iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.
iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.



Link to original content: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37722053
Mutilation of the tree of life via mass extinction of animal genera - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep 26;120(39):e2306987120.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.2306987120. Epub 2023 Sep 18.

Mutilation of the tree of life via mass extinction of animal genera

Gerardo Ceballos #  1 , Paul R Ehrlich #  2
Affiliations

Mutilation of the tree of life via mass extinction of animal genera

Gerardo Ceballos et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Mass extinctions during the past 500 million y rapidly removed branches from the phylogenetic tree of life and required millions of years for evolution to generate functional replacements for the extinct (EX) organisms. Here we show, by examining 5,400 vertebrate genera (excluding fishes) comprising 34,600 species, that 73 genera became EX since 1500 AD. Beyond any doubt, the human-driven sixth mass extinction is more severe than previously assessed and is rapidly accelerating. The current generic extinction rates are 35 times higher than expected background rates prevailing in the last million years under the absence of human impacts. The genera lost in the last five centuries would have taken some 18,000 y to vanish in the absence of human beings. Current generic extinction rates will likely greatly accelerate in the next few decades due to drivers accompanying the growth and consumption of the human enterprise such as habitat destruction, illegal trade, and climate disruption. If all now-endangered genera were to vanish by 2,100, extinction rates would be 354 (average) or 511 (for mammals) times higher than background rates, meaning that genera lost in three centuries would have taken 106,000 and 153,000 y to become EX in the absence of humans. Such mutilation of the tree of life and the resulting loss of ecosystem services provided by biodiversity to humanity is a serious threat to the stability of civilization. Immediate political, economic, and social efforts of an unprecedented scale are essential if we are to prevent these extinctions and their societal impacts.

Keywords: collapse of civilization; conservation; generic extinction; mutilation tree of life; sixth mass extinction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Simple schematic representation of the mutilation of the Tree of life because of generic extinctions and extinction risks. The bottom half of the tree depicted as dead branches shows examples of the extinct genera, and the upper half shows examples of genera at risk of extinction.Extinct genera: I) Lower row left: Delcourt's giant gecko (Hoplodactylus, left), of which the only specimens known were found in a museum without a label, but probably they were found in New Zealand; and saddle-backed Rodrigues giant tortoise (Cylindraspis, right) from Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean. Lower row right: Yunnan Lake newt (Cynops, left) from China; and the Gastric brooding frogs (Rheobatrachus, right) from rainforests in Queensland, Australia. II) Second bottom-up row left: Thylacine (Thylacinus, left), the largest carnivorous marsupial, last known from Tasmania; and Yangtze River dolphin or baijii (Lipotes, right) from China, one of very few freshwater dolphins. Second bottom-up row right: Elephant birds (Aepyornis, left), the largest birds surviving to modern times, represent also both an extinct genus and family (Aepyornithidae) endemic to Madagascar; and Moho birds (genus Moho, right) represent also both an extinct genus and family (Mohidae) from Hawaii. Endangered genera: III) Third bottom-up row left: King cobra (Ophiophagus, left) from Asia; and Gavial (Gavialis, right) from India and Nepal. Third bottom-up row right: Alpine newt (Ichthyosaura, left) from Europe; and Mahogany frog (Abavorana, right) from the Malay Peninsula. IV) Upper row left: Volcano rabbit (Romerolagus, left) known from few mountains close to Mexico City, and Elephant (Loxodonta, right) from Africa. Upper row right: ‘i’iwi or scarlet honeycreeper (Drepanis, left) from Hawaii; and Kakapo (Strigops, right) a flightless parrot from New Zealand (Illustration: Marco Antonio Pineda).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Number of generic extinctions per century among in different classes of vertebrates. The low number of reptiles and amphibia, which underestimate the magnitude of extinction pattern, is probably the result of the lack of information in earlier centuries, where very few species had been described.The dotted line represent the background extinction rate.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Number of years that would have taken for vertebrate genera to become extinct under the background extinction rate prevailing in the last million years. The number of years for all extinct vertebrate genera is 18,000 y. Reptiles and amphibians have fewer extinct genera, so their values are much smaller that mammals and birds.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Patterns of distribution of extinct and extant land vertebrate genera. Most genera and monotypic ones are concentrated in tropical and subtropical regions of all continents. Patterns of distribution of extinction and extinction risk are different, showing some temperate regions such as Eastern US as concentration hotspots. (A) Total genera; (B) Monotypic genera; (C) Extinct genera and species; (D) Endangered (CR, EN, VU) genera.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Steffen W., Broadgate W., Deutsch L., Gaffney O., Ludwig C., The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The great acceleration. Anthropocene Rev. 2, 81–98 (2015).
    1. Dasgupta P., The economics of biodiversity: The Dasgupta review (Hm Treasury, 2021), p. 604.
    1. Rees E. W., The human eco-predicament: Overshoot and the population conundrum. Vienna Yearbook Popul. Res. 21, 1–19 (2023).
    1. Borgelt J., Dorber M., Høiberg M. A., Verones F., More than half of data deficient species predicted to be threatened by extinction. Commun. Biol. 5, 1–9 (2022). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ceballos G., Ehrlich A. H., Ehrlich P. R., The Annihilation of Nature: Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals (Johns Hopkins University Press, Oceano, 2015a), p. 204.

LinkOut - more resources