As reported by University of California, Berkeley, using DNA comparisons, scientists have discovered what they have termed an “evolutionary concept called parallelism, a situation where two organisms independently come up with the same adaptation to a particular environment.”
This has an additional ramification when it comes to protecting biodiversity and endangered species. This is because in the past what we may have considered to be one species could actually be many. But, as pointed out by scientists, by putting them all in one group, it under-represents biodiversity, and these different evolutionarily species would not get the protection otherwise needed.
An example of this can be seen with the African elephant, where forest dwelling species are found to be different species to the ones found in the savannahs, as reported by the Telegraph newspaper. As the article also points out, “Instead of assuming that 500,000 elephants exist in Africa, it now seems that there are many fewer of each kind, and ‘they are both much more endangered than we presumed’, said Dr Georgiadis [of the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya.]”
In June 2002, it was announced that two never-before described species of monkey have been found in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. In October 2004, the BBC reported that a new giant ape has been found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, similar to a giant chimpanzee but behaving much like gorillas. In December 2004, a new species of monkey was discovered in India. These remarkable finds shows that there is still much to discover and learn about biodiversity in general.
In February 2006, scientists revealed that they had discovered hundreds of new species in a remote mountain rainforest region of western New Guinea. These species included birds, frogs, butterflies, palm trees, and many other plants yet to be classified. Other animals such as tree kangaroos, wallabies, and anteaters—all extremely rare elsewhere—were also found. In addition, scientists noticed that many of the animals were not afraid of humans, and some were even easily picked up, suggesting they had generally not encountered humans before.
In March 2006, Scientific American reported that in Laos, a rodent, believed to have been extict for 11 million years, was found alive and so “provides a compelling argument for preservation efforts in Southeast Asia.”
In December 2008, WWF released a report noting that over 1000 new species have been discovered in the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia in just the last decade from 1997 to 2007.
The region covers Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, the six countries through which the Mekong River flows. The species include 519 plants, 279 fish, 88 frogs, 88 spiders, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 15 mammals, 4 birds, 4 turtles, 2 salamanders and a toad.
In addition, it was also estimated that thousands of new invertebrate species were also discovered during this period, further highlighting the region’s immense biodiversity.
Images of some of the species were also published:
Conservation, protecting and preserving is therefore more about the species in question; it requires the protection of their habitat too, which in turn helps many other species in those same areas.
Sustainable Development And Conservation
The factors described above that affect AIDS research also highlights a deeper aspect of other related issues affecting conservation. In Europe, for example, threats such as increased agricultural/land requirements, hunting, persecution and land-claims etc are contributing to a shrinking biodiversity in Europe.
Efforts to move towards sustainable development and conservation efforts are therefore beginning to be based on the understanding that issues such as poverty need to be addressed, to provide people with alternatives.
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