title: Mass extinction in poorly known taxa.
abstract: Since the 1980s, many have suggested we are in the midst of a massive extinction crisis, yet only 799 (0.04%) of the 1.9 million known recent species are recorded as extinct, questioning the reality of the crisis. This low figure is due to the fact that the status of very few invertebrates, which represent the bulk of biodiversity, have been evaluated. Here we show, based on extrapolation from a random sample of land snail species via two independent approaches, that we may already have lost 7% (130,000 extinctions) of the species on Earth. However, this loss is masked by the emphasis on terrestrial vertebrates, the target of most conservation actions. Projections of species extinction rates are controversial because invertebrates are essentially excluded from these scenarios. Invertebrates can and must be assessed if we are to obtain a more realistic picture of the sixth extinction crisis.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, UMR 7205 CNRS Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Ecole pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France; cregnier@mnhn.fr.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Régnier
authors.affiliation: UMR 7138, CNRS Evolution Paris Seine, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France; Atelier de Bioinformatique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France; UMR 7241, INSERM U1050, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology, Collège de France, 75005 Paris, France;
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Achaz
authors.affiliation: UMR 7241, INSERM U1050, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology, Collège de France, 75005 Paris, France; UMR 7599 Laboratoire de Probabilités et Modèles Aléatoires, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France; UMR 7599 Laboratoire de Probabilités et Modèles Aléatoires, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France;
authors.forename: Amaury
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.affiliation: Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822;
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Cowie
authors.affiliation: Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, UMR 7205 CNRS Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Ecole pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France;
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bouchet
authors.affiliation: UMR 7204, Département Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: Benoît
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fontaine
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D012908:Snails / Q000145:classification*; D013269:Stochastic Processes
keywords: IUCN Red List; biodiversity crisis; invertebrates