Cambridge prisms. Extinction最新文献

Early human cultural dynamics underpin the Plio-Pleistocene archaeological record and impact how we understand some of our earliest identifiable behaviours. One major outstanding question is whether Early Stone Age material culture represents a single lineage of cultural information, or did we ever lose the knowledge required to make stone tools? No single approach satisfactorily addresses this problem, but to date, objective analyses of temporal data have been absent from the conversation. Here, using a comprehensive database of dated African Oldowan archaeological sites, we demonstrate that there are no temporal breaks large enough, on a relative basis, to infer a loss of stone-tool-making cultural information. Therefore, alongside previously published data, we infer a continuous record of early human stone tool production in Africa from c. 3.3 to 1.5 million years ago. Stone tool-associated behavioural adaptations and evolutionary selective pressures were, therefore, likely to have been ever present during this period.

This article centres a poem concerned with the de-extinction of the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) to make a wider claim for the importance of poetry as a distinct contribution to thinking about de-extinction. While de-extinction is well understood as a scientific practice, it is also a cultural event. It involves communities with distinct histories who are diversely invested in the idea of extinction, which evoke a range of emotions and embodied responses. A poetry of de-extinction is well placed to situate the science within its complex cultural history while evoking the resistance and multiple temporalities of recorded Indigenous experience. In the instance of the efforts towards the de-extinction of the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), the colonial acts that led to the original extinction were one part of the violence perpetrated against Indigenous peoples and country.

The cold, low carbon dioxide (CO₂) conditions of the Pleistocene epoch fundamentally structured ecosystems, profoundly influencing the evolutionary trajectory of Homo sapiens and other large mammals. Although often considered uniquely stable, the Holocene is more usefully viewed as just another Pleistocene interglacial interval that was naturally trending towards a renewed glacial phase. However, rapid anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission rates have reversed this trajectory and might have now foreclosed the prospect of returning to cyclic glacial climates for millennia. A large set of flora and fauna has benefited from low CO₂ conditions, which we define as low-CO₂ dependents. By elevating atmospheric CO₂ concentrations beyond levels seen for millions of years, we have accelerated global warming beyond the adaptive capacities of many species and ecosystems. African savannas and grasslands are particularly relevant in this context because this was the environment in which the human species evolved. These biomes have been previously maintained by fire and carbon scarcity but are now experiencing woody encroachment driven by rising CO₂. The resultant global reforestation further threatens biodiversity adapted to open ecosystems, while rewilding initiatives must therefore pair prehistoric analogues with explicit climate-fitness tests that anticipate mid-century CO₂ trajectories. Addressing these complex challenges requires both targeted local interventions and systemic policy reforms, grounded in a pragmatic recognition of the transient nature of the Holocene. Recognising the transience of any single baseline allows conservation and agriculture to plan for a dynamic, overshoot-prone future.

Intergenerational justice is the core principle supporting the legacy of benefit toward future generations, including the perpetuation of species and their genetic diversity, as a key component of biospheric sustainability. Thirty percent of Earth's terrestrial habitats are now undergoing protection, biodiversity hotspots are being targeted, and there is increasing community awareness and engagement in conservation. However, the impending sixth mass extinction threatens to drive many species to extinction in the wild, irrespective of these interventions. Earth's biosphere is now undergoing terraforming through ecosystem destruction and modification, urbanization, and agriculture. Therefore, transformative cultural, political, and economic incentives are needed to maximize the legacy of the Earth's biodiversity and biospheric sustainability toward future generations. Reproduction and advanced biotechnologies can perpetuate species and their genetic diversity while also contributing to human and animal health and agricultural production. Advanced reproduction biotechnologies, including genetic engineering and synthetic biology, provide a new horizon for biospheric management, through the de-extinction of ancient species, restoring recently lost species, and maintaining the genetic diversity of extant species through wildlife biobanking. More extensive and inclusive conservation breeding programs and wildlife biobanking resources/facilities are desperately needed to perpetuate more than 3,000 Critically Endangered terrestrial/freshwater species; a goal fully attainable for amphibians and smaller fishes through global inclusion of stakeholders including private caregivers, plausible for freshwater mussels and crayfish, in development for reptiles and birds, and applicable for many mammals. As this capacity develops, many otherwise neglected species that are losing their natural habitat can be perpetuated solely in biobanks, thus enabling the more efficient utilization of resources toward meaningful field conservation primarily through habitat protection. The full potential of reproduction and advanced biotechnologies includes the development of artificial wombs to address the human population crisis and to avoid surrogacy mismatching during species restoration or de-extinction. The use of advanced reproduction biotechnologies for direct human benefit, for species management, and for biospheric sustainability, are subject to evolving ethical and legal frameworks, particularly regarding genetic engineering, transhumanism, and the de-extinction of ancient species.

This speculative essay examines the concepts of extinction and (de)extinction through the lens of quotidian objects, emphasizing that each material artifact tells a story about its ingrained elements and the "absence" it signifies. Situated within the framework of the Anthropocene, this reflection draws inspiration from a recent exhibit at the Peale Museum, showcasing artifacts retrieved from sites along the Jones Falls River and the Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore, MD. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that contemplates futuristic visions of place and the embedded histories within objects, such as dolls, calculators and soda cans, the essay envisions a Museum of Extinction that interrogates the stark contrasts between tangible remnants of the natural world and living organisms in constructed environments. These objects embody haunting stories of damaging extractive practices and ecological and cultural erasure, serving as poignant reminders of the subtle presence of vanished lives and species, compelling us to deepen our understanding of the intricate dynamics of production, consumption and loss. It contends that, although a single or definitive "formula" for de-extinction is unattainable, poetic and creative engagements with everyday artifacts can serve as powerful testimonials to absences and material interventions. Such acts of writing not only foster a profound understanding of ecological and cultural entanglements but also motivate active material interventions. They transform the act of writing about objects into a reflective practice - an invocation of remembrance and a catalyst for potential change, sparking a quiet insurrection in how we perceive and care for the world.

Positive human-wildlife coexistence, especially in contexts of rewilding and the reintroduction of large carnivores, partially depends on communication between stakeholders. The media, and in particular local journalism, can play a crucial role in determining people's knowledge of and attitudes towards wildlife. In this article, we analyse the online coverage of bears produced by the most widely circulated local newspaper in Trentino (Italy), where bears have been reintroduced thanks to a rewilding project funded by the European Union. Employing quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 375 articles, we look into the main features of the media coverage of bears over one year (2024). We find that articles tend to focus on controversial and uncommon events, such as culls and interactions. The most prevalent sources of quotations in the articles are politicians and activists, while experts, local residents, and individuals in the farming sector are less often quoted. The majority of articles are framed through the lens of the socio-political struggle generated by bear presence. Micro-dynamics of the online media coverage include high polarisation, fragmentation of narratives, and the marginalisation of relevant stakeholders (i.e., local communities, experts, European institutions).

Ecosystems are increasingly being represented as marketplaces that produce goods for humanity, and because of this, economic metaphors for increasing efficiency have been introduced into conservation. A powerful model for economic growth is the globalised free market, and some are implicitly deploying it to suggest changes in conservation practice. Ecological globalisation is the position that we should not control the free movement of species and rewilding occurs most efficiently through non-intervention. When species can move and interact with new ecological systems, they create novel ecosystems. These novel arrangements create experimental markets in nature's economy, providing opportunities for the efficient production of goods for humans, also known as ecosystem services. When invasive species supersede local populations, it indicates previous biotic systems were inefficient, which is why they were replaced, and therefore, it is wrong to protect indigenous "losers" from extinction. Those who defend indigenous species are accused of being xenophobic against recent biotic migrants. This position is flawed both empirically and morally as there is a disconnect between these economic and political arguments when applied to human economies and nature's economy.

Around 1000 years ago, Madagascar experienced the collapse of populations of large vertebrates that ultimately resulted in many species going extinct. The factors that led to this collapse appear to have differed regionally, but in some ways, key processes were similar across the island. This review evaluates four hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the loss of large vertebrates on Madagascar: Overkill, aridification, synergy, and subsistence shift. We explore regional differences in the paths to extinction and the significance of a prolonged extinction window across the island. The data suggest that people who arrived early and depended on hunting, fishing, and foraging had little effect on Madagascar's large endemic vertebrates. Megafaunal decline was triggered initially by aridification in the driest bioclimatic zone, and by the arrival of farmers and herders in the wetter bioclimatic zones. Ultimately, it was the expansion of agropastoralism across both wet and dry regions that drove large endemic vertebrates to extinction everywhere.

This perspective article takes up the challenge of articulating a political epistemology for extinction studies, centered around how both the systematic-scientific and mythopoetic traditions conceive of the idea of preservation. Political epistemology offers a solution to this for impasse because it asks the question of the social orientation or "end" of knowledge formations, thereby questioning what the larger goal of preservation might be. By focusing on the example of the thylacine, I outline one strand of what a political epistemology for contemporary justifications of preservation in the Museum might look like. Then I discuss how the mode of storytelling in extinction studies also conceives of preservation. Finally, I introduce the idea of replenishment as contrary to the preservation, focused on the cultural practices of Indigenous peoples in North East Arnhem Land, and ask whether new developments in the techno-scientific tradition will begin to turn to replenishment as well.

Cycads, an ancient lineage, face a higher threat of extinction than any other plant group. To address this urgent issue, a more comprehensive method for assessing extinction threat, the Conservation and Prioritization Index (CPI), is proposed and tested for cycads in the State of Veracruz, Mexico. The CPI is a multifaceted approach that incorporates techniques used in conservation status assessments by the IUCN and the Mexican NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 but incorporates other information, including georeferenced distribution data, endemism in Veracruz, number of locations, extent of occurrence, and distribution area. Using CPI, correlations were found between longitude and extinction risk for Ceratozamia species in Veracruz. Zamia vazquezii and Z. inermis were assessed to have the highest level of extinction risk. Overall, this study indicates that a more holistic approach, incorporating broader sources of environmental health, can be used to more effectively and proactively manage extinction threats to cycads in Veracruz. In this sense, Veracruz can serve as a model for conservation planning in different states in Mexico and worldwide. CPI is a tool that can be applied to other regions to manage another threatened biota. This method enhances objectivity and effectiveness in conservation efforts, promoting data-driven decision-making that can be used globally.