Question

Explain the concept of "co-extinction" by taking two examples.

What is co-extinction? Explain with a suitable example?

Answer 1

When a species becomes extinct, the plant and animal species associated with it, in an obligatory way, also become extinct, e.g., when a host fish species becomes extinct, its parasites also vanish. This is called co-extinction. Some other examples of co-extinction are, plant-pollinator mutualism where the extinction of one leads to the extinction of the other and monophagous insect that feeds on particular plant species becomes extinct due to extinction of that plant species.