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Thursday, July 20, 2006

Say goodbye to 16,119 species

Today's cheerful post. According to the ICUN's Red List, life on Earth is in dire straits:

* 16,119 species are threatened with extinction, but this may be a gross underestimate because fewer than 3% of the world’s 1.9 million described species have been assessed by the Red List.
* Animals: 7,725
* Plants and lichens: 8,394
* In major species groups, the percentage of threatened species ranges between 12% and 52%.
* Birds: 12% or 1 in 8
* Mammals: 23% or 1 in 4 are threatened.
* Amphibians: 32% or 1 in 3.
* Turtles and tortoises: approximately 42%
* Conifers: 25% or 1 in 4
* Cycads (an ancient group of plants): 52%


Not only are marine fish species under threat, so are freshwater fish according to the Red List. Say a hearty goodbye to Turkish and Croatian carp:

Seven species, including carp relatives Alburnus akili in Turkey and Telestes ukliva from Croatia , are now Extinct.

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