Requiem /Etemam the Last Five Hundred Years of Mammalian Species Extinctions
CHAPTER 13 Requiem /Etemam The Last Five Hundred Years of Mammalian Species Extinctions R. D. E. MACPHEE and CLARE FLEMMING 1. Introduction This contribution provides an analytical accounting of mammal species that have disap peared during the past 500 years-the "modem era" of this chapter. Our choice of date was dictated by several considerations, but two are paramount. AD 1500 marks more or less pre cisely the beginning of Europe's expansion across the rest of the world, a portentous event in human history by any definition. It is an equally momentous date for natural history be cause it marks the point at which empirical knowledge of the planet began to burgeon ex ponentially. These two factors, linked for both good and ill for the past half-millennium, have affected every aspect of life on earth, and are thus fitting subjects to commemorate in a record such as this. A number of modem-era extinction lists (hereafter, "compilations") for Mammalia have been published in recent years (e.g., Goodwin and Goodwin, 1973; Williams and Nowak, 1986, 1993; World Conservation Monitoring Centre [WCMC), 1992; International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources [IUCN], 1993, 1996; Cole et al., 1994}. One may wonder why yet another recension is needed. Superficially, the empirical problem seems uncomplicated: A species either exists or it doesn't-what is there to dis agree about? Regrettably, things are not so simple. A target taxon that has not been collect ed or seen for an appreciable interval may indeed be extinct-or it may simply not have been collected or seen.
[Show full text]