Endangered animals on the EDGE

The John Hopkins Newsletter has late coverage of the 100 endangered animals on the "Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered" (EDGE) list. The list, available at www.edgeofexistence.org was published last month by a team of scientists led by the Zoological Society of London.

Terms such as "threatened," "endangered" and "critically endangered" are used to describe increasingly dire situations for populations in the wild.

The EDGE list takes into account two additional factors that make the compilation unique.

First, the rankings give preference to species that are evolutionarily distinct, or the most biologically different from other living species. Although the loss of any species is a tragedy, the scientists at the EDGE project argue that some species are more unique than others.
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The other criterion for EDGE species is the degree to which conservationists are already concerned with the animals. The researchers want conservationists to pay more attention to these underrepresented animals.