Cryptic Biodiversity.When then-Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall penned the first endangered species endangered species, any plant or animal species whose ability to survive and reproduce has been jeopardized by human activities. In 1999 the U.S. government, in accordance with the U.S. list in 1967, it included 77 species of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians amphibians members of the animal class Amphibia. Includes frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and cecilians all capable of living on land or in water. . Today, there are 16 thousands. Propelled by modern technology, that number may soon rise even more rapidly. Berkeley biology professor David Wake published a paper in August announcing four new salamander salamander, an amphibian of the order Urodela, or Caudata. Salamanders have tails and small, weak limbs; superficially they resemble the unrelated lizards (which are reptiles), but they are easily distinguished by their lack of scales and claws, and by their moist, species living in heavily populated areas in California. Instead of simply looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. visual clues, Wake and his colleagues sample salamanders' protein diversity and DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. . By doing so, they can differentiate between species that look almost identical but are in fact as genetically distinct as cows and horses. Such hidden differences are known as "cryptic biodiversity." Due to these new techniques, the number of known salamander species is increasing by about 2 percent per year. "In 1954 a thorough doctoral dissertation at Berkeley concluded that there was one species of Slender Salamander, genus Bat rachoseps, in the state," says Wake. "There are now 15." Meanwhile, salamander populations worldwide are in decline, for reasons that are hotly debated by the distressed biologists who study them. Cryptic biodiversity isn't limited to amphibians. By examining DNA, scientists have discovered new species of birds, reptiles, whales, and plants. Says Wake, "What all this means is that we must worry a great deal more about endangered species issues." But with new species seemingly ready to turn up in every back yard in America, popular support may be harder to sustain. "This could put more and more pressure on the Endangered Species Act The federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) (16 U.S.C.A. §§ 1531 et seq.) was enacted to protect animal and plant species from extinction by preserving the ecosystems in which they survive and by providing programs for their conservation. ," says Richard Stroup, a senior associate at the Montana-based Political Economy Research Center, a free-market environmentalist environmentalist a person with an interest and knowledge about the interaction of humans and animals with the environment. think tank. "At some point the public is going to get some dim realization that species don't matter much by themselves. What really matters is ... what kind of change will be wrought if a particular population or species disappears. What we should care about is filling niches." |
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