Background extinction rate
Background extinction rate, also known as the normal extinction rate, refers to the standard rate of extinction in Earth's geological and biological history before humans became a primary contributor to extinctions. This is primarily the pre-human extinction rates during periods in between major extinction events. Currently there have been five mass extinctions that have happened since the beginning of time all resulting in a variety of reasons. Overview Extinctions are a normal part of the evolutionary process, and the background extinction rate is a measurement of "how often" they naturally occur. Normal extinction rates are often used as a comparison to present day extinction rates, to illustrate the higher frequency of extinction today than in all periods of non-extinction events before it. Background extinction rates have not remained constant, although changes are measured over geological time, covering millions of years. Measurement Background extinction rates are typically measured in order to give a specific classification to a species and this is obtained over a certain period of time. There is three different ways to calculate background extinction rate.. The first is simply the number of species that normally go extinct over a given period of time. For example, at the background