Extinction Rates 'Overestimated', Says Study

Writing in the journal Nature, they said present figures overestimated rates by up to 160%, and called for updated, more accurate calculations.

But they did add that habitat loss was still the main threat to biodiversity.

Co-authors Professor Stephen Hubbell, from the University of California Los Angeles, and Professor Fangliang He, from Sun Yat-sen University, China, said existing mathematical models were flawed.

"The most widely used indirect method is to estimate extinction rates by reversing the species-area accumulation curve, extrapolating backwards to smaller areas to calculate expected species loss," they wrote. Read the full report here.

Source: by Mark Kinver, Science and environment reporter, BBC News, U.K.