A group of scientists has said that current extinction rates on earth are the fastest seen in the last 65-milion years. Dinosaurs were pushed to extinction 65 million years ago because of an asteroid impact on Mexico and massive volcanic outbursts elsewhere.

Natural disasters have also been the cause of the four mass extinctions before that. However, human activity is responsible for current extinction rates, said researchers after conducting a study that looked at the rate of extinction of animals over the last 500 years with the help of data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The researchers said that normally two species per 10,000 species reach extinction every 100 years. However, human activities have caused a rapid surge in this rater by up to a hundred times.

The researchers described their findings in a paper, titled 'Accelerated modern human-induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction', published in the journal Science Advances.

The study has claimed that earth is setting for the sixth mass extinction and there is very less time left for humans to take some action to reverse the trend.

The study showed that vertebrates, such as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, are going extinct at a rate 114 times higher than they were used to.

"Our analysis emphasizes that our global society has started to destroy species of other organisms at an accelerating rate, initiating a mass extinction episode unparalleled for 65 million years", the researchers wrote.