Besides man, or any species introduced to an environment by man, caused the extinction of any other species?

Answer 1

I am sure there are examples of extinction that is totally unrelated to man or him introducing species, but I was unable to find any examples.

I would guess that such competition caused extinctions might actually be kind of rare. More common are probably climate change related extinctions or catastrophe related extinctions. Once a species fills a particular niche in the environment it tends to become extremely well adapted and so it is very hard for a competitor to arise without external help of some kind, such as a drastic climate change, a disaster, or humans taking them from an area where they have predators to and area where they have none.

Certainly mankind is appears to be responsible for most of the recent extinctions. From Wikipedia: "Prior to the dominance of the earth by humans, extinction was a natural phenomenon involving a long term timing cycle; Starting about 100,000 years ago, an unprecedented rate of species extinctions commenced. [1]" It is surely more than a coincidence that modern humans evolved about 100,000 years ago.

Answer 2

Unless you're a creationist, you can't say that humans had anything to do with extinction of the dinosaurs. Since the dinosaurs, many other species have become extinct without human intervention. Environmental destruction caused by humans has led to extinction rates so massively higher than the natural or background rate of extinction that it looks like every extinction is being caused by humans.

Answer 3

Many many species became extinct long before man got into the picture.

There is a theory (I don't believe it is a popular one) that early mammals caused the extinction of many dinasaurs.

The whole idea of evolution and the survival of the fittest, is based on the unsurvival of the less fit. Throughout all of the history of life on earth, when a fitter species evolved for a certain niche, the other one disappeared.

Answer 4

i don't think so because it's all one big cycle. if one species were wiped out in a natural untouched environment the whole rest of the ecosystem in that part of the world could die also or other species would grow unchecked and spread which would in turn eat more than it used to causing more extinction so either way it would wipe itself out. the only reason it hasn't happened yet is b/c we keep things in check.

Answer 5

no, man is the only species not only capable of causing extinction, but also of causing its own extinction. And we're heading in that direction quickly.

(you might be interested in reading books by Jared Diamond, look him up - Guns, Germs and Steel, The Third Monkey and Collapse...great books)

Answer 6

I'd be surprised if cats and dogs (feral not household) had NOT caused some small mammals and/or birds to become extinct. I'm also fairly sure that rats have caused some bird species to become extinct on islands ... especially ground-nesting birds.

Answer 7

This question presses anyone answering it to be biased on their environmental stance. And reading answers on here should bluntly point that out-

This subject has not been studied thoroughly enough to make even an educated guess. While many believe that nature balances itself out, few seem to realize that many organisms that evolve end up 'killing' off the 'weaker' status quo. Many forms of bacteria out there that face extinction due to changes in the environment change to adapt and end up taking nutrients from the organisms who failed to adapt- in the process starving the unevolved organisms. Swift changes in the environment starve many organisms, like fires in the wilderness or the slow shift of continents.

So this question remains unresolved in my mind because of insufficient data, but in my opinion we are prime examples as humans of the environment's way of destroying inept organisms. Many actions performed by humans to rid the earth of 'weak' organisms are just the more obvious actions performed by many other organisms lower in the food chain.

Answer 8

Zanate "Quiscalus mexicanus" is a coastal bird aztecs introduced to mexico city in XIV century and it eliminated a diferent local especies of Quiscalus.

Sabertooth tigers are said to extinguish carnivorous birds in south america when north and south america were connected via central america.

Interesting example: when dodo was eliminated from its island by humans, a tree of genus "Calvaria" stopped havind a seed dispersor, so all 14 adult trees left on mauritius island are at least 200 yrs old.

Answer 9

The entire theory of evolution is based on exactly this premise. Species kill other specie forcing the original specie to adapt, those that do not adapt die.

Answer 10

Yes. There are many examples of plants and insects that killed off other species completely.