How many animals are extinct?

Question

How many animals are extinct?

Answer 1

17,000,000,892 and counting

Answer 2

uncountable

Answer 3

The current number of species on the planet is estimated as 1.4 – 1.7 million, However the conservatives estimation of the number of species to have existed is 12.5 million. Species have been evolving over the last 3.5 Billion years ever since life first began creating a huge diversity of life on the planet. Species are also becoming extinct, only 2-4% of the species are here today that have ever lived the other 96-98% of species are extinct.

Answer 4

eleventy-two

Answer 5

A whole lot................................DUH

Answer 6

way to many than there should ever be!

=[[

**tears**

Answer 7

to many for my liking

Answer 8

We will never know.  Science has proof that over 800 species have gone extinct within the last 500 years.  However, in that same time span there have been many more new species found and identified.  Fact is the rate of discovery exceeds the rate of extinction.  The statement that a species goes extinct every 5 minutes is pure falsity.

I am going to assume you are not asking about species from millions of years ago.  Yes there were perhaps millions of animals that went extinct about 65 million years ago.  We will never know that either.

http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65...

It is safe to say that there are many more animals dead and gone than existing today.  Especially if you include the last billion years of Earth history.

Answer 9

Unknown, but scientists estimate that over 99 % of all species that ever existed are extinct

Answer 10

too many

Answer 11

A species goes extinct every 5 minutes.

:l

Answer 12

Your question is quite valid: "How many animals have gone extinct?"  Conventional science believes that over 99% of the animals that have ever lived are now extinct -- this is an astronomically large figure -- and grows daily!  Contrary to popular belief, extinction is a perfectly natural process that has been in place long before humans have.  Humans may have accelerated the extinction rate of certain species, but in the overall scheme of things our impact is just a drop in a very large bucket!