Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23760169›Full record

ArticleBiology letters2013

Revisiting the impacts of non-random extinction on the tree-of-life.

T Jonathan Davies, Kowiyou Yessoufou

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biology letters, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. The ghost of hosts past: impacts of host extinction on parasite specificity.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Losing history: how extinctions prune features from the tree of life.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2015
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

T Jonathan DaviesDepartment of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Kowiyou Yessoufou

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The tree-of-life represents the diversity of living organisms. Species extinction and the concomitant loss of branches from the tree-of-life is therefore a major conservation concern. There is increasing evidence indicating that extinction is phylogenetically non-random, such that if one species is vulnerable to extinction so too are its close relatives. However, the impact of non-random extinctions on the tree-of-life has been a matter of recent debate. Here, we combine simulations with empirical data on extinction risk in mammals. We demonstrate that phylogenetically clustered extinction leads to a disproportionate loss of branches from the tree-of-life, but that the loss of their summed lengths is indistinguishable from random extinction. We argue that under a speciational model of evolution, the number of branches lost might be of equal or greater consequences than the loss of summed branch lengths. We therefore suggest that the impact of non-random extinction on the tree-of-life may have been underestimated.

Indexed as

Biological EvolutionExtinction, BiologicalAnimalsArtiodactylaBiodiversityCarnivoraCluster AnalysisConservation of Natural ResourcesModels, BiologicalPhylogenyPrimatesextinctionphylogenetic diversitypunctuated evolutiontree-of-life

Identifiers

PMID23760169
PMCPMC3730646

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.