Mauritius-Schnauzenfalter (Libythea cinyras) - Holotyp
The only known specimen of the extinct Mauritius Libythid Butterfly. The upper side of the wings was dark brown with orange patches. (© "014172727_Libythea_cinyras_HT_Dorsal" - Libythea cinyras Trimen, 1866 by The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, CC BY 4.0, via GBIF)

Mauritius Libythid Butterfly

Known from only one specimen Only a single specimen of the Mauritius Libythid Butterfly is known, collected in 1865 on the Mascarene island of Mauritius in the Moka District. A certain Mr. Colville Barclay discovered the snout butterfly and gave it to the British-South African naturalist Roland Trimen, saying that

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gelbe gallwespenschleiche
Photo of the head of a Jamaican giant galliwasp in the Natural History Museum in London. The specimen of the lizard was probably collected in the 19th century. (© Simon J. Tonge, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Jamaican giant galliwasp

Last seen in 1851 The Jamaican giant galliwasp, endemic exclusively to the Caribbean island of Jamaica, belongs to the family of diploglossids (Diploglossidae)—lizards with small but well-developed legs. A report written around 1850 by the English naturalist Philip H. Gosse indicates that the Jamaican giant galliwasp was still commonly found

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Antiguan Racer
A photo of the Antigua racer (Alsophis antiguae), native to the Lesser Antilles island of Antigua, which was considered the rarest snake in the world in the 1990s. Like the Jamaican racer, it belongs to the colubrid family and the subfamily Dipsadinae. (© Wallamalloo69 at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Jamaican racer

Rare or extinct? The English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse described the black racer or Jamaican racer in the mid-19th century as one of the most common snakes in Jamaica. It occurred both in the lowlands and in the mountains of the island. By the mid-20th century, the Jamaican racer had

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Schwimmkäfer
A+D: Megadytes ducalis (Brazilian diving beetle), B+E: M. lherminieri, C+F: M. magnus (© L. Hendrich, M. Manuel, M. Balke: The Return of the Duke, Vol. 4586 No. 3: 18 Apr. 2019, Licensed under CC BY 3.0)

Brazilian diving beetle

“Giant of the Dytiscidae” Until recently, the Brazilian diving beetle Megadytes ducalis was known only from a single male specimen, which, according to rumors, was discovered before 1882 at the bottom of a water-filled canoe in the Amazon region of Brazil. It is currently housed at the Natural History Museum

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Schwertstör Psephurus gladius
Drawing of a Chinese paddlefish from 1868. The frontal portion made up around one-third of the fish's total length. Chinese paddlefish reached lengths of more than three meters and weights of up to 300 kilograms. (© Muséum d'histoire Naturelle, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Chinese Paddlefish

An ancient swimming fossil in the Yangtze River The Chinese paddlefish and its relatives were already swimming through Earth’s waters more than 100 million years ago. This freshwater predator, said to have reached lengths of seven meters and weights of several thousand pounds, survived the mass extinction 66 million years

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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)

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.

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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)

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

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Kapverdischer Riesenskink
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)

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

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Aurochs
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)

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

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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)

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

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