Poor CNN anchor Jon Mann. During a segment about global warming, climate change, and how shifting temperatures were placing various species at risk for extinction, a most regrettable blooper.
Mann was speaking to a guest in Tucson about a new study on climate change, led by Professor John Wiens of the University of Arizona. The television host mentioned a species most of us don't think of when recalling creatures who failed to adapt quickly enough.
"Now extinctions, I don't have to tell you, have been a part of the history of the world for millenia," said the CNN anchor. "And man-made extinctions have even happened before."
"I guess we hunted the dildo into extinction," he added, with his face immediately registering that he knew he'd goofed.
"The Dodo, rather. Forgive me, I'm having trouble with my words today."
It could happen to anyone. Live television isn't easy!
The study: "Rates of projected climate change dramatically exceed past rates of climatic-niche evolution among vertebrate species." Ecology Letters 16:1095–1103. Quintero, I., and J. J. Wiens. 2013.
(Thanks, Miles O'Brien)
