Evo-devo and the Biodiversity Crisis

Evolution and development, as a field, seek to understand life's diversity. It asks questions about how diversity evolves, what constrains diversity, and how the mechanisms of development interact with evolution to produce different forms. This concentration on diversity is ironic, given that we live in an age where diversity loss is increasing and ongoing. As the warming of the planet accelerates, this, combined with land use change and the growing human population, will lead to the obliteration of entire ecosystems, it seems timely to ask how a field that studies organismal diversity might help conserve and maintain it.