Extinction means fewer feathered weirdos—like vultures with naked heads.
, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield and the paper’s lead author. The “horrific” pattern showed up in every type of landscape, from grasslands, to forests and swamps, and in half of the world’s ecoregions. “We’re seeing not only species loss happening, but we’re losing diversity of morphology at a really high rate,” she explains.
Birds at risk of extinction, as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an international collaboration, carry a disproportionate amount of that bodily weirdness. The IUCN lists 111 bird species as critically endangered. Pull them from the global pool, and physical diversity plummets. When the researchers did the same with endangered—though not critically so—birds, diversity also crashed. But when they removed just the not-threatened birds, they saw no impact.
But the research also uncovered overlooked threats to diversity. Hughes’ analysis found that the high plateaus around the Himalayan Mountains were at extremely high risk of homogenizing. “It turns out these areas have got quite a number of critically endangered vulture species,” Hughes says. And vultures are physical outliers, huge bodies with a long, hooked beak that helps them dig into carcasses.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
The most distinctive birds are the ones most at risk of extinctionIt’s bad enough that Earth could be losing thousands of species each year. Now two independent studies of birds have concluded the ones most likely to disappear are those that serve unique—and possibly irreplaceable—functions in their ecosystems.
Read more »
'What We Do in the Shadows': Meet Tween Colin, Nandor's New Dick, and Richie SuckJust when you think ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ can’t get any funnier, Nandor gets a new dick, Nadja opens a nightclub, and Laszlo takes Tween Colin under his wing. The vampire comedy’s showrunners take us inside tonight’s hilarious episode.
Read more »
Monarch butterflies are now an endangered speciesThough the monarch has long been considered under threat, its listing on the IUCN Red List marks the first time it has been officially declared at risk of extinction
Read more »
Florida Attorney General to President Biden: Classify fentanyl as 'weapon of mass destruction'The classification would allow the federal government to marshal more resources and agencies against fentanyl — a synthetic drug up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
Read more »
Linda Evangelista says she's 'pleased' to have settled $50 million fat-freezing case“I look forward to the next chapter of my life with friends and family, and am happy to put this matter behind me,” the supermodel wrote on Instagram.
Read more »
The Time Of Day You Work Out May Actually Affect Fitness Results, Study FindsNew research shows that, depending on your fitness goals, you may benefit from being more intentional with the time at which you're working out. Here's what to know. 🕗
Read more »