3rd May 2022 (6 Topics)
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Nearly a fifth of reptiles face risk of extinction: Study
Context
According to a new report, nearly a fifth of all reptile species globally are at risk of extinction.
About
Key findings of the Report:
- The report analysed 10,196 reptile species following the same criteria as the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species.
- It found at least 1,829 are threatened.
- Around 30 per cent of forest-dwelling reptiles are at risk of extinction, compared with 14 per cent of reptiles in arid habitats.
- Threatened reptile species are concentrated in South-eastern Asia, West Africa, northern Madagascar, the northern Andes and the Caribbean.
- Some parts of southern Asia and north-eastern United States have twice the number of reptile species in a threatened category than other tetrapods.
- South-eastern Asia, India, West Africa and the Caribbean comprise the top 15 per cent areas of phylogenetic (reconstructing the past evolutionary history of existing/surviving species) diversity loss, with high concentrations of threatened and evolutionarily distinct species.
- Around 15.6 billion years of evolutionary history will be lost from the face of the earth if these 21 per cent species of reptiles go extinct in the coming years.
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The Study
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Major threats for the reptile species
- Reptiles are threatened by the same major factors that threaten other tetrapods (a superclass of animals that includes all limbed vertebrates):
- Agriculture
- Logging
- urban development and
- invasive species
- Although, the threat posed by climate change remains uncertain.
- Many threatened species of reptiles are concentrated in places where other vertebrates are also threatened.
- The proportion of turtles and crocodiles that are threatened (57.9% and 50.0%, respectively) is much higher than those of squamates (19.6%) and tuatara (0%), and comparable to the most-threatened tetrapod groups, salamanders (57.0%) and monotremes (60.0%).
- The Galapagos marine iguana, the world’s only lizard adapted to marine life, is classified as “vulnerable” to extinction.
- It took 5 million years for the lizard to adapt to foraging in the sea, lamenting “how much evolutionary history can be lost if this single species” goes extinct.
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Reptiles:
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