{
  "abstract": "Widespread instances of migratory collapse have been documented within the past several decades, indicating that migration may be a fragile strategy in the Anthropocene. Yet the fragility of migration as a strategy for navigating seasonally variable resource availability may extend deeper into evolutionary time. We used phylogenetic imputation to infer the migratory habits of 51 ungulate species that went extinct during the late Quaternary and evaluated whether migration enhances extinction rates on macroevolutionary timescales. We found that ~80% (41 of 51) of recently extinct species were migratory, whereas only 46% (95 of 207) of extant ungulates are migratory. Furthermore, Hidden State Speciation and Extinction modeling indicated that migratory species likely experienced higher speciation and extinction rates compared to nonmigratory species, resulting in elevated lineage turnover for migratory ungulates, though diversification parameter estimates depended strongly upon whether extinct species were included in analyses. The extinctions of these ungulates led to negligible declines in global ungulate functional richness (0.8%) but more substantial declines (2.7%) across Africa. Altogether, our findings indicate that migration has complex macroevolutionary consequences, enhancing both speciation and extinction rates, which may render migration an evolutionarily fragile strategy, particularly as increasingly widespread and intensive anthropogenic activity cause gradients of resource availability to become severed (e.g., via human infrastructure) and more unpredictable (e.g., via climate change).\n\nCollapsing ungulate migrations over the last several decades suggest that migration may be uniquely risky in the Anthropocene, or may represent the acceleration of a long-term evolutionary trend wherein migration increases extinction rates. We find that extinct species were disproportionately migratory, with migratory lineages exhibiting faster extinction, speciation, and diversification rates-evidence that migration may be evolutionarily fragile, associated with heightened extinction risk.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America",
    "Department of Anthropology, SUNY Oneonta, Oneonta, New York, United States of America",
    "School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America",
    "Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America",
    "School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, United States of America,",
    "Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany"
  ],
  "article_type": "Short Reports",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Joel O. Abraham"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Kaedan O’Brien"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Nathan S. Upham"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Brett R. Jesmer"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Faysal Bibi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "J. Tyler Faith"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a2xf69nfrrq59.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pbio.3004072",
  "fulltext_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004072",
  "id": "a2xf69nfrrq59",
  "issns": [
    "1545-7885"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004072",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Conservation biology/Species extinction"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Ecology/Ecological metrics/Species diversity"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Evolutionary biology/Evolutionary processes/Speciation"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Evolutionary biology/Evolutionary processes/Species extinction"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Evolutionary biology/Evolutionary systematics/Phylogenetics"
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      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Animal behavior/Animal migration"
    ],
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      "/Biology and life sciences/Taxonomy/Evolutionary systematics/Phylogenetics"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Taxonomy/Evolutionary systematics/Phylogenetics/Phylogenetic analysis"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Zoology/Animal behavior"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Zoology/Animal behavior/Animal migration"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Computer and information sciences/Data management/Taxonomy/Evolutionary systematics/Phylogenetics"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Computer and information sciences/Data management/Taxonomy/Evolutionary systematics/Phylogenetics/Phylogenetic analysis"
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      "plos",
      "/Ecology and environmental sciences/Conservation science/Conservation biology/Species extinction"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Ecology and environmental sciences/Ecology/Ecological metrics/Species diversity"
    ],
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      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Animal behavior"
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      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Animal behavior/Animal migration"
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  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004072&type=printable",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-05",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a2xf69nfrrq59.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-06T12:20:42Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pbio.3004072",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004072"
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  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:conservation biology",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    },
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:evolutionary biology",
      "subfield": "evolutionary-biology"
    },
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:animal behavior",
      "subfield": "zoology-behaviour"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Phylogenetic evidence that migratory behavior increases ungulate extinction rates",
  "title_text": "Phylogenetic evidence that migratory behavior increases ungulate extinction rates",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-07T12:20:24Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a2xf69nfrrq59",
  "venue": "PLOS Biology",
  "versions": []
}