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Biologists must value biodiversity beyond model organisms

Nature Reviews Biodiversity volume 1, pages 685–686 (2025)Cite this article

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Model organisms have a role in biology, but the dominance of model-organism thinking hinders innovation amid profound biodiversity loss. Biology needs a new intellectual framework that values studying all of life’s diversity and inspires an appreciation of that diversity by students and non-experts.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to D. Pfennig for comments and discussion. The author is supported by grants from the US National Science Foundation (IOS-2217635 and IOS-2306276).

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  1. Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Karin S. Pfennig

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  1. Karin S. Pfennig
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Correspondence to Karin S. Pfennig.

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Pfennig, K.S. Biologists must value biodiversity beyond model organisms. Nat. Rev. Biodivers. 1, 685–686 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-025-00104-2

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