List: Recent extinctions

by likeorhate

•  Aurochs

  The aurochs or urus (Bos primigenius), the ancestor of domestic cattle, was a type of huge wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627. The aurochs was far larger than most modern domestic cattle with a shoulder height of 2 metres (6.6 ft) and weighing 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb). Domestication occurred in several parts of the world at roughly the same time, about 8,000 years ago.

  

  16.7%
  

  83.3%
  

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•  Carolina Parakeet

  The Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) was the only parrot species native to the eastern United States. It was found from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, and lived in old forests along rivers. It was the only species at the time classified in the genus Conuropsis. It was called puzzi la née ("head of yellow") or pot pot chee by the Seminole and kelinky in Chikasha (Snyder & Russell, 2002).

  

  44.4%
  

  22.2%
  

  33.3%
  
•  Dodo

  The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter (3 feet) tall, weighing about 20 kilograms (44 lb), living on fruit and nesting on the ground. The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity.

  

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•  List of extinct birds

  Since 1500, over 190 species of birds have become extinct, and this rate of extinction seems to be increasing. The situation is exemplified by Hawaii, where 30% of all known recently extinct bird taxa originally lived. Other areas, such as Guam, have also been hit hard; Guam has lost over 60% of its native bird taxa in the last 30 years, many of them due to the introduced Brown Tree Snake.

  

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•  Great Auk

  The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, is a bird that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only species in the genus Pinguinus - a group of birds that included several flightless giant auks from the Atlantic Ocean region - to survive until modern times. The Great Auk was also known as a garefowl (from the Old Norse geirfugl, meaning "spear-bird", referring to the shape of its beak) and penguin before the birds known by that name today were so called.

  

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  66.7%
  

  33.3%
  
•  Ivory-billed Woodpecker

  The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) is or was one of the largest woodpeckers in the world, at roughly 20 inches in length and 30 inches in wingspan. Native to the virgin forests of the southeastern United States, along with a separate subspecies native to Cuba, with habitat destruction (and to a lesser extent hunting) its numbers have dwindled to the point where it is uncertain whether any remain.

  

  80.0%
  

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  20.0%
  
•  Labrador Duck

  The Labrador Duck, Camptorhynchus labradorius, was a striking black and white eider-like sea duck that was never common, and is believed to be the first bird to become extinct in North America after 1500. The last Labrador Duck is believed to have been seen at Elmira, New York on December 12, 1878; the last preserved specimen was shot in 1875 on Long Island.

  

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  42.9%
  

  57.1%
  
•  Passenger Pigeon

  The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon was a species of bird, Ectopistes migratorius, that was once common in North America. It lived in enormous migratory flocks — sometimes containing more than two billion birds — that could stretch one mile wide and 300 miles (500 km) long across the sky, sometimes taking several hours to pass. Some estimate that there were three billion to five billion passenger pigeons in the United States when Europeans arrived in North America.

  

  12.5%
  

  62.5%
  

  25.0%
  
•  Quagga

  The quagga (Equus quagga quagga) is an extinct subspecies of the Plains zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South Africa's Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State. It was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the front part of the body only. In the mid-section, the stripes faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces became wider, and the rear parts were a plain brown.

  

  27.3%
  

  36.4%
  

  36.4%
  
•  Thylacine

  The thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger (because of its striped back), the Tasmanian wolf, and colloquially the Tassie (or Tazzy) tiger or simply the tiger. Native to continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, it is thought to have become extinct in the 20th century.

  

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•  Steller's Sea Cow

  Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is a large extinct sirenian mammal. Formerly abundant throughout the North Pacific, its range was limited to a single, isolated population on the uninhabited Commander Islands by 1741 when it was first described by Georg Wilhelm Steller, chief naturalist on an expedition led by explorer Vitus Bering. Within 27 years of discovery by Europeans, the slow moving and easily captured Steller's sea cow was hunted to extinction.

  

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  66.7%
  

  33.3%
  
•  Moa

  The moa were ten species (in six genera) of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about 3.7 m (12 ft) in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about 230 kg (510 lb). Moa are members of the order Struthioniformes. The ten species of moa are the only wingless birds, lacking even the vestigial wings which all other ratites have.

  

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  25.0%
  
•  Haast's Eagle

  Haast's Eagle, (Harpagornis moorei), was a species of massive eagles that once lived on the South Island of New Zealand. The species is the largest eagle known to have existed and sometimes is known as the Giant Eagle. Its prey consisted mainly of gigantic flightless birds that were unable to defend themselves from the striking force and speed of these eagles, which at times reached 80 km/h (50 mph).

  

  33.3%
  

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  16.7%
  
•  List of extinct animals of Australia

  Following a complete list of Australian animal extinctions from 1788 to the present. There are 23 birds, 4 frogs, and 27 mammal species known to have become extinct since European settlement of Australia. It is worth making special mention of the three great human-introduced killer species: the European rabbit, the European Red Fox, and the domestic cat. Although many other introduced species have played a destructive role, so far these three have been far and away the most significant.

  

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•  Paradise Parrot

  The Paradise Parrot (Psephotus pulcherrimus) was an unusually colourful medium-sized parrot native to the grassy woodlands of the Queensland - New South Wales border area of northeastern Australia. Once moderately common within its fairly restricted range, the last live bird was seen in 1927. Extensive and sustained searches in the years since then have failed to produce any reliable evidence of it, and it is unknown if it is extinct or not.

  

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•  Israel painted frog

  The Israel painted frog, Palestinian painted frog or Hula Painted Frog (Discoglossus nigriventer) is an extinct amphibian, whose range was limited to the Lake Huleh marshes in Israel. Due to Israeli drainage of the marshes in the 1950s, this rare species disappeared. This species had a dark belly with small white spots. It is colored ochre above and rusty colour grading into dark olive-grey to greyish-black on the sides.

  

  40.0%
  

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  20.0%
  
•  Pig-footed Bandicoot

  The Pig-footed Bandicoot (Chaeropus ecaudatus) is a small, mostly herbivorous marsupial of the arid and semi-arid plains of inland Australia. It is currently believed to be extinct, but a 2007 field study has turned up some evidence that it may still be extant. About the size of a kitten, in form, it was almost bilby-like on first sight, having long, slender limbs, large, pointed ears, and a long tail.

  

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•  Bachman's Warbler

  Bachman's Warbler (Vermivora bachmanii) is (or was) a small passerine bird that inhabited the swamps and lowland forests of the southeast United States. This warbler was a migrant, wintering in Cuba.

  

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•  Heath Hen

  The Heath Hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido) was a distinctive subspecies of the Greater Prairie-Chicken, Tympanuchus cupido, a large North American bird in the grouse family, or possibly a distinct species. Heath Hens lived in the scrubby heathland barrens of coastal New England, from southernmost New Hampshire to northern Virginia in historical times, but possibly south to Florida prehistorically.

  

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•  Japanese Sea Lion

  Japanese Sea Lion (Zalophus japonicus) is thought to have become extinct in the 1950s. Prior to 2003 it was considered to be a subspecies of California Sea Lion as Zalophus californianus japonicus. However, it was subsequently reclassified as a separate species. Some taxonomists still consider it as a subspecies of the California Sea Lion. It has been argued that japonicus, californianus, and wollenbaeki are distinct species because of their distant habitation areas and behavioral differences.

  

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•  White-winged Sandpiper

  The White-winged Sandpiper, Prosobonia ellisi, is an extinct member of the large wader family Scolopacidae that was endemic to the Moorea in French Polynesia, where the locals called it te-te in the Tahitian language. Two specimens were collected by William Anderson between September 30 and October 11, 1777, during Captain Cook’s third voyage, but both have since disappeared and the bird became extinct in the nineteenth century.

  

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•  Broad-faced Potoroo

  The extinct Broad-faced Potoroo (Potorous platyops) was first collected in 1839 and described by John Gould in 1844, but even then it was rare and only a handful of specimens were ever collected, the last in 1875. Subfossil remains indicate that it originally had an extensive distribution from the semi-arid coastal districts of South Australia to the Western Australian coast, and possibly as far north as North West Cape. The habits of the Broad-faced Potoroo are almost entirely unknown.

  

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•  Ground sloth

  Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths, in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. Their most recent survivors lived in the Antilles, where it has been proposed they may have survived until 1550 CE; however, the youngest AMS radiocarbon date reported is 4190 BP, calibrated to c. 4700 BP for Megalocnus of Cuba. They had been extinct on the mainland of North and South America for 10,000 years or more.

  

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•  Rodrigues day gecko

  Rodrigues day gecko (Phelsuma edwardnewtoni) is a now extinct diurnal species of geckos. It lived on the island of Rodrigues and typically inhabited forests and dwelt in trees. The Rodrigues day gecko fed on insects and nectar.

  

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•  Rodrigues Giant Day Gecko

  Rodrigues giant day gecko (Phelsuma gigas) is an extinct diurnal species of geckos. It lived on the island of Rodrigues and surrounding islands and typically dwelled on trees. The Rodrigues giant day gecko fed on insects and nectar.

  

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