The
Holocene extinction, otherwise referred to as the
Sixth extinction or
Anthropocene extinction, is a name proposed to describe the ongoing
extinction event of
species during the present
Holocene epoch (since around 10,000 BCE) mainly due to human activity. The large number of extinctions span numerous families of
plants and
animals including
mammals,
birds,
amphibians,
reptiles and
arthropods. Although 875 extinctions occurring between 1500 and 2009 have been documented by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, with widespread degradation of
highly biodiverse habitats such as
coral reefs and
rainforest, as well as other areas, the vast majority are thought to be undocumented. According to the
species-area theory and based on upper-bound estimating, the present rate of extinction may be up to 140,000 species per year, making it the greatest loss of biodiversity since the
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.