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.

weissbrust-brillenvogel / Zosterops albogularis

Drawing of the White-chested white-eye by John Gould (between 1840 and 1848). Gould was the first to describe the songbird scientifically in 1937. (© Rawpixel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Birds

18. May 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

White-chested white-eye

Extinct in recent times The White-chested white-eye was native only to a forest area of five square kilometers at Mount Pitt on Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island lies east of Australia and north of New Zealand. Experts assume the bird species went extinct in recent times. The last confirmed sighting of

A drawing of the possibly extinct Miller moth from 1895. The females were darker in coloration than the males. (© Werner & Winter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Insects

12. May 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Miller Moth

With the Miller moth, the Laysan Millerbird also went extinct The Miller moth, a nocturnal species also known as Miller or Laysan noctuid moth, was the main food source of the Laysan millerbird. When the moth went extinct, the bird disappeared as well. The Miller moth occurred exclusively on Laysan,

Pig-footed bandicoot in the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris. It reached a body length of around 25 centimeters and a tail length of up to 15 centimeters. (© Doreen Fräßdorf)

Mammals

24. April 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Pig-footed Bandicoot

Forefeet resembled those of even-toed ungulates It was above all the feet that distinguished pig-footed bandicoots from other bandicoot species in the order of bandicoots, or peramelemorphs (Peramelemorphia). The pig-footed bandicoot, from the genus of pig-footed bandicoots, owed its name to the two toes with hoof-like claws on its forefeet,

Megascolides australis gehört neben Rhinodrilus fafner (Brasilianischer Riesenregenwurm) zu den größten Würmern

Alongside Megascolides australis (image), Rhinodrilus fafner is among the longest earthworms. The drawing by Arthur Bartholomew comes from Frederick McCoy's work Natural History of Victoria (1885). Image: Arthur Bartholomew (1833–1903), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Invertebrates

17. April 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Giant Brazilian Earthworm

More than two meters long On May 5, 1912, an extraordinary animal was discovered near the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil: an earthworm more than two meters long. The species later described as Rhinodrilus fafner—also known as the giant Brazilian earthworm or Minhocuçu—reached a length of 210 centimeters, a

According to ornithologists Olson and Jouventin, the extinct Amsterdam duck was similar to the still extant, likewise flightless Auckland teal (Anas aucklandica; see image). The illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans appeared in Buller's Birds of New Zealand (1988). (© John Gerrard Keulemans, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Birds

13. April 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Amsterdam duck

Barely larger than a thrush Both Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul are more than 3,000 kilometers away from continents. Nevertheless—or perhaps precisely because of this—the two islands were frequently visited by early seafarers and the animals that traveled with them, so that all endemic birds there had already been wiped

The day-flying Levuana moth had a wingspan of 16 millimeters. Its head and thorax were steel-blue, while abdomen and legs were ochre-colored. (© Rosa Henderson, Landcare Research, CC BY 3.0 AU, via Wikimedia Commons)

Insects

12. April 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Levuana Moth

A plague for the coconut industry Beginning around the 1870s, swarms of moths started destroying coconut plantations. In this way, the Levuana moth became a serious pest of coconut plants on Viti Levu, the main island of the Fiji group in the South Pacific. At first, the Levuana or coconut

Caribbean monk seal in 1910 at the New York Aquarium. A total of 18 animals were kept in captivity, but none of them bred successfully. (© New York Zoological Society., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

3. April 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Caribbean Monk Seal

Sharks and humans were the only enemies of the Caribbean monk seal The Italian navigator Christopher Columbus discovered the Caribbean monk seal—the first mammal of the New World—in 1494 during his second voyage to the Americas, on the coast of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. He called

There is no photo of the passenger pigeon mite itself. The image shows mites using a dung beetle as a means of transport. (© Heiko Wagner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Invertebrates

19. March 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Passenger pigeon mite

Species extinctions trigger chain reactions When animal or plant species go extinct, a chain reaction is set in motion. Often, at least one other organism dies out along with it. Thus, with the passenger pigeon, the passenger pigeon mite also went extinct in 1914. In a study published in 2004,

Pseudophilautus pardus, considered extinct, is in fact not a distinct species, but a rare color variant of the living Pseudophilautus viridis. (© Buddhika.jm(Buddhika Mawella), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Amphibians

19. March 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Pseudophilautus pardus (leopard shrub frog)

Frog with a leopard pattern? Sri Lanka’s amphibian fauna is known for its extraordinary diversity and high level of endemism. The genus Pseudophilautus in particular, which includes many directly developing frog species, has diversified strongly in the island’s isolated forest areas. Pseudophilautus pardus was scientifically described in 2007, based on

St.-Helena-Riesenohrwurm ( Jamestown Museum)

Specimen of a Saint Helena giant earwig in the Jamestown Museum on the island of St Helena. (© Roger S. Key, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Insects

14. March 2018 Doreen Fräßdorf

Saint Helena Giant Earwig

The largest earwig in the world At 8.4 centimeters in length, the Saint Helena giant earwig was once the largest earwig in the world. Its body was about five centimeters long, its forceps 3.4 centimeters. For comparison: most other earwig species are one to two centimeters long. As its name