Coextinction

Host-parasite coextinction and the plight of tick conservation. ❋ Carl Zimmer (2009)

Rob Dunn: Most of what we know about the relationships between parasites and hosts suggests that coextinction should be at least as common as host extinction - extinction of the things we think about more often, the warm, cuddly, big-eyed things. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Dunn said coextinction is a great loss, personally and biologically. ❋ Unknown (2009)

It's the consequence of what Dunn called 'coextinction.' ❋ Unknown (2009)

Dunn said coextinction highlights the interactions of species and the consequences of extinction. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Whichever explanation turn out to be correct-is coextinction rare or common-the authors argue that conservation of parasites, mites, ticks, aphids, bacteria, viruses, fleas, and lice is important. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Of course, even beginning to address the threat of coextinction raises novel problems. ❋ Unknown (2009)

"On the one hand, growing numbers of studies find evidence of rapid evolution of the ability to survive and reproduce on new hosts … yet, in order to understand the significance of evolutionary responses to estimates of coextinction rates, one needs to know how often such events occur," write the authors. ❋ Unknown (2009)

"Although tens or even hundreds of thousands of coextinctions … are predicted on the basis of coextinction models, few recent coextinctions have been empirically documented," the paper's authors write. ❋ Unknown (2009)

If it is determined that the generalist is actually a number of specialist species, not only would this affect the models predicting coextinction, but also estimations of species numbers worldwide. ❋ Unknown (2009)

"In addition, we know that those regions with many emergent zoonotic diseases are the same regions with many rare vertebrates, suggesting that we may already be experiencing some of the health consequences of coendangerement, if not coextinction." ❋ Unknown (2009)

So, if parasites are spread wider than assumed, even across closely related species, then coextinction would occur less often. ❋ Unknown (2009)

"Such host shifts are another consequence of coextinction and coendangerement dynamics. ❋ Unknown (2009)