mass extinctions in the cretaceous and later

[frank bliss <frank@blissnet.com>]

A widely circulating news article about a UN report of the Convention  
on Biological Diversity stated that humans have caused the biggest  
extinction since the demise of the dinosaurs.

They claim that 844 plants and animals are known to have gone extinct  
in the last 500 years.  I thought that there are several million  
different species out there in our Biosphere currently so the 844  
number seems tiny to me.  I was under the impression that at the end  
of the Cretaceous that 75 percent of all species (land and water)  
were wiped out.  Additionally, haven't several very significant  
extinctions occurred later at the end of the eocene and the  
Pleistocene that were much more significant than the 1 percent "we"  
have killed off.

This news cyclel sounds like more of the psychology described in  
"State of Fear"  (Michael Chichons latest).

I know that I personally have killed a significant percentage of the  
mosquitos/ticks/mice/yellow jackets/black widows/rattlesnakes that I  
run into.  Durn humans give the rest of the biome no respect I  
guess.  Harvester ants are being pressured locally too as they  
collect fossils and if I see a Harvester Ant hill, it is immediately  
attacked.

I would ask the DML just to set the record straight, what were the  
"major extinctions in the last 65 million years and what proportions  
of the biota died off during each event?

The link to the Reuters article is:  http://today.reuters.com/news/ 
NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=uri: 
2006-03-20T175004Z_01_L20719283_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT- 
DIVERSITY.xml&pageNumber=0&summit=

Frank (Rooster) Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming
www.cattleranch.org