---
title: "Study: More Than 500 Vertebrates Poised To Go Extinct"
description: "A new study identified 515 vertebrate species that are on the brink of extinction. Each one that vanishes could have devastating ecological effects."
date: "2020-06-01"
modified: "2020-06-01"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/more-than500-vertebrates-poised-extinct"
categories:
  - "Climate Change"
  - "Environment"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "climate change"
  - "ecology"
  - "extinction"
  - "the digest"
---

# Study: More Than 500 Vertebrates Poised To Go Extinct

![A new study identified 515 vertebrate species that are on the brink of extinction. Each one that vanishes could have devastating ecological effects.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/over-500-vertebrates-poised-extinct.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via Needpix\</em\>*

## Mass Extinction

Over 500 land-based vertebrates — animals with spines — are on the brink of extinction.

New research suggests that rates of animal extinction, explicitly caused by human activity, is accelerating to unsustainable levels. And by [focusing on mammals](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/climate-change-wiped-out-first-mammal>), birds, amphibians, and reptiles, *[Earther ](<https://earther.gizmodo.com/more-than-500-vertebrate-species-are-on-the-brink-of-b-1843828308>)*[reports](<https://earther.gizmodo.com/more-than-500-vertebrate-species-are-on-the-brink-of-b-1843828308>) that the scientists behind the study hope people will take note of the dire problem.

## Falling Dominoes

The problem of mass extinction goes far beyond the 515 vertebrates identified as being "one the brink of extinction" [in the study](<https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/27/1922686117>), which was published Monday in the journal *PNAS*. Last year, a U.N. report found that a million species were at [risk of going extinct](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/united-nations-million-species-extinction>) in the coming years. And each one lost could create a domino effect that then drives even more species to extinction.

"We are no longer looking at the loss of obscure species that most people aren't interested in," Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, who's unaffiliated with the new study, told *Earther*. "We are looking at biological annihilation."

## Close To Home

The researchers behind the study warned that each time an animal goes extinct, it also threatens [humanity's continued survival](<https://futurism.com/scientists-human-extinction-likely>).

"The current extinction crisis is one of the more urgent global environmental problems and the only one \[that is\] truly irreversible," study author Gerardo Ceballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Institute of Ecology told *Earther*. "Once a species is gone, there is no way to bring it back. Our paper indicates that is vastly speeding up."

**READ MORE:** [More Than 500 Vertebrate Species Are on the Brink of ‘Biological Annihilation’](<https://earther.gizmodo.com/more-than-500-vertebrate-species-are-on-the-brink-of-b-1843828308>) \[*Earther*\]

**More on extinction:** *[United Nations: One Million Species Are Poised To Go Extinct](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/united-nations-million-species-extinction>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)