to most recent.
The Holocene is considered to have started with the Holocene glacial retreat around 11650 years Before Present (c. 9700 BC). It is characterized by a general trend towards global warming, the expansion of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) to all emerged land masses, the appearance of agriculture and animal husbandry, and a reduction in global biodiversity. The latter, dubbed the sixth mass extinction in Earth history, is largely attributed to increased human population and activity, and may have started already during the preceding Pleistocene epoch with the demise of the Pleistocene megafauna.
The following list is incomplete by necessity, since the majority of extinctions are thought to be undocumented, and for many others there isn't a definitive, widely accepted last, or most recent record. According to the species-area theory, the present rate of extinction may be up to 140,000 species per year.
10th millennium BC
9th millennium BC
8th millennium BC
7th millennium BC
6th millennium BC
5th millennium BC
4th millennium BC
3rd millennium BC
2nd millennium BC
1st millennium BC
1st millennium CE
1st–5th centuries
6th–10th centuries
2nd millennium CE
11th-12th century
13th-14th century
15th-16th century
17th century
18th century
19th century
1800s-1820s
1830s-1840s
1850s-1860s
1870s
1880s
1890s
20th century
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
3rd millennium CE
21st century
2000s
2010s
2020s
See also
- List of extinct animals
- Extinction event
- Quaternary extinction event
- Holocene extinction
- Timeline of the evolutionary history of life
- Timeline of environmental history
- Index of environmental articles
- List of environmental issues
References
