We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology.

These words are Harari's, from Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011; English translation 2014), in the chapter titled "The Flood," where he dismantles the romantic idea that early humans lived in harmony with nature and argues that Homo sapiens drove waves of megafauna extinctions across Australia, the Americas, and the Pacific long before industrialization. The line follows his observation that Sapiens held the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. A variant ending in "annals of life" circulates widely, including in reproductions tied to the book's original title, From Animals into Gods, but "annals of biology" is the wording in the published text. We found no competing author and no evidence the line predates Harari, so authorship is not in doubt.