Discussion of extinction helps us anticipate future rate of extinction and allow us to be aware that without human efforts, species will be driven to extinction

The extinction of species has always been the most dramatic threat to biodiversity. Consequently, in the last decades ecologists and conservationists have focused more and more attention on this phenomenon. Scientific research has produced outstanding work regarding the explanation of causes, mechanisms and consequences of extinctions of anthropic origin. Specialists in conservation biology have developed new concepts (Population Viability Analysis, for example, Minimum Viable Population) and new multidisciplinary approaches. Thanks to such models, they can anticipate future rates of extinction with increasing certainty (). Above all, these models allow us to be aware that without human efforts, more and more species will be driven to extinction in the years to come. Hence, ecologists have formulated recommendations that are based on technical and ecological criteria and relate to species (and ecosystems) deserving special efforts to save (). However, few previous studies have sought to define the nature of extinction precisely. Most biologists accept the following basic definition: “The end, the loss of existence, the disappearance of a species or the ending of a reproductive lineage”. It would also seem that the notion of ‘extinction’ designates both a recognised fact (e.g. ‘the extinction of the dinosaurs’) and a process in progress (e.g. ‘the extinction of populations of gorillas’). Yet, what is still missing is an in-depth analysis of the nature of extinction, an ontological analysis, so to speak, that would enlighten us in our quest for ethical norms that would ensure the conservation of endangered species. We would like to demonstrate here that a detailed study of the definitions, the criteria and the modalities of extinction will reveal many shortcomings in contemporary philosophy of ecology and evolution. Our analysis will be structured according to two principal concepts that are at the core of the notion of extinction: ‘death’ and ‘species’. We will then be led to present the ontological distinction that we establish between biological entities irrespective of whether they are real, abstract or virtual, and the ethical consequences of this system.