We know that the Iberian lynx, the polar bear, or the mountain gorilla are animals in danger of extinction. But biologists are also very concerned about what we don’t know…

If you ask anyone the name of an extinct animala good part of them will answer “the dodo” Or maybe The mammothor western black rhinoceros. They are well-known animals killed by humans.

In a way, those animals will “live” forever, because everyone knows them. If the elephant or the tiger becomes extinct, the world will mourn its loss, and They will be remembered for generations.

But scientists are increasingly concerned about another type of extinction, called anonymous extinction either invisible extinction: Species that become extinct before we know they exist.

In the world there are, according to estimatesalmost 9 million species of living beings. 86% of terrestrial species, and 91% of marine species, are unknown. How is it possible?

This is because most of the species on the planet are small insects or microorganisms. But it is also estimated that thousands of species of animals and plants remain to be discovered. It is not that they have never seen each other, but that no one has cataloged them as a species.

And that is the great concern of scientists: thousands of species will become extinct before there is a record of them. Future generations will not know they existed. It is what is known as invisible or anonymous extinction.

On our planet, species have become extinct naturally at a constant rate, throughout history, because they have not known how to adapt. is what is called background extinction. But with climate change, extinctions are between 1,000 and 10,000 times larger than the background extinction. and with it invisible extinctions are also multiplying.

Paleontologist Roy Plotnick of the University of Illinois calculate that only 13% of endangered species will be registered.

Invisible extinctions are a great loss for the planet, and a failure for human beings. Unknown living beings are disappearing that perhaps produce a unique molecule that could cure certain diseases in the futureor a material that would revolutionize industry or commerce, as happened with silk, spices, and many other products of natural origin.

That an anonymous species disappears also means that we cannot learn from their extinction how to protect others like them. Not even who we should protect.

Ecologist Carlos Roberto Fonseca, from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, complains in researcha Brazilian publication, that protection programs prioritize large species that are much loved or attract attention, but forget about insects.

He gives the example of monophagous insects, specialized in eating a single species of plant: “Gallic insects enter the leaves and cause them to produce a structure called a gall: there they feed and live most of their lives“, Explain.

If the plant goes extinct, so do the associated insects. Fonseca believes that the Atlantic Forest may have lost between 15,000 and 38,000 species of herbivorous insects, and the savannah between 6,000 and 15,000 species.

It is a tragedy that climate change is accelerating. One more consequence of human action, which human beings continue to refuse to face: the measures against this climate change do not arrive, and the effects are increasingly visible and alarming.