Long-term differences in extinction risk among the seven forms of rarity.

ABSTRACT: Rarity is widely used to predict the vulnerability of species to extinction. Species can be rare in markedly different ways, but the relative impacts of these different forms of rarity on extinction risk are poorly known and cannot be determined through observations of species that are not yet extinct. The fossil record provides a valuable archive with which we can directly determine which aspects of rarity lead to the greatest risk. Previous palaeontological analyses confirm that rarity is associated with extinction risk, but the relative contributions of different types of rarity to extinction risk remain unknown because their impacts have never been examined simultaneously. Here, we analyse a global database of fossil marine animals spanning the past 500 million years, examining differe

SUBMITTER: Harnik PG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3497235 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature