PROVO — A recently published Brigham Young University study could have a far-reaching impact on the process used to determine which animals are placed on the endangered species list.

The study, conducted by molecular and integrative biology professor Keith Crandall and doctorate candidate Jennifer Buhay, used genetic research to find large populations of certain crayfish species in the Southeastern United States — species that were previously thought to be endangered.

Their findings were published in a recent issue of the journal Molecular Ecology, with Buhay as the lead author.

"The implications of this type of research are very broad, from how folks like The Nature Conservancy decide how and what to protect to how the Department of Interior goes about defining species under the Endangered Species Act," Crandall said in a statement. "This type of analysis gives you reliable answers despite your intuition or emotion."

Buhay said some species are feared to be endangered for the wrong reasons.

"A lot of times, if you have something that has limited sightings, it's assumed that it's endangered," Buhay said. "But you can't really make that assumption, especially when you're talking about a cave where most of the population is out of sight . . . just because they live underground doesn't mean they're not there."

The team conducted its research in caves and aquifers on the western part of the Cumberland Plateau, the southern tip of the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee and Alabama.

Buhay said the task of collecting crayfish population samples often required her to crawl into caves and lie in water while she searched for the creatures.

"I went to a lot of places where I'm the only one who has ever been there," she said.

By genetically comparing the different populations, Buhay and Crandall found five species of crayfish in the region (there were previously believed to be three), and all have healthy genetic variation (meaning there is no inbreeding) and stable populations.

"I certainly expected these things to be very isolated, to have small population sizes and to be very endangered," Crandall said in the statement. "But the data simply didn't support this conclusion."

Crandall has been researching crayfish for years and has a Web site dedicated to the topic. He is now on sabbatical at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Buhay took an interest in studying crayfish populations while at the University of Alabama, where she began her doctorate work before transferring to BYU. She is now finishing up her dissertation and summarizing her findings from a similar crayfish study conducted on the east side of the Cumberland Plateau.

There are about 600 species of crayfish worldwide, Buhay said, about 450 of which can be found in the United States. She said she believes about 200 of those species are endangered, but only four are officially listed on the endangered species list.

Buhay said she hopes the research will improve the process for adding species to that list.

"We want to give a scientific basis for listing and considering species to be endangered," she said. "We're not just talking about distribution records and anecdotal data, but hard numbers."

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E-mail: jtwitchell@desnews.com