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Articles on Extinction

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Many species of cone snail, which contain compounds needed to treat neurological diseases, still await discovery. Flickr/Phil Camill

Millions of unknown species likely in danger of extinction

The planet is home to anywhere between two million and 50 million undiscovered species, many of which are at threat from rampant habitat destruction, according to a report by an international team of researchers…
Only 5% of the world’s plants, and 1% of invertebrates have been assessed under IUCN guidelines. Tim√

Silent declines: recognising unlisted ‘endangered’ species

If an entire forest falls and its occupants approach extinction, does anybody hear it? Since for the vast majority of species, the answer is most likely no, we decided to be proactive and recently published…
When you buy imported products, are you buying dead endangered species as well? Mark Hudson

Globalisation’s dark side: how shoppers consume threatened species

The tide of globalisation drives development, providing jobs and much needed dollars. But development and trade consumes local biodiversity, much of it in the iconic biodiversity hotspots of tropical countries…
You have to go back to the time of the dinosaurs to see where Earth is heading. Mr Kimberley/Flickr

Is another mass extinction event on the way?

Why have mass extinctions of species occurred since the late Proterozoic (from 580 million years ago) and repeatedly through the Phanerozoic? Integral to these extinctions were abrupt changes in the physical…
The pika is one species struggling to evolve fast enough to keep up with climate change. http://www.itsnature.org/ground/pika/

Could evolution help to protect biodiversity?

We currently face a biodiversity and extinction crisis as human population pressures and climate change combine to push our natural environments to the limit. Because our urban and agricultural activities…
The demise of the woolly mammoth could teach us much about our effect on other species. George Teichmann

Did climate cause the extinction of the Ice Age megafauna?

When we think of the last 50,000 years of prehistory, particularly the “Ice Age”, extinct species such as the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros often spring to mind. Did humans bring about the extinction…
King of predators: an estimated seven billion people now walk the Earth. Flickr/James Cridland.

Rise of the planet of the homosapiens: the death sentence for other life

The United Nations has set Halloween as the day when homosapiens are estimated to reach seven billion, up from six billion in 1999 and five billion in 1987. Two centuries ago there were one billion people…
Landscape is the star in The Hunter, but science plays a respectable supporting role. Matthew Nettheim

The Hunter: bioethics and extinct DNA in the Tasmanian wilderness

All over the planet, a new wave of exploration and exploitation is taking place. Bioprospectors are searching for new and useful biological samples and compounds from previously unstudied animals and plants…

‘Extinct’ chickpea rediscovered

The species of legume known as ‘Tallante’s chickpea’, which has not been seen for nearly a century, has finally been studied…
We can’t run away from it: we need food, and we need biodiversity. buiversonian

A global juggling act: feeding the world, saving species

Our planet is on the precipice of a sixth mass extinction event. But unlike the five previous mass extinctions, this one is man-made: a global biodiversity crisis in which species are disappearing three…

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