Abundance and other aspects of population ecology have long been known to contribute to shaping the geography of species’ distributions. In particular, abundance patterns have recently been shown to negatively correlate with environmental distance from conditions in the center of a species’ abiotic niche, rather than vary with distance from the geographic center of a species’ distribution. We t...

SUMMARY: We (NMFS and USFWS; also collectively referred to as the Services) have determined that the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) is composed of nine distinct population segments (DPSs) that qualify as ''species'' for listing as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and we propose to list two as threatened and seven as endangered. This also constitutes the ...

Groupers are highly susceptible to human-induced impacts, making them one of the most threatened fish families globally. Extinction risk assessments are important in endangered threatened species management, however the most comprehensive—the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List—cannot classify approximately one-third of grouper species due to data deficiency. We used ...

Marine molluscs represent an estimated 23% of all extant marine taxa, but research into their conservation status has so far failed to reflect this importance, with minimal inclusion on the authoritative Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). We assessed the status of all 632 valid species of the tropical marine gastropod mollusc, Conus (cone snails), using R...

introduction: cloning an individual by transferring somatic nuclei into enucleated recipient oocytes has already been well established. this technology also offers new opportunities to restore threatened species with interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (scnt). however, few mammalian species have been studied for their reproductive biology whereas huge differences have been observed betwe...

The ethical, legal, and social significance of the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is widely appreciated. Much of the significance of the act arises from the legal definitions that the act provides for the terms threatened species and endangered species. The meanings of these terms are important because they give legal meaning to the concept of a recovered species. Unfortunately, the ...

We (NMFS) announce a 90day finding on a petition to list the Texas pipefish (Syngnathus affinis) as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We find that the petition does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted. ADDRESSES: Copies of the petition and related materials are available upon request f...