Stage-specific threats reveal the inadequacy of adult-centered conservation.

Integrating multi-stage traits reveals that relying solely on adult characteristics underestimates species' extinction risk, as shown in Chinese anurans with stage-specific threats.

• Why it matters: Conservation efforts often focus on adult traits, overlooking stage-specific vulnerabilities that can lead to misjudging species' true risk levels and hindering effective protection strategies.
• What they did: Researchers analyzed functional traits from both adult and tadpole stages of Chinese anurans, examining their relationships with extinction risk across 50 species.
• The result: Findings demonstrate that multi-stage traits, including body size and microhabitat use, are linked to risk, emphasizing the need for whole-life-history approaches to improve conservation accuracy.