(CNN) Human activity could drive extinction and destroy billions of years of evolutionary history, which has produced remarkable creatures such as the punk-haired Mary River turtle , the yellow eyed Aye Aye lemur and the Chinese crocodile, researchers have warned. Entire groups of closely related species, like pangolins and tapirs, could also be lost, taking with them billions of years of evolutionary heritage, experts warned. "We calculated how much evolutionary history we would lose. When adding together the cumulative years of evolutionary history that would be lost in the event of extinction, "around 50 billion years of evolutionary history is under threat," he added. For years, scientists have warned that we are in the midst of a mass extinction -- the first one in the planet's history caused by humans.

Source: CNN May 26, 2020 09:11 UTC