Too threatened to try: how extinction risk drives research neglect in rays and skates
- 1Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
- 2Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
- 3Stick Figure Fish Illustration, Peregian Beach, Australia
Abstract
Global biodiversity loss demands that research effort be directed towards species most at risk. Yet conservation science is biased by species' accessibility and perceived charisma, raising concerns that threatened species may be overlooked. We apply a structured causal modelling framework to 651 species of rays (superorder Batoidea), a highly threatened yet understudied lineage of cartilaginous fishes, to disentangle the drivers of research effort. We quantify the causal effects of taxonomy, extinction risk, accessibility (range size, depth, economic context, year of description) and charisma (body size, shape, patterning and colouration) on species-level research outputs from more than 7000 publications. Research effort was strongly taxonomically biased, driven by accessibility and charisma, with shallow depth, broad geographic ranges, large body size and distinctive morphologies attracting disproportionate attention. Extinction risk exerted a counterintuitive nonlinear effect: Critically Endangered and Endangered species received significantly fewer publications than Near Threatened and Vulnerable species and were comparable to Data Deficient species. This effect is consistent with a ‘Goldilocks’ zone in which species are threatened enough to justify research but not so threatened that it becomes prohibitively challenging. Systematic research bias away from the species most in need undermines conservation efforts. Realigning research priorities is essential to combating the biodiversity crisis.
Related
- From data neglect to data respect: A framework for institutionalising a sustainable research data management culture in Kenyan universities
- Research neglect of root system architecture in root and tuber crops important for Sub-Saharan African Food Security
- A Standardized Protocol for Fear Extinction Enhancement Research
- Inter- and Intraspecific Variation in Dorsal Pigmentation Patterns of Skates (Rajidae) from the Cantabrian Sea: Evidence of High Variability in Raja clavata and Implications for Species Identification.
- Where to improve the European protected areas network to represent threatened fungi?
BibTeX
@article{temple2026threatened,
title = {{Too threatened to try: how extinction risk drives research neglect in rays and skates}},
author = {Andrew J. Temple and Sophia Rosinski and Jesse E. M. Cochran and Faizan F. Khan and Lindsay Marshall and Michael L. Berumen},
journal = {Proceedings. Biological sciences},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1098/rspb.2026.2126},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13730809},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Too threatened to try: how extinction risk drives research neglect in rays and skates
AU - Andrew J. Temple
AU - Sophia Rosinski
AU - Jesse E. M. Cochran
AU - Faizan F. Khan
AU - Lindsay Marshall
AU - Michael L. Berumen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
JO - Proceedings. Biological sciences
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2026.2126
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13730809
AB - Global biodiversity loss demands that research effort be directed towards species most at risk. Yet conservation science is biased by species' accessibility and perceived charisma, raising concerns that threatened species may be overlooked. We apply a structured causal modelling framework to 651 species of rays (superorder Batoidea), a highly threatened yet understudied lineage of cartilaginous fishes, to disentangle the drivers of research effort. We quantify the causal effects of taxonomy, extinction risk, accessibility (range size, depth, economic context, year of description) and charisma (body size, shape, patterning and colouration) on species-level research outputs from more than 7000 publications. Research effort was strongly taxonomically biased, driven by accessibility and charisma, with shallow depth, broad geographic ranges, large body size and distinctive morphologies attracting disproportionate attention. Extinction risk exerted a counterintuitive nonlinear effect: Critically Endangered and Endangered species received significantly fewer publications than Near Threatened and Vulnerable species and were comparable to Data Deficient species. This effect is consistent with a ‘Goldilocks’ zone in which species are threatened enough to justify research but not so threatened that it becomes prohibitively challenging. Systematic research bias away from the species most in need undermines conservation efforts. Realigning research priorities is essential to combating the biodiversity crisis.
SN - 0962-8452
SN - 1471-2954
ER -