An extinction event (also known as: mass extinction; extinction-level event, ELE) occurs when there is a sharp decrease in the number of species in a relatively short period of time. Mass extinctions affect most major taxonomic classes present at the time — birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates and other simpler life forms. They may be caused by one or both of: * extinction of an unusually large number of species in a short period. * a sharp drop in the rate of speciation.