Only extant members of the Order Sphenodontia (Other mammal orders=Carnivores, Rodents, Rabbits). Diverse 200 million years ago. All eventually became extinct about 60 million years ago other than two species.

Male tuatara can expect lonely love lives as the climate warms - before they eventually become extinct. Males are already starting to outnumber females on Cook Strait's North Brother Island, Victoria University researchers have found. The issue stems from how the gender of the reptiles is decided in the eggs. Clutches exposed to warmer temperatures produce male hatchlings. Because of this, rising temperatures from climate change could lead to disastrous results for the island population, researcher Nicky Nelson said. The results were published in online science journal PLOS ONE today.PLOS ONE "Our research reveals that as the male bias in the population increases, female tuatara body condition, fertility rates and survival decline," Nelson said. Without intervention, an all-male population was likely before the tuatara died out completely, she said.

Due Dates! May 6 th -Very Final Draft due if you are prepping materials for elementary students! May 13 th -If you are doing anything else!

Important points from end of Brooks paper (p60-61) Inverts..little focus and does their diversity overlap with mammal and bird diversity? Aquatic systems? Do not emphasize evolutionary potential or places that generate biodiversity? Where do new species arise-are we preserving these places? Loss of species is one thing the loss of the species making process is quite another!

Are we considering ecosystem services? (what areas contribute to carbon sequestration, climate stabilization, maintenance of water quality, reduce outbreaks by pests, support fisheries) “The establishment of global conservation priorities has been extremely influential in directing resources toward broad regions. However…… a number of authors have pointed out that global conservation prioritization has had little success in informing actual conservation implementation.”

Polasky et al article! 1. Which kinds of ecosystem services did this paper consider? Were they provisioning or regulating? What did they actually measure? 2. What is carbon sequestration? What are some examples of places on the earth where carbon is sequestered? 3. When they were looking at biodiversity, what group (Taxon) did they choose and why did they choose this group? 4. What is the Legacy Act and have you heard of it before? Find the MN Legacy Act website-you could look for some local projects?? (

5. What did they find? What areas of the state would be preserved if they prioritized ecosystem services? What areas if they preserved biodiversity? 6. Why does this debate matter? 7. What were limitations of their study? Do you have any concerns? 8. As many conservation groups jump on the preserving ecosystems to preserve ecosystem services what are the risks? 9. Where do you find yourself on this issue of Biodiversity vs Ecosystem services?

Turning to Chapter 12…Endangered Species in US Important points from chapter… We protect species, subspecies and populations (for vertebrates only)… which is important and why? And populations can be defined on the basis of political boundaries…bald eagles in lower 48 listed but not Alaskan eagles. Now we would prefer real biological pops-salmon! May be same species but if have different behavior and genetics...protect!

Getting on the list should be a purely biological question not a political question. Look at absolute size of population, whether it is declining-prairie dogs, is habitat being lost Remember state’s list species…is this worth it? Remember how vague the wording is….? Endangered=“any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a sig. portion of its range”

Many species live on private land! Animals cannot be “harmed” (direct or indirect- cannot take their habitat away) Plants on private land do not have this protection. We are then supposed to recover species. A variety of problems with recovery plans. Few species get off the list. htm