Migratory Behavior Increases Extinction Rates in Ungulates Across Evolutionary Time

While widespread instances of migratory collapse documented over the past several decades indicate that migration is a fragile strategy in the modern Anthropocene, the researchers investigated whether this fragility extends deeper into evolutionary history.

To evaluate whether migration enhances extinction rates across deep time, the authors applied phylogenetic imputation to infer the migratory habits of 51 ungulate species that went extinct during the late Quaternary. Their analysis revealed a striking historical disparity: approximately 80 percent of those recently extinct ungulates—amounting to 41 out of the 51 species—were migratory. In contrast, only 46 percent of extant ungulates, or 95 out of 207 living species evaluated in the study, currently display migratory behavior.

Using Hidden State Speciation and Extinction modeling, the researchers evaluated how migratory habits influenced broader diversification dynamics. The model indicated that migratory species likely experienced higher speciation rates as well as higher extinction rates compared to nonmigratory species, driving elevated lineage turnover across migratory ungulate groups.

Across the globe, the loss of these 51 ungulate species caused a negligible 0.8 percent decline in global ungulate functional richness.

Altogether, the study demonstrates that migration generates complex macroevolutionary consequences by simultaneously enhancing speciation and extinction rates. This dynamic renders migratory behavior an evolutionarily fragile strategy over long timescales. The authors emphasize that this evolutionary fragility is particularly concerning today, as increasingly widespread and intensive anthropogenic activity severs critical gradients of resource availability through human infrastructure and renders environments far more unpredictable through ongoing climate change.

Subject of Research: Macroevolutionary impacts of migratory behavior on ungulate speciation and extinction

Article Title: Phylogenetic evidence that migratory behavior increases ungulate extinction rates

Article References: Abraham, J. O., O’Brien, K., Upham, N. S., Jesmer, B. R., Bibi, F., & Faith, J. T. (2026). Phylogenetic evidence that migratory behavior increases ungulate extinction rates. PLOS Biology, 24(11), e3004072. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3004072

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3004072

Keywords: ungulates, animal migration, macroevolution, extinction rates, speciation, phylogenetic imputation, lineage turnover, late Quaternary, Phylogenetic, evidence, migratory, behavior