Species Missing in Action - Rare or Already Extinct?

Abstract

In the past 500 years hundreds of conspicuous terrestrial species – including at least 130 birds, 30 reptiles, 75 mammals, 60 insects, 100 plants – disappeared altogether from the surface of the Earth, a process duly noticed. Now scientists fear that an extinction crisis is in progress, predicting a further 10-fold increase in global extinctions before this century is over. Since the oceans support an estimated 80% of the world’s biodiversity, most of it made of small, inconspicuous species of which we know very little, what can we say with some degree of certainty about their endangered status? Upon closer inspection it turns out that many of them in fact have not been recorded or seen in decades. These species, which ought to be formally listed as ‘missing,’ can sadly disappear without being remarked upon. As information improves, a large number of them will end up in the column ‘Extinct.’

Full text

Species Missing in Action -
Rare or Already Extinct ?
by Frederic Briand
Baiji used to live in the Yangtze River (China) until the turn of the century but are now extinct
[Photo credit: Alessio Marrucci]

The Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is clearly connected to many other species

The Caribbean monk seal (Neomonachus tropicalis) was driven to extinction in the 1950s
due to overhunting and overfishing of its fish prey [image: U.S. National Museum]

(1) see IUCN Red List.
(2) The previous wave swept away the dinosaurs and many other forms of life by the end of
the Cretaceous, some 65 million years ago.
(3) Illustration taken from the RSA open lecture 'The Power of Networks' (2011).
(4) the International Whaling Commission.
(5) as highlighted by the continuing failure to reach consensus in the United Nations
working group on BBNJ (Biological Biodiversity in waters beyond National Jurisdiction).
(6) read workshop synthesis at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271767063