Over the course of history, there have been a number of mass extinction events. Everyone is familiar with the
sad story of the dinosaurs – they ruled the earth then died out. There is also a background level of extinction,
with species naturally going extinct. However, we are now in the midst of a 6th mass extinction event, this time
caused by humans. Habitat destruction is a major threat to many, many species around the globe. There are
currently more tigers in captivity than in the wild. As the tropical rainforests are destroyed, undiscovered
species may go extinct without us ever knowing about them.
Your task in this assignment is to describe two threatened or endangered species (plant or animal), why these
species are at risk and what, if anything, is being done to prevent extinction.
Format Use the attachment to do the assignment. Paste the information into the blank boxes; don’t write
information in paragraph form. If most of the required information isn’t available for a species, then it’s best to
pick a different species.
Scientific names Scientific names are different from common names. A scientific name for a species is based
on its classification – what species is it related to, how does it fit in the grand order of life. The common name
for an organism may vary, but there is one scientific name. The common name for Canis familiaris is dog
(English), perro (Spanish), chó (Vietnamese), hund (Swedish) or 狗 (Chinese) but the scientific name is always
Canis familiaris.
Scientific names are distinguished from other names by being written in a specific format. This is
straightforward but sadly often done incorrectly. The genus name should be capitalized, the species name
should be lower case, and both should be either underlined or in italics. This distinguishes a scientific name
from a common name. Many colored starfish? That could be something different on the Great Barrier Reef
than on the Farallon Islands off the coast of northern California.
Sample Solution
