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A sixth mass extinction? Not so fast, some scientists say

A new analysis suggests recent extinctions have been rare, limited to islands and slowing

An illustration of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird, a small sparrowlike gray bird

The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō (Moho braccatus, illustrated) went extinct in Hawaii in the 1980s. It and other island birds (and mammals) have made up most of the genus-level extinctions over the last several centuries.

Frederick William Frohawk/Wikimedia Commons

By Jake Buehler

We may not be living through Earth’s sixth mass extinction event ­­— at least not yet.