Extinction selectivity

Extinction selectivity is the nonrandom variation in extinction risk among organisms, shaped by traits, habitats, and environmental conditions. It helps explain why extinction events disproportionately remove some groups while sparing others.

Extinction risk: The probability that a species or population will disappear over a specified period. Selective extinction is the uneven distribution of this risk across species.
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event: A mass extinction about 66 million years ago that followed a large asteroid impact. Its losses varied sharply among organisms, including the disappearance of non-avian dinosaurs.
Extinction: The permanent disappearance of a species or other biological group. Selectivity describes differences in which lineages undergo extinction.
Ecological release: An increase in a population’s resource use or ecological breadth after constraints are removed. Vacant resources after selective losses can let survivors expand.
Geographic range: The geographic area occupied by a species or other biological unit. Species with smaller ranges often have fewer refuges when conditions change.
Permian–Triassic extinction event: The largest known mass extinction, occurring about 252 million years ago. Its severe marine losses expose selectivity under prolonged environmental upheaval.
Mass extinction: A geologically brief interval of unusually high global extinction across many groups. Selectivity is especially visible when many lineages are lost together.
Adaptive radiation: The diversification of a lineage into multiple forms adapted to different ecological roles. Surviving groups may diversify into ecological roles left open by extinction.
Ecological specialization: Dependence on a narrow set of resources, habitats, or environmental conditions. Specialists can be especially vulnerable when their specific requirements disappear.
End-Triassic extinction event: A mass extinction about 201 million years ago, associated with major volcanic activity. Its uneven losses reshaped marine and terrestrial groups before the Jurassic.

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