The global loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity from anthropogenic extinctions

Humans have been driving a global erosion of species richness for millennia, but the consequences of past extinctions for other dimensions of biodiversity – functional and phylogenetic diversity – are poorly known. Here, we show that, since the Late Pleistocene, the extinction of 610 bird species has caused a disproportionate loss of the global avian functional space along with ~3 billion years of unique evolutionary history. For island endemics, proportional losses have been even greater. Projected future extinctions of more than 1000 species over the next two centuries will incur further substantial reductions in functional and phylogenetic diversity. These results highlight the severe consequences of the ongoing biodiversity crisis and the urgent need to identify the ecological functions being lost through extinction., , , # The global loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity from anthropogenic extinctions

These data can be used to recreate analyses in the paper: The global loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity from anthropogenic extinctions. For easier use, it is recommended to download the repo as a whole from GitHub (txm676/GlobalFDPDLoss); doing this and setting the working directory within R to the main repo directory should then allow all the scripts to run through.

All analyses were run in R.

## Description of the data and file structure

### allSp\_phylo.csv

Island endemism status, IUCN Red List classification, generation length and extinction status information
for all species (extant and extinct), following the BirdTree taxonomy.

species = Binomial name (BirdTree taxonomy)
species_BirdLife = Birdlife binomial name
Extant = Lists the species as either extant or extinct.
ExtinctionPeriod = Groups the species as either Current, EX_Other or EX_IUCN:
*Current = extant sp...