Razan Al Mubarak has written the foreword for the 2020 edition of the Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World, the most complete, stand-alone summary of the current taxonomy and distribution of every currently recognized species of mammal.
With editors from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and Global Wildlife Conservation, this essential resource for conservationists adds over 1,000 species discovered by science since the last edition published 15 years ago
The new edition organizes and classifies mammals into 167 families totalling over 6,550 species. In addition to the updated scientific name of each species, each account includes common names in English, French, German and Spanish, and the IUCN Red List Conservation Category. Each species is accompanied by a scientific illustration in full color, adapted from the earlier volumes, along with a revised distribution map.
In the foreword, Ms. Al Mubarak writes:
“Biodiversity is a crucial indicator of the health of the planet – the only living planet known in the universe. Mammals, all these incredible species portrayed in this checklist, are major elements of Earth’s biodiversity, and dominant players in the maintenance of the landscapes we know and love—without them, these ecosystems change, they are simplified, they are destroyed, and too often with severe, damaging consequences for us.”