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Science 24 October 1997:
Vol. 278. no. 5338, pp. 692 - 694
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5338.692
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Reports
Extinction and the Loss of Evolutionary History
Sean Nee,
*
Robert M. May
Extinction episodes, such as the anthropogenic one currently under
way, result in a pruned tree of life. But what fraction of the
underlying evolutionary history survives when k of
n species in a taxon are lost? This is relevant both to how
species loss has translated into a loss of evolutionary history and to
assigning conservation priorities. Here it is shown that approximately
80 percent of the underlying tree of life can survive even when
approximately 95 percent of species are lost, and that algorithms that
maximize the amount of evolutionary history preserved are not much
better than choosing the survivors at random. Given the political,
economic, and social realities constraining conservation biology, these findings may be helpful.
Department of Zoology, Oxford University, South Parks Road,
Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
sean.nee{at}zoo.ox.ac.uk
Read the Full Text
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
- Colloquium Paper: Extinction as the loss of evolutionary history.
- D. H. Erwin (2008)
PNAS
105, 11520-11527
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- Selectivity during background extinction: Plio-Pleistocene scallops in California.
- J. T. Smith and K. Roy (2006)
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- Mass extinctions and macroevolution.
- D. Jablonski (2005)
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- Species Coextinctions and the Biodiversity Crisis.
- L. P. Koh, R. R. Dunn, N. S. Sodhi, R. K. Colwell, H. C. Proctor, and V. S. Smith (2004)
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305, 1632-1634
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- Preserving the Tree of Life.
- G. M. Mace, J. L. Gittleman, and A. Purvis (2003)
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300, 1707-1709
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- Lessons from the past: Biotic recoveries from mass extinctions.
- D. H. Erwin (2001)
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98, 5399-5403
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- The future of coral reefs.
- N. Knowlton (2001)
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98, 5419-5425
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- Declines of biomes and biotas and the future of evolution.
- D. S. Woodruff (2001)
PNAS
98, 5471-5476
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- Nonrandom Extinction and the Loss of Evolutionary History.
- A. Purvis, P. Agapow, J. L. Gittleman, and G. M. Mace (2000)
Science
288, 328-330
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