Islands such as Hawaii and Madagascar have high degrees ofendemism and are exper

Question

Islands such as Hawaii and Madagascar have high degrees ofendemism and are experiencing significant losses to theirbiodiversity. Even some mainland regions are losing many oftheir species of native plants and animals. For example, allof the great apes (except Homo sapiens) are nearingextinction in the wild. This trend is also true of smallcreatures. Some entire clades of ants are represented bysingle or very few living species living in endangered habitats inplaces like New Caledonia and Sri Lanka. Once these goextinct, there will be no living representatives of thesegroups. These losses, comprising what is known as the“modern extinction event,” are being caused by ourspecies primarily because of habitat destruction, pollution,effects of invasive species, and the trade in live or deadorganisms.

Explanation / Answer

Evolution-based research assumes that the evolutionary processhappens by itself (spontaneously, without external influence).Therefore, scientists may be ignoring a significant variable suchas human participation in the evolutionary process. For example,Hawaiian ants might have survived if the only determinant of theirsurvival was natural selection, but now we have humans wiping outtheir populations. All in all, modern extinction event might skew the variables usedin evolution-based research.

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