Taxonomic structure in the distribution of threat has provided
the stimulus to search for heritable traits that predispose some
species towards extinction [12,34]. If biological traits were the
main determinant of extinction risk, and key traits were
evolutionarily conserved so that species within clades tended to
share similar vulnerabilities, we would predict the taxonomic
distribution of threatened species to be broadly similar among
regions. We contrasted the distribution of threat between the UK
and South Africa.