Humans Create More than Extinctions

How Humans create new biodiversity,

We have created scores of entirely new creatures, such as the hundreds of breeds of domestic cats and dogs living alongside us. We have intentionally and unwittingly transported all sorts of organisms — bacteria, ants, rodents, cattle, crops, garden plants, and roadside weeds — across the globe, to places they could never have reached on their own. We have formed numerous new environmental niches in our cities and suburbs, which many hardy critters have used to their advantage. And we have even spurred the hybridization of wild species, resulting in new chimeras, such as the Italian sparrow, yellow-flowered Yorkwort, and apple flies.