But for these vigorous conservation measures, the unlimited-liability names might well be an extinct species already.
"Good news has become a near-extinct species, " said Bruno Giussani, European director of TED at the opening of the conference.
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But the anatomical modifications which show biologists that these extinct species were not the world's greatest aviators, also serve to obscure their origins.
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The muni bond insurance market has decreased 98% since 2007 and the old AAA guaranteed muni bond has become a virtually extinct species.
How many philanthropists get an extinct species of their very own?
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Looks were either dotted around the glass cases of endangered and extinct species or were worn by groups of male models, composing a series of tableau vivants.
Stewart Brand, the 78-year-old technologist who came to fame as editor of "The Whole Earth Catalog, " introduced an ambitious plan to recreate extinct species, using DNA from museum specimens.
"Scientists say they're getting closer and closer to being able to do 'Jurassic Park'-style cloning on extinct species -- things once thought to be extinct could now be brought back from the dead, " Leno said.
Palaeogeneticists at the University of Copenhagen and Michael Bunce at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia determined the half-life after studying a set of 158 DNA-containing bones from an extinct species of bird called "moa" (a feat in and of itself).
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The largest invertebrate on the planet, it is a member of the class Cephalopoda, which includes octopus, nautilus, and extinct ammonite species.
The effort, echoing "Jurassic Park", won't bring back dinosaurs -- their DNA didn't survive the tens of millions of years since they disappeared -- but aims to " de-extinct" such species as the passenger pigeon, declared extinct in 1914.
Cloning extinct or endangered species should come as no surprise in the annals of anthropogenic busywork.
"Amazingly, we've managed to get through the 20th Century without any primate species going extinct, " Dr Mittermeier said.
We need to get the infrastructure in place before more illegal logging and poaching takes place, and more species become extinct.
Due to a reduction in forests, goshawks became extinct as a breeding species in Britain at the end of the 1800s.
Uncontrolled hunting led to this species becoming Extinct in the Wild, with the last remaining wild individual believed to have been shot in Oman in 1972.
FORBES: Conservation International: Stemming the Tide of Environmental Crises, Part Four
One reason for this taxonomic inflation is that the idea of a species becoming extinct is easy to grasp, and thus easy to make laws about.
Thomas also notes that many shallow-water species went extinct during this epoch, lending credence to the idea that GRB-precipitated solar UV radiation could have been the cause.
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"In international debates about climate change, for example, we will know how much forest we have and what state it is in (...), we'll discover species, and gain knowledge about species becoming extinct, as well as information about the distribution of the forest and its potential economic use", Ms Teixeira said.
Extinction is the norm in evolution: the vast majority of all species have gone extinct.
"Many people thought that this (primitive) species had become extinct way before 38, 000 years ago, " said Professor Poinar.
Lack of sediment has meant that local fish species have become extinct and the Grand Canyon's beaches have been severely eroded.
But despite declining numbers, no primate species actually went extinct last century.
After waiting six months, they found that in the disturbed habitats nearly all the bug populations had declined compared with the undisturbed moss, and 40% of the species had become extinct.
OK, not extinct but perhaps an endangered species.
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Which species will go extinct?
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That made it the most valuable charity auction to support conservation projects, which is important, because as DiCaprio mentioned in his opening speech, less than 2% of philanthropic dollars globally support conservation projects, despite the fact that 140, 000 animal and plant species are becoming extinct every year, which is 10, 000 times the historic extinction rate.
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Remove 200-year-old Amazon mahogany or Congolese sapele trees and the species may go locally extinct.
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Without it, the species could have been extinct in Wales by 2010.
This is the first time that a species which was once Extinct in the Wild has improved in status by three full categories on the IUCN Red List.
FORBES: Conservation International: Stemming the Tide of Environmental Crises, Part Four
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