PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Sandrine Pavoine AU - Michael B. Bonsall AU - T. Jonathan Davies AU - Shelly Masi TI - Mammal extinctions and the increasing isolation of humans on the tree of life AID - 10.1101/154526 DP - 2017 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 154526 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/23/154526.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/23/154526.full AB - A sixth great mass extinction is ongoing due to the direct and indirect effects of human pressures. However, not all lineages are impacted equally. As humans, we frequently believe that we hold a unique place on Earth. Here, we show that our current impacts on the natural world risk to heighten that expectation. Evolutionary proximity to Homo sapiens emerges as a powerful predictor of extinction risk among mammals. Our analysis shows that the species most closely related to H. sapiens are exposed to a large variety of threat types and that they may also have greater intrinsic sensitivity to threats. Pruning back the tree of life around us will lead to our species being among those with the fewest close relatives. We will erase our evolutionary history, forcing its uniqueness. If no action is taken, we will lose crucial biodiversity for the preservation of Earth ecosystems, and a key reference to what makes us human.