Relict (biology)

A notable example is the thylacine of Tasmania, a relict marsupial carnivore that survived into modern times on an island, whereas the rest of its species on mainland Australia had gone extinct between 3000 and 2000 years ago.[3] Another example is Omma, a genus of beetle with a fossil record extending back over 200 million years to the Late Triassic and found worldwide during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, now confined to a single living species in Australia.[5] The tuatara endemic to New Zealand is the only living member of the once-diverse reptile order Rhynchocephalia, which has a fossil record stretching back 240 million years and during the Mesozoic era was globally distributed and ecologically diverse.The Welsh population is confined to the north-facing slopes of Snowdonia, where climatic conditions are apparently similar to ice age Europe.For this reason, the traditional conservation tool of translocation has recently been reframed as assisted migration of narrowly endemic, critically endangered species that are already (or soon expected) to experience climate change beyond their levels of tolerance.[10] Two examples of critically endangered relict species for which assisted migration projects are already underway are the western swamp tortoise of Australia and a subcanopy conifer tree in the United States called Florida Torreya.Insularization makes a population vulnerable to forces that can lead to extinction, such as disease, inbreeding, habitat destruction, competition from introduced species, and global warming.
The population of the Siberian columbine in the Central Siberian Plateau is considered a quaternary relict. [ 2 ]
biogeographypaleontologypopulationgeologic epochevolves divergentlyendemismcompetitioncontinental driftclimate changeice agefossilliving fossilSiberian columbineCentral Siberian PlateauquaternarythylacinemarsupialPholadomyatuataraRhynchocephaliaNimravidaecarnivoresMioceneOligoceneclimate changedsavannashrewsPribilof Island shrewSt. Lawrence Island shrewcinereus shrewspeciationbotanySnowdon lilySnowdoniaGreat Britaindisjunct populationendemictranslocationassisted migrationwestern swamp tortoiseFlorida TorreyaGinkgo bilobaGinkgoalesMesozoicPlioceneSaimaa ringed sealFinlandSaimaarelict leopard frogNevadaArizonaColoradoLake Mead National Recreation Areaconservation statusextinctioninbreedinghabitat destructionintroduced speciesglobal warmingwhite-eyed river martinAfrican river martinbasin and rangesky islandsrefugesPleistoceneTownsend's pocket gopherbiological dispersalspecies richnesshabitat fragmentationMissouri Botanical GardenQuammen, DavidScribnerIndiana University PressSmithsonian Institution PressGuardian UnlimitedBibcodeUniversity of California, BerkeleyHoughton MifflinUniversity of Chicago Press