Although there are solid pieces of evidence to show that we are no a keystone species. This is a very big argument that had been going on for years. Of course there would be another side to it.

Many people may argue that humans are not the biggest causes of extinction. The 5 mass extinctions of the world all happened in the time when human weren't around for. According to BBC Naturehe Permian mass extinction has been nicknamed The Great Dying, since a staggering 96% of species died out. All life on Earth today is descended from the 4% of species that survived.

According to a biology conference, there are many definitions of keystone species. 1 says that if it goes extinct there will be a drastic change in the rest of the ecosystem. But the other one says that if it goes extinct all other species in the ecosystem will go extinct. I do highly disagree with the second definition because that would put us in the catagory of the top predator but we are not the top predator in any ecosystem because even though we are feared by most species we do not nessesarily feed off of them

Since humans right now are very wasteful. With burning fossil fuels and polluting the air. When humans go extinct, plants and other animals will not only continue to exist. They will thrive. According to Ashley K from keystonespring2010.blogspot.com "The removal of our species may determine the dramatic shift of an ecosystem, which is the partial definition of a keystone species but we are most certainly not a species that plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community. After we “leave”, the land will repair its wounds and forget us, just as we forgot it.

I belive that humans beings are not a keystone species because  our influence on nature is not disproportionately large compared to our population size. But do to our cities, roads, and technologies. We have altered nearly every ecosystem on Earth. But it might not be that we are important, it might just be about our impact. 

A keystone species is a plant or animal that plays a unique and crucial role in the way anecosystem functions. Without keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether.


A keystone species is often, but not always, a predator. A few predators can control the distribution and population of large numbers of prey species. A single mountain lion near the Mackenzie Mountains in Canada, for example, can roam an area of hundreds of kilometers. The deer, rabbits, and bird species in the ecosystem are at least partly controlled by the presence of the mountain lion. Their feeding behavior, or where they choose to make their nests and burrows, are largely a reaction to the mountain lion's activity. Scavenger species, such as vultures, are also controlled by the activity of the mountain lion.