{ "model": { "rank": 2318, "code": "thing-q123509", "model_id": "vr.tr.extinction", "name": "extinction", "purpose": "Let an agent explain extinction and its causes, report conservation status from authoritative sources, describe mass extinctions, and support conservation action without alarmism or dismissal.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q123509/", "tier": 2, "score": 109, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "locally extinct species", "biodiversity loss", "Doomsday event", "extinction event", "male extinction", "species eradication", "evolutionary suicide", "extermination", "eradication of infectious diseases", "extinction of Ammonoidea", "Neanderthal extinction", "decline in wild mammal populations", "decline in amphibian populations", "defaunation", "Effect of climate change on plant biodiversity", "decline in insect populations", "pollinator decline", "Big five mass extinction", "Tithonian extinction", "bird extinction", "planetcide", "Poliomyelitis eradication" ], "aliasCount": 22, "merged": 22, "knownIn": 109, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.extinction-act", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q123509", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123509", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T15:46:30Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q123509", "registryId": "vr.tr.extinction", "name": "extinction", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q123509/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.extinction", "name": "extinction", "purpose": "Let an agent explain extinction and its causes, report conservation status from authoritative sources, describe mass extinctions, and support conservation action without alarmism or dismissal.", "definition": "The dying out of a species, subspecies or population so that no living members remain, either globally or locally, occurring through natural processes and, at accelerated rates, through human activity; mass extinction events have punctuated Earth history, and current biodiversity loss is assessed by bodies such as the IUCN and IPBES.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding biodiversity loss and conservation.", "affordances": [ "check whether a species is extinct or threatened", "explain causes of extinction", "describe mass extinction events", "find conservation actions and organisations" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "No living members remain", "Global or local", "Natural and human-driven", "Assessed by authorities" ], "appearance": "Not physical; the absence of a species, documented in records.", "visual_identification": [ "Declared by conservation bodies after searches", "Local extinction differs from global", "Extinct in the wild means survival only in captivity" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "global extinction", "local extinction and extirpation", "extinction in the wild", "mass extinction events", "functional extinction" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "biological risk", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is assessed by", "target": "IUCN Red List", "why": "authority" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "Carnivora", "why": "threatened species" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "algae", "why": "ecosystem base" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "IUCN Red List categories and criteria", "Convention on Biological Diversity", "CITES" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Premature declarations of extinction", "Alarmist or dismissive framing", "Confusing local and global extinction" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "status", "name": "Status", "description": "Is it extinct.", "rationale": "Authorities decide.", "layers": [ { "id": "check", "name": "Check", "description": "Conservation status.", "findings": [ { "id": "check-finding", "name": "Check", "description": "Conservation status.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the status of this species, according to the IUCN Red List?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "When was it last recorded?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "scope", "name": "Scope", "description": "Global or local.", "findings": [ { "id": "scope-finding", "name": "Scope", "description": "Scope.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the extinction global, local or in the wild only?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Are there captive populations?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "causes", "name": "Causes", "description": "Why species die out.", "rationale": "Causes are known.", "layers": [ { "id": "drivers", "name": "Drivers", "description": "Main drivers.", "findings": [ { "id": "drivers-finding", "name": "Drivers", "description": "Drivers.", "questions": [ { "text": "What drove this species decline, according to assessments?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which drivers dominate globally, according to IPBES?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rates", "name": "Rates", "description": "Extinction rates.", "findings": [ { "id": "rates-finding", "name": "Rates", "description": "Rates.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do current extinction rates compare with background rates, according to research?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "How uncertain are the estimates?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "Mass extinctions.", "rationale": "Earth history.", "layers": [ { "id": "events", "name": "Events", "description": "The big five.", "findings": [ { "id": "events-finding", "name": "Events", "description": "Mass extinction events.", "questions": [ { "text": "What were the major mass extinction events and their causes, according to geologists?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is a sixth mass extinction under way, and who argues so?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "recovery", "name": "Recovery", "description": "After extinction.", "findings": [ { "id": "recovery-finding", "name": "Recovery", "description": "Recovery.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did life recover after past mass extinctions?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Over what timescales?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "act", "name": "Act", "description": "Conservation.", "rationale": "Action helps.", "layers": [ { "id": "actions", "name": "Actions", "description": "What helps.", "findings": [ { "id": "actions-finding", "name": "Actions", "description": "Actions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which conservation actions have prevented extinctions, according to evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How can individuals contribute?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "debates", "name": "Debates", "description": "De-extinction and priorities.", "findings": [ { "id": "debates-finding", "name": "Debates", "description": "Debates.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the arguments about de-extinction and conservation priorities, attributed to their proponents?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the description balanced?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should mass extinctions be separate entries?", "How should Red List data be linked?", "How should de-extinction debates be attributed?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a extinction, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain extinction and its causes, report conservation status from authoritative sources, describe mass extinctions, and support conservation action without alarmism or dismissal.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: locally extinct species, biodiversity loss, Doomsday event, extinction event, male extinction, species eradication, evolutionary suicide, extermination, eradication of infectious diseases, extinction of Ammonoidea, Neanderthal extinction, decline in wild mammal populations.", "22 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 109 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a extinction, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "locally extinct species", "biodiversity loss", "Doomsday event", "extinction event", "male extinction", "species eradication", "evolutionary suicide", "extermination", "eradication of infectious diseases", "extinction of Ammonoidea", "Neanderthal extinction", "decline in wild mammal populations" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 109 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 22 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one extinction from another, and a extinction from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a extinction, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a extinction, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a extinction is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a extinction, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a extinction, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a extinction is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a extinction sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a extinction, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a extinction, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a extinction is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a extinction from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a extinction, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a extinction, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a extinction is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a extinction passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a extinction between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a extinction, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a extinction, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a extinction is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a extinction, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a extinction is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a extinction, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a extinction, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a extinction is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What extinction is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of extinction are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is extinction operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of extinction and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of extinction?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as extinction?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a extinction came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a extinction and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a extinction, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a extinction, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a extinction is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a extinction is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a extinction, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a extinction, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a extinction is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }