Latest Extinction Stories
The extinction of species is a consequence of their inability to adapt to new environmental conditions, and also of their competition with other species. Besides selection and the appearance of new species, the possibility of adaptation is also one of the driving forces behind evolution. According to the interpretation that has been familiar since Darwin, these processes increase the "fitness" of the species overall, since, of two competing species, only the fittest would survive. LMU...
A Spanish mountain goat, the Pyrenean Ibex, was formally confirmed as extinct in 2000 when the last one of its kind was discovered dead. Before the animal was found dead, scientists reserved skin samples of the animal, a kind of ibex that habituates in the mountains, in liquid nitrogen. Using the DNA from the skin samples, the scientists replaced the genetic matter in eggs from a domestic goat, to create genetic copy a female Pyrenean ibex. This is the first occasion that an extinct...
The best way to survive the ill-effects of climate change and pollution may be to simply sleep through it.According to a new study published in The American Naturalist, mammals that hibernate or that hide in burrows are less likely to turn up on an endangered species list. The study's authors believe that the ability of such "sleep-or-hide" animals to buffer themselves from changing environments may help them avoid extinction.The idea that sleepers and hiders may have a survival...
According to researchers, brainpower may have enabled birds to survive in the midst of mass extinction.Dinosaurs were wiped out during the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction 65 million years ago, but birds were able to survive and thrive.Recent analysis of fossil skulls using computer tomography scans shows that modern birds were able to survive the dire conditions due to their well-developed brains.The birds' ability to solve problems gave them a crucial edge."Birdbrained is a dreadful...
Canadian researchers say they've determined extinction risks for plants growing in the Earth's tropical regions are higher than previously thought. University of Calgary Assistant Professors Jana and Steven Vamosi studied plant extinction risks in areas close to the equator. The tropics contain many ancient species of plants, leading many to consider tropical species as less susceptible to extinction, said Steven Vamosi. But our study indicates that quite the opposite is, in fact, the case....
Scientists encourage 'continuous and effective management' and further study of these 'spectacular and emblematic' reptilesThe Galapagos Islands, which provided impetus and inspiration for Charles Darwin's seminal work, "On the Origin of Species", are home to unique populations of reptiles. Since the time of man's first visit in the 16th century to this crucial incubator for evolutionary theory, the islands' native plants and animals have faced grave challenges, including severe...
Scientists are making remarkable strides in unraveling much of the genetic code of the ice age's wooly mammoth. The million-dollar project is an initial rough draft, detailing the mammoth's more than 3 billion DNA building blocks.The groundbreaking work even has some considering a future where certain extinct, prehistoric species might one day be resurrected."It could be done. The question is, just because we might be able to do it one day, should we do it?" said Penn State...
Scientists have reported the discovery of a rare species of penguin that has been extinct for 500 years.The Waitaha penguin first arrived on the islands of New Zealand around 1250. However, when Polynesian settlers entered New Zealand, the penguins became extinct by 1500 due to hunting.Tests on the older bones "lead us to describe a new penguin species that became extinct only a few hundred years ago," the team reported in a paper in the biological research journal Proceedings of...
The United Nations said recently that man-made threats such as rising populations, felling of forests, hunting, pollution and climate change are all contributing to the world's worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.Yet scientists must undergo endless searching to prove that any individual species has gone the way of the dodo."If there's one thing in my career I'd like to be proved wrong about, it's the baiji," said Sam Turvey of the Zoological...
U.S. scientists say the Earth is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals, with nearly 50 percent of all species disappearing. Biologists at the University of California-Santa Barbara say they are working to determine which species must be saved. "The current extinction event is due to human activity, paving the planet, creating pollution, many of the things that we are doing today," said study co-author Assistant Professor Bradley Cardinale. "The Earth might well lose...
Latest Extinction Reference Libraries
Commonly known as the Eurasian cave lion or the European cave lion, Panthera leo spelaea is an extinct subspecies of lion. It is thought to have lived during the Pleistocene epoch, and may have lived in the Balkans in southeastern Europe until 2,000 years ago. The range of this cave lion would have included northwestern North America, Asia, and areas of Europe and would have extended from Germany, Spain, and Great Britain to the Yukon Territory. Its range also extended from Turkistan to...
The short-faced bear is an extinct genus of bears that was native to North America during the Pleistoscene era. Other common names include Arctodus and the bulldog bear. There are two subspecies of the short-faced bear, and one of them, Aroctodus simus, is thought to have been the largest terrestrial mammal on earth. Placed into a group of bears known as running bears or the tremarctine bears, this genus was found in Europe and the Americas. The earliest member of the tremarchtine group,...
The American lion (Panthera leo atrox or P. atrox) is also known as the North American lion, American cave lion, or Naegele’s giant jaguar. It is an extinct species that was native to North America and the northwestern parts of South America during the Pleistocene era. It lived up to eleven thousand years ago. During the last interglacial period in North America (the Sangamonian Stage), the American lion’s range included the Americas south of Alaska. The earliest fossils of these big cats...
Miracinonyx, commonly known as the American Cheetah, is an extinct genus of large cats. It was native to North America during the Pleiotocene era(1.8 million to 11,000 years ago). The American cheetah held at least two species in its genus that are similar to modern cheetahs, including Miracinonyx inexpectatus and M. trumani. Similarities distinguished by bone fragments include a short face and nose for better breathing, and elongated legs used for swiftly hunting prey. These similarities are...
Glyptotherium is an extinct genus of mammal related to the armadillo. Glyptodontids lived about 4.1 to 1.5 million years ago. It is believed this genus was wiped out by climate change or perhaps early human interference, although there is no direct evidence of humans preying on them. Species of this genus thrived in tropical and subtropical regions of Florida, South Carolina, Texas, and Arizona. The genus was named in 1903, and assigned to the family Glyptodontinae in 1995. Like its...
