Predicting extinction risk in declining species

@article{Purvis2000PredictingER,
  title={Predicting extinction risk in declining species},
  author={Andy Purvis and John L. Gittleman and Guy Cowlishaw and Georgina M. Mace},
  journal={Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences},
  year={2000},
  volume={267},
  pages={1947 - 1952}
}
  • A. PurvisJ. L. Gittleman G. Mace
  • Published 7 October 2000
  • Environmental Science
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
What biological attributes predispose species to the risk of extinction? There are many hypotheses but so far there has been no systematic analysis for discriminating between them. Using complete phylogenies of contemporary carnivores and primates, we present, to our knowledge, the first comparative test showing that high trophic level, low population density, slow life history and, in particular, small geographical range size are all significantly and independently associated with a high… 
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