An Australian National University scientist says the planet is losing species at a similar rate to the period when the dinosaurs were wiped out.

Will Steffen from the Fenner School of Environment says the planet is in the midst of a new geological age, the Anthropocene, in which humans are causing mass species extinction.

He says the era began with the industrial revolution and accelerated in the 1950s as humans began burning more fossil fuels and consuming more resources.

Professor Steffen says the current levels of species extinction are at least a hundred times greater than natural loss rates.

"There've been five big extinction events in the past, the most famous one was the loss of the dinosaurs and so on, but this one appears to be as fast and as extensive as those and that's why people who do do a lot of work on biodiversity are now saying that we're probably now in the earth's six greatest extinction event," he said.