Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Sayol F
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7710364 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Sayol F F Steinbauer M J MJ Blackburn T M TM Antonelli A A Faurby S S
Science advances 20201202 49
Human-driven extinctions can affect our understanding of evolution, through the nonrandom loss of certain types of species. Here, we explore how knowledge of a major evolutionary transition-the evolution of flightlessness in birds-is biased by anthropogenic extinctions. Adding data on 581 known anthropogenic extinctions to the extant global avifauna increases the number of species by 5%, but quadruples the number of flightless species. The evolution of flightlessness in birds is a widespread phe ...[more]