The majestic blue whale has plied the seas for about 4.5 million years , while the Neanderthals winked out of existence in a few hundred thousand years. But are those creatures representative of species overall? How long do species usually last before they go extinct? It turns out the answer we find now could be very different than it usually is. Because of habitat destruction, climate change , and a range of other factors, plants and animals are disappearing from the planet faster than all but maybe five other points in history. Some experts say we’re in the sixth mass extinction event. But even in calmer periods of Earth’s history, the answer has varied depending on the type of species you’re looking at. For mammals, the average species exists for 1 million to 2 million years, according to an article in the journal People & the planet . However, […]