Earth is undergoing its sixth mass extinction, according to a study led by Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley universities. The study, published in the journal "Science Advances" Friday, also warned that humans are among the first victims in this mass extinction.

Vertebrates are disappearing 114 times faster than normal, and the study says it was not since the age of the dinosaurs that species extinction has occurred at this rapid rate.

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"Without any significant doubt we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event," said biology professor and coauthor Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University.

Authors of the "Science Advances" study called humans "conservative," adding that we are among the species likely to go extinct.

"If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover and our species itself would likely disappear early on," said lead author Gerardo Ceballos from the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico.

A paleontologist at the University of California, coauthor Anthony D. Barnosky pointed out that what happened to the dinosaurs will happen to humans unless conservation efforts are intensified.

If the trend continues, "within two human lifetimes we are in danger of losing three of four species on Earth," he explained.

The study used documented extinctions of vertebrates such as fossil records, as well as other historical data for their analysis. These vertebrates include tigers, frogs and reptiles, reported the AFP.

The analysis compared the "natural rates of species disappearance before human activity dominated" with species loss at a modern pace.

The researchers also used past extinction rate twice as high as normal estimates. They found the current extinction rate to be more than a hundred times higher than at times when the Earth was not under mass extinction, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

More than 400 vertebrates were reported to have disappeared since 1900. Normally, such loss would be seen over a period of 10,000 years, according to the scientists.

The researchers said the mass extinction is caused by different factors, with climate change, deforestation and pollution among the chief reasons.

"There are examples of species all over the world that are essentially the walking dead," said Stanford University professor Paul Ehrlich. "We are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on."

According to The International Union for Conservation of Nature, at least 50 animals are going extinct every year. Of these, about 41 percent are amphibians, and 26 percent are mammals.

However, there is a way to curb or at least slow down this tragedy. The study's authors say that in order to avoid a "dramatic decay of biodiversity," intensive conservation and rapid action are needed.

Tagsearth new extinction phase, Science, Environment, science advances, science advances journal, Pollution, global warming, humans going extinct, deforestation, Environment