Author: Doreen Fräßdorf

Doreen Fräßdorf ist Autorin und Betreiberin von artensterben.de. Sie recherchiert und schreibt über ausgestorbene und vom Aussterben bedrohte Arten in der Neuzeit – mit Schwerpunkt auf Roten Listen, wissenschaftlichen Studien, historischen Quellen und aktuellen Schutzbemühungen. Ziel ist eine verständliche, faktenbasierte Einordnung komplexer Entwicklungen rund um Biodiversitätsverlust und Artenschutz. Sie ist außerdem Autorin eines Sachbuchs über ausgestorbene Säugetiere der Neuzeit.

Bramble Cay Mosaikschwanzratte (Melomys rubicola)

The Bramble Cay melomys reached a body length of 14 to 16 centimeters; its scaly, thin tail added another 14.5 to 18 centimeters. (© State of Queensland, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

31. July 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Bramble Cay melomys

The first victim of human-caused climate change The Bramble Cay melomys or mosaic-tailed rat is considered the first mammal species to be declared extinct primarily or exclusively because of anthropogenic climate change. It lived on the Torres Strait island of Bramble Cay, one of the most narrowly limited habitats imaginable.

Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) - Illustration by Keulemans

Male huias (bottom) reached a length of around 45 centimeters, while female huias (top) measured between 48 and 55 centimeters. The illustration is by John G. Keulemans from Walter Buller's A History of the Birds of New Zealand (1873). (© John Gerrard Keulemans, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Birds

4. July 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Huia

When males and females look like two different species The particularly pronounced sexual dimorphism between female and male huia caused confusion in the past. It even went so far that the English ornithologist John Gould in 1836 described male and female huia as different species. Even today, scientists debate how

Rabbs Fransenzehen-Laubfrosch Ecnomiohyla rabborum

The brown or brown-green Rabb's fringe-limbed treefrog was relatively large, with a snout-vent length of six to ten centimeters. It had strong legs and strikingly large fingers and toes with extensive webbing. (© Brian Gratwicke from DC, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Amphibians

29. June 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Rabb’s Fringe-limbed Treefrog

Toughie—another endling A few treefrogs — among them a male named Toughie—arrived in 2005 from the montane cloud forest of central Panama at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where they were cared for and where attempts were made to breed them. In vain: the tadpoles died every time before metamorphosing into

Illustration of the Cape Verde giant skink by J. Terrier from 1885. Males could reach a body length of around 50 centimeters, females just under 43 centimeters (including tail). The animals weighed almost half a kilo. (© J. Terrier, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Reptiles

21. June 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Cape Verde Giant Skink

Ilhas Desertas—the terra typica of the Cape Verde giant skink Organisms that occur in isolated ecosystems such as islands are often adapted to the extreme conditions prevailing there. They exhibit characteristics such as dwarfism or gigantism and often lack defensive mechanisms due to the absence of predators, setting them apart

Depiction of a Falkland Islands wolf from Iconographica Zoologica – Special Collections (1868) from the University of Amsterdam. The Argentinean warrah and the Falkland Islands wolf must have looked morphologically quite similar due to their close relationship. (© Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

15. June 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Argentinean Warrah

How the Argentinean warrah became the Falkland Islands wolf During the last ice age, around 16,000 years ago, a few Argentinean warrahs used shallow, frozen parts of the sea to travel from South America to the Falkland Islands, 500 kilometers away. Over time, the Argentinean warrah on the Falkland Islands

Falklandwolf (Dusicyon australis) im Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden

A specimen of the Falkland Islands wolf collected in 1843. It is now located at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden (Netherlands). (© Dusicyon australis (Kerr, 1792), collected in Falkland Islands (Malvinas) by Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CC0 1.0, via GBIF)

Mammals

6. June 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Falkland Islands wolf

How did the Falkland Islands wolf reach the Falkland Islands? As early as 1690, British visitors to the Falkland Islands wondered about the only land mammal living there among all the small creatures. There were not even mice there. What did this wolf feed on? The British naturalist Charles Darwin,

Life reconstruction of an aurochs bull found in Braunschweig. The skeleton served as a direct reference for the proportions and horns. Body shape and colour are based on current knowledge about the wild cattle. (© Jaap Rouwenhorst (photograph) DFoidl (GIMP modifications), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

16. May 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Aurochs

How a wild animal became a domestic animal The aurochs or ur is considered the first wild cattle domesticated by humans, to guarantee a steady supply of meat and milk and to have draft and working animals available. Domestication is always associated with physical changes as well: over time, the

An illustration of the bluebuck, created between October 1777 and March 1786. Image: Robert Jacob Gordon, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mammals

14. May 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Bluebuck

Rarer in museums than previously thought “Also running on the high mountains are many kinds of wild bucks and goats, such as gemsbok, blue bucks, pied bucks, roe bucks, klipspringers, ibexes, wild bucks,” it says in Johann Schreyer’s Neue Ost-Indianische Reisz-Beschreibung from 1681. This is the first time that “blue

Iberoporus pluto: ebenfalls ein Grundwasstier wie Perrins Höhlentauchkäfer

Iberoporus pluto, discovered in Portugal in 2019, is like Perrin's cave beetle blind and almost colorless. DNA analyses show that the species are related. (© Ribera I, Reboleira ASPS (2019). ZooKeys 813: 21-38, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Insects

8. May 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Perrin’s Cave Beetle

The world’s first known groundwater beetle In the small commune of Le Beausset in southern France, a pharmacist discovered a sightless, pale, brownish-yellow beetle in a deep well in 1904. The amateur entomologist Elzéar Abeille de Perrin later gave the then unknown 2.25-millimeter-long diving beetle the name Siettitia balsetensis, or

Perameles eremiana Wüsten-Langnasenbeutler

The holotype of the desert bandicoot preserved at the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne. The species reached a head-body length of 18 to 28 centimeters. (© David Staples, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

2. May 2021 Doreen Fräßdorf

Desert Bandicoot

Desert bandicoot: Mulgaruquirra and Iwurra in Central Australia The Indigenous people of Australia living in the area of the city of Alice Springs called the desert bandicoot Mulgaruquirra, and among the Aborigines in the Charlotte Waters area the marsupial was called Iwurra. They knew the animal long before the British-Australian