In general, preventing extinctions will depend on species-specific solutions, which can be facilitated by recognizing how animal were originally built to survive. Conversely, extreme specialization for aquatic thermoregulation, swimming, and deep-diving by species such as cetaceans avoids these energetic problems, but can lead to increased susceptibility to environmental perturbations including extreme temperature changes and oceanic noise. Along with the energetic challenges, fur insulation and paddling forms of swimming leaves marine bears and otters vulnerable to the impacts of catastrophic oil spills. We find that the most recently evolved ( 50 MYA) lineages as represented by cetaceans and manatees. Marked morphological and physiological modifications necessary for transitioning from land to the sea not only represent adaptive benefits, they also provide insights into biological vulnerability (Biological Achilles’ heels) to human-induced disturbances. In this study, we examine how evolutionary processes in animal design conspire with modern anthropogenic pressures to challenge the survival of marine-living mammals. This affords a unique opportunity to predict and perhaps mitigate paths leading to further accelerated species loss.
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As field biologists we are now witness to the underlying mechanisms driving this sixth mass extinction during our scientific lifetimes. The rate of animal extinctions has accelerated in recent years, such that the calculated average rate of vertebrate species loss over the last century is 72-100 times greater than expected from natural background rates. Woolhouse Lecture - Liam Dolan (Univerisity of Oxford, UK)Ĭell Biology Plenary Lecture - Nick Talbot (The Sainsbury Laboratory, UK) BIDDER LECTURE - TERRIE WILLIAMS TALK TITLE: TOUCHING EXTINCTION: BIOLOGICAL ACHILLES' HEELS AND THE SURVIVAL OF BIG, FIERCE ANIMALS
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These lectures, along with the Cell Biology Plenary Lecture, are given by scientists prominent in their field and are nominated by the committees of their respective sections.īidder Lecture - Terrie Williams (University of California Santa Cruz, USA)
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Each year at our Annual Meeting, we honour George Parker Bidder and Harold Woolhouse with two key Plenary Lectures.