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Show 2 Sun Advocate, Price, Utah Thursday, May 14, 1992 Focus Death is one thing, an end to birth is something else Soule and Wilcox, 1980 Is man destroying life? One of the most dramatic extinctions in the history of the Earth is going on now as a result of the activities of people. The display asks, Will life continue to diversify or is this the fmal crisis in the history of By LAYNEMILLER Stall writer Man is spending billions of dollars to keep a few modem animal species from becoming extinct. Some believe the money and effort are worth it. Others say, Whats the diffpr-enc- e if they die off, anyway?" A new display at the CEU Pre- life?" Certain organisms appear more susceptible to extinction than others. For instance, large animals such as dinosaurs, elephants and whales that require large areas for survival are usually more susceptible than smaller ones. Many large animals, like elephants, horses, condor-lik- e birds, camels, tapirs, giant ground sloths, bears and tigers, short-face- d dire wolves became extinct in North America about 10,000 to be historic Museum covers extinction and what can be done to prevent it. Over the last four billion years, millions of different kinds of organisms have appeared, flourished and then disappeared from our planet. The tremendous diversity of living organisms we enjoy today is a tiny fraction of the kinds of organisms that have existed in the Earths history. saber-toothe- d years ago. What does it mean to us if half the species on the planet during the next 50 years?" the exhibit asks. It explains several animals are likely to become extinct in our childrens lifetime. Elephants, rhinoceros, wolves, cheetahs, leopards, jaguars and whales are some of the animals on the verge of extinction now. we lose The millions of species around us also provide potential natural solutions to mjor medical and agricultural crises. Many of our miracle drugs come from rare species. By causing the extinction of so many species, we are altering forever the directions evolution can take and perhaps hastening our own extinction, the exhibit suggests. y Synthetoceras is an extinct deer-lik- e M animal that roamed America. Sivatherium was related to todays giraffe. The animal lived A tourist from California enjoys the museum's exhibit. G A giant ground sloth skull feet tall. the slow, lumbering animal stood 2 1 A short-face- d bear skull in Africa. |