Data from: Extinction selectivity obscures patterns of trait-dependent endangerment in Columbiformes

Understanding how extinction has occurred in the recent past is crucial to
unravel its main drivers as well as to implement effective conservation
practices to minimize global biodiversity loss. It has long been
hypothesized that extinction risk is not randomly distributed among traits
of species. However, the actual traits making species more prone to
extinction may have been overlooked because already extinct species are
often not considered in comparative analyses of extinction risk. We
characterized the drivers of extinction in a cosmopolitan bird clade,
including Holocene and contemporary extinctions potentially related to
human impacts, and provided evidence of an ‘extinction selectivity’ in
species traits. We constructed a new phylogenetic hypothesis of the
Columbiformes, a cosmopolitan bird clade consisting of 33 recently extinct
and 351 extant species. Then, we integrated data on geography, behaviour,
and morphology to reveal the drivers of extinction risk. We used
phylogenetic generalized least square models to test the effect of
geography, behaviour, and morphology on the risk of extinction and
identified differences in the drivers of extinction when including vs.
excluding recently extinct species. Our analysis revealed that
Columbiformes endemic from islands with ground-foraging habits, weak
flying abilities, migratory behaviour, and larger body sizes are more
vulnerable to extinction.  Our results also show that excluding
recently extinct species identifies extinction drivers differently from
those when including recently extinct species. Only by accurately
identifying the traits that increase extinction risk can we develop
targeted conservation measures that promote the long-term persistence of
threatened species. Extinction selectivity has important implications for
the conservation of biological communities and ultimately ecosystem
functioning, considering the critical role Columbiformes often play as
seed dispersers.