Earth was once home to magnificent and beautiful creatures like dinosaurs and mammoths who used to roam, poop and mate freely and unflinchingly, which meant, the eco-system was balanced out and there was a healthy flow of nutrients.

As per a recent research published by the scientists at Proceedings of the National Academy Of Science, it suggests that animals played a vital role in the transportation of nutrients via land, sea and rivers. According to researchers, the poop of these massive animals contained phosphorus which added fertility to the soil, and because they freely moved around the lands, their poop was distributed all around making lands fertile everywhere. And, this means their extinction has caused damage to the natural nutrient recycling system which has decreased over the years.

Humpback whale

Currently, the planet has not just lost out on towering mammals, but also the massive amount of poop that was once available and spread judiciously throughout the land. As much as their mighty presence on earth was worshipped so was their poop which was believed to be a natural fertilizer for the soil all around the globe. This made their presence all the more consequential for the existence of the planet as well as the human race.

But today, on the flip side, it’s us humans who are on a major killing spree of large animals like blue whale and rhinoceros; losing out on those gigantic animals is not the only bad news here, it is way more than what it seems to be. At present, the recycling of the nutrients is caused by bacteria and as compared to the animal poops; the impact of it is lesser.

In simple words, losing large animals means losing on natural fertility of the lands and eventually causing food scarcity for humans.

In one of our earlier articles based on the research of Stanford biologists, we had mentioned how Holocene Extinction or the 6th mass extinction had begun and how humans are the reason behind it. Read more about the extinction and keep coming here as we provide more information regarding climate change and its impact.

Story Inputs: PNAS