Global conservation status of the jawed vertebrate Tree of Life

Abstract

Human-driven extinction threatens entire lineages across the Tree of Life. Here we assess the conservation status of jawed vertebrate evolutionary history, using three policy-relevant approaches. First, we calculate an index of threat to overall evolutionary history, showing that we expect to lose 86–150 billion years (11–19%) of jawed vertebrate evolutionary history over the next 50–500 years. Second, we rank jawed vertebrate species by their EDGE scores to identify the highest priorities for species-focused conservation of evolutionary history, finding that chondrichthyans, ray-finned fish and testudines rank highest of all jawed vertebrates. Third, we assess the conservation status of jawed vertebrate families. We found that species within monotypic families are more likely to be threatened and more likely to be in decline than other species. We provide a baseline for the status of families at risk of extinction to catalyse conservation action. This work continues a trend of highlighting neglected groups—such as testudines, crocodylians, amphibians and chondrichthyans—as conservation priorities from a phylogenetic perspective.

Phylogenetic Diversity Across the Complete Tree of Life

“…Our estimation of PD scores for Actinopterygii, Testudines, Crocodylia, Lepidosaurs and Aves are fairly close to earlier estimations 33,34 except Amphibia, which is largely underestimated in our study. This inconsistency could be attributed to the fact that Amphibia is a large vertebrate clade with only 20% of nodes having date estimates.…”

“…This inconsistency could be attributed to the fact that Amphibia is a large vertebrate clade with only 20% of nodes having date estimates. Our estimations for the proportion of threatened PD among major tetrapod clades including Amphibian, Mammalia and Aves are largely congruent with an early estimate 34 (less than 5% difference, see Supplementary Data 1), the proportion of threatened PD for Actinopterygii is underestimated in our study (12% vs.…”

Population structure and genetic diversity of the Critically Endangered bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostomus) in the Northwest Indian Ocean

“…Consequently, ‘shark-like rays’ have been listed on Appendix II of CITES which seeks to regulate commercial trade, including of their derivative products. Among the most valuable fins on the market are those of the bowmouth guitarfish ( Rhina ancylostomus ), an evolutionarily distinct wedgefish (Gumbs et al, 2024) with the most widespread and continuous distribution of all shark-like rays (Figure 1). This species is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and is particularly susceptible to population decline due to its slow growth, late maturity, and low fecundity (Kyne et al, 2019).…”