Extinction
Extinction
Andy Purvis,1* Kate E. Jones,1 and Georgina M. Mace2
Summary
In the life of any species, extinction is the final evolu-
tionary process. It is a common one at present, as the
world is entering a major extinction crisis. The pattern of
extinction and threat is very non-random, with some taxa
being more vulnerable than others. Explaining why some
taxa are affected and some escape is a major goal of
conservation biology. More ambitiously, a predictive
model could, in princi