An endemic species is a taxonomic unit whose natural distribution is restricted to a defined geographic area, such as a specific island, mountain range, ecoregion, or political region, and does not occur naturally elsewhere. In biogeography and conservation biology, endemism is used to quantify spatial patterns of biodiversity, identify centers of diversification, and prioritize regions for protection. Endemic species often exhibit high levels of local adaptation and evolutionary distinctiveness but are also disproportionately vulnerable to habitat alteration, invasive species, climate change, and other anthropogenic pressures due to their limited range and frequently small, fragmented populations.
Why are frogs diverse in some parts of Africa's rainforests and less so in others? The patterns of cooling and glaciation during the last ice age would probably not have been your first answer or even your last-ditch guess, ...
Evolution
Apr 7, 2026
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Only 25% of newly-delineated priority areas identified for the protection of freshwater fishes in Colombia overlap with existing protected areas, according to a recent study published in Diversity and Distributions by the ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 1, 2026
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Taxonomic endemism and phylogenetic endemism are both important measures of biodiversity. The former describes the number of distinct species found nowhere else, whereas the latter shows the amount of evolutionary branch ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 31, 2026
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The half leaf-fingered geckos (Hemiphyllodactylus) are a diverse group with more than 70 recognized species and a distribution range from southern India and Sri Lanka, through Indochina and Southeast Asia, to the western ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 31, 2026
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The Galapagos Islands are famous for the discoveries that shaped Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Now an SFSU graduate has added one more: Ezra Mendales (M.S., '23) describes a new species as part of his master's thesis. ...
Evolution
Mar 26, 2026
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According to the authors of a study published in the journal Coral Reefs, fire corals may be undergoing a "silent extinction." Coral bleaching occurs when seawater temperatures rise, causing the zooxanthellae (microalgae ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 25, 2026
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What can the world's longest living individual teach us about longevity? A team of scientists coordinated by the University of California, Davis, sequenced the Great Basin bristlecone pine genome, which could help unlock ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 23, 2026
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Entomologists have discovered a new species of mining bee that has an unusually tight relationship with cenizo, the official state shrub of Texas. Silas Bossert, assistant professor in Washington State University's Department ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 18, 2026
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The Indo-Pacific is the largest marine biogeographical region on Earth and a global center of marine biodiversity. Nevertheless, there are gaps remaining in our understanding of the diversity, distribution, and endemism of ...
Ecology
Mar 17, 2026
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In 2000, a group of STRI botanists collected samples of all the plants from the genus Clusia they could find in Panama to find out how the different species in this group are related.
Ecology
Mar 14, 2026
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