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Extinction

tyrannosaurus rex museum

 

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms (taxon), normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species’ potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly “re-appears” (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence.

Through evolution, new species arise through the process of speciation—where new varieties of organisms arise and thrive when they are able to find and exploit an ecological niche—and species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or against superior competition. The relationship between animals and their ecological niches has been firmly established. A typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years of its first appearance, although some species, called living fossils, survive virtually unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. Most extinctions have occurred naturally, prior to Homo sapiens walking on Earth: it is estimated that 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct.

Mass extinctions are relatively rare events; however, isolated extinctions are quite common. Only recently have extinctions been recorded and scientists have become alarmed at the high rates of recent extinctions. Most species that become extinct are never scientifically documented. Some scientists estimate that up to half of presently existing species may become extinct by 2100. It is difficult to estimate the trajectory that biodiversity might have taken without human impact but scientists at the University of Bristol estimate that biodiversity might increase exponentially without human influence.

Causes

As long as species have been evolving, species have been going extinct. It is estimated that over 99.9% of all species that ever lived are extinct. The average life-span of most species is 10 million years, although this varies widely between taxa. There are a variety of causes that can contribute directly or indirectly to the extinction of a species or group of species. “Just as each species is unique,” write Beverly and Stephen C. Stearns, “so is each extinction … the causes for each are varied—some subtle and complex, others obvious and simple”. Most simply, any species that cannot survive or reproduce in its environment and cannot move to a new environment where it can do so, dies out and becomes extinct. Extinction of a species may come suddenly when an otherwise healthy species is wiped out completely, as when toxic pollution renders its entire habitat unliveable; or may occur gradually over thousands or millions of years, such as when a species gradually loses out in competition for food to better adapted competitors. Extinction may take place a long time after the events that set it in motion, a phenomenon known as extinction debt.

Genetics and demographic phenomena

Population genetics and demographic phenomena affect the evolution, and therefore the risk of extinction, of species. Limited geographic range is the most important determinant of genus extinction at background rates but becomes increasingly irrelevant as mass extinction arises.

Natural selection acts to propagate beneficial genetic traits and eliminate weaknesses. It is nevertheless possible for a deleterious mutation to be spread throughout a population through the effect of genetic drift.

Because traits are selected and not genes, the relationship between genetic diversity and extinction risk can be complex with factors such as balancing selection, cryptic genetic variation, phenotypic plasticity, and degeneracy all playing potential roles.

A diverse or deep gene pool gives a population a higher chance of surviving an adverse change in conditions. Effects that cause or reward a loss in genetic diversity can increase the chances of extinction of a species. Population bottlenecks can dramatically reduce genetic diversity by severely limiting the number of reproducing individuals and make inbreeding more frequent. The founder effect can cause rapid, individual-based speciation and is the most dramatic example of a population bottleneck.

Genetic pollution

Purebred wild species evolved to a specific ecology can be threatened with extinction through the process of genetic pollution—i.e., uncontrolled hybridization, introgression genetic swamping which leads to homogenization or out-competition from the introduced (or hybrid) species. Endemic populations can face such extinctions when new populations are imported or selectively bred by people, or when habitat modification brings previously isolated species into contact. Extinction is likeliest for rare species coming into contact with more abundant ones; interbreeding can swamp the rarer gene pool and create hybrids, depleting the purebred gene pool (for example, the endangered Wild water buffalo is most threatened with extinction by genetic pollution from the abundant domestic water buffalo). Such extinctions are not always apparent from morphological (non-genetic) observations. Some degree of gene flow is a normal evolutionarily process, nevertheless, hybridization (with or without introgression) threatens rare species’ existence.

The gene pool of a species or a population is the variety of genetic information in its living members. A large gene pool (extensive genetic diversity) is associated with robust populations that can survive bouts of intense selection. Meanwhile, low genetic diversity (see inbreeding and population bottlenecks) reduces the range of adaptions possible.[20] Replacing native with alien genes narrows genetic diversity within the original population, thereby increasing the chance of extinction.

Predation, competition, and disease

 

wolly mammoths

 

In the natural course of events, species become extinct for a number of reasons, including but not limited to, extinction of a necessary host, prey or pollinator, inter-species competition, inability to deal with evolving diseases and changing environmental conditions (particularly sudden changes) which can act to introduce novel predators, or to remove prey. Recently in geologic time, humans have become an additional cause of extinction (many people would say premature extinction) for some species, either as a new mega-predator or by transporting animals and plants from one part of the world to another. The later has been occurring for thousands of years, sometimes deliberately (e.g., livestock released by sailors onto islands as a source of future food) and sometimes accidentally (e.g., rats escaping from boats). In most cases, such introductions are unsuccessful, but when they do become established as an invasive alien species, the consequences can be catastrophic. Invasive alien species can affect native species directly by eating them, competing with them, and introducing pathogens or parasites that sicken or kill them or, indirectly, by destroying or degrading their habitat. Human populations may themselves act as invasive predators. According to the “overkill hypothesis”, the swift extinction of the megafauna in areas such as Australia (40,000 years before present), North and South America (12,000 years before present), Madagascar, Hawaii (300-1000 CE), and New Zealand (1300-1500 CE), resulted from the sudden introduction of human beings to environments full of animals that had never seen them before, and were therefore completely unadapted to their predation techniques.

Coextinction

Coextinction refers to the loss of a species due to the extinction of another; for example, the extinction of parasitic insects following the loss of their hosts. Coextinction can also occur when a species loses its pollinator, or to predators in a food chain who lose their prey. “Species coextinction is a manifestation of the interconnectedness of organisms in complex ecosystems … While coextinction may not be the most important cause of species extinctions, it is certainly an insidious one”. Coextinction is especially common when a keystone species goes extinct. Models suggest that coextinction is the most common form of biodiversity loss. Coextinction allows for cascading effects across the trophic levels. Such effects are most severe in mutualistic and parasitic relationships. An example of coextinction would be the Haast’s Eagle and the Moa. The Haast’s Eagle is an example of a predator that became extinct because its food source became extinct. The moa were several species of flightless birds that served as a food source to the Haast’s Eagle.

 

haast eagle

 

Mass Extinctions

There have been at least five mass extinctions in the history of life on earth, and four in the last 3.5 billion years in which many species have disappeared in a relatively short period of geological time. The massive eruptive event is considered to be one likely cause of the “Great Dying” about 250 million years ago, which is estimated to have killed 90% of species existing at the time. There is also evidence to suggest this event was preceded by another mass extinction known as Olson’s Extinction. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event occurred 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period and is best known for having wiped out non-avian dinosaurs, among many other species.

 

rise of the mammals

 

Extinction: Helpful Links

Evolution: Extinction

Science Daily: Extinction News

Extinction: University of Arizona

The role of extinction in evolution

 

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