“Field biologists studying large and charismatic animals wanted to know if their own species had genetic problems. I listened carefully to stories of koalas in Australia, giant pandas in China, black-footed ferrets in the Midwest, elephants, rhinos, and leopards in… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Taxonomy, also called systematics, is the science-based hierarchical classification of the world's species. The area had traditionally been an obscure academic discipline dominated by erudite and professional dons who would memorize and interpret thousands of Latin species names. Advances seldom… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Left alone, the Florida panther would be remembered as a textbook exercise on how to go extinct while your abundant and vociferous advocates argue… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share
“The evidence of cheetah genetic monotony would only grow. Bob Wayne, a talented postdoctoral fellow in our lab, examined cranial measurements and the bilateral… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share
“Field biologists studying large and charismatic animals wanted to know if their own species had genetic problems. I listened carefully to stories of koalas… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share
“Within a few months Mitch Bush, head veterinarian at the National Zoo, and David Wildt, a young reproductive physiologist working as a postdoctoral fellow… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share
“Over the past sixty years a rather impressive assembly of respectable taxonomists and evolutionary biologists have tried to unseat the biological species concept for… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share
“Taxonomy, also called systematics, is the science-based hierarchical classification of the world's species. The area had traditionally been an obscure academic discipline dominated by… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share
“It seems a shame that less than 1 percent of all the species that ever lived survive today and that only about 5 percent… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share
“[Giant northern elephant seals] were presumed extinct as late as 1912 when a group of eight seals was spotted on Guadalupe Island in the… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share
“The cause of these great extinctions, the most extensive in the seventy-million-year record for mammals, is a mystery. The two prevailing guesses, climatic environmental… — Stephen J. O'Brien Copy Share
