19th Century - Artensterben

Riesenalk (Pinguinus impennis) von John James Audubon

The extinct great auk was flightless; its vestigial wings served as flippers when diving, while its feet acted as rudders. Image: John James Audubon, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Birds

20. July 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Great Auk—the Extinct Penguin of the North

“Today the original penguin is extinct.” Robert Silverberg, 1967, p. 84 The great auk was a large, flightless seabird of the North Atlantic. Its population may once have numbered several million individuals. With its black-and-white plumage, upright posture, and short, flipper-like wings, it bore a striking resemblance to today’s penguins

Only three specimens of Morant's blue have survived — all of them males.

Insects

21. March 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Morant’s blue – What the females looked like remains uncertain

Three male specimens remain Walter Morant, probably a dedicated collector and observer of nature in what was then the British colony of Natal in southern Africa, was among the early members of the Natural History Association of Natal, founded in 1868. There he gave lectures and exhibited insects—with a particular

Illustration of the Floreana giant tortoise — once one of the most distinctive giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, today probably extinct in its original form.

Reptiles

16. March 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Floreana giant tortoise: From extinction to return

A subspecies of the Galapagos tortoise When the Floreana giant tortoise was still alive, it was part of the extraordinary tortoise fauna of the Galapagos Islands. Hardly anywhere else on Earth did a comparable diversity of giant land tortoises evolve—adapted to different islands, volcanoes, climate zones, and food resources. Today,

A red fox carrying a squirrel in its mouth, a symbol of the hunting success of this highly adaptable predator, which in Australia became a threat to numerous endemic animal species. (© NPS Photo/Kent Miller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

News

19. October 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

From 60 to 1.7 Million: How the Red Fox Conquered Australia in Just 60 Years

When European settlers of British origin brought the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) to Australia from around 1870 onward, they were thinking of tradition, not ecological consequences. Hunting foxes with packs of hounds, then a deeply rooted social ritual in England and now banned, was meant to continue in the new

The extinct quagga was about 257 centimeters long and reached a shoulder height of 125 to 135 centimeters. Unlike other zebras, its brown and white stripes were located on the front part of its body, while the rear part of the body was unstriped. (© Nicolas Marechal, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

17. November 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Quagga

Half zebra, half horse The British naturalist William Burchell is often regarded as the discoverer of the animal that travelers described as “half zebra, half horse” or “unfinished zebra“—the quagga. However, the species had already been mentioned earlier by explorers. Even before Burchell’s “discovery” in 1812, the English naturalist George

The only known photograph of the Cape lion, which went extinct in the mid-19th century. (© See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

News

17. October 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Study Questions the Myth of the Extinct Cape Lion as a Distinct Subspecies

A study published yesterday in Scientific Reports questions the taxonomic status of the Cape lion (Panthera leo melanochaita), which was driven to extinction around 1860. For a long time, this large cat was considered a distinct subspecies, characterized by its striking black mane that extended over its shoulders and belly,

The flightless Lyall's wren was a relatively small bird, with a total length of about ten centimeters. (© Avenue, GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons)

Birds

8. September 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Lyall’s wren

The tragic story of Lyall’s wren Like the dodo, Lyall’s wren is one of the best-known examples of the extinction of bird species, because the circumstances of its disappearance are as striking as they are tragic. The story of Lyall’s wren is often told with dramatic simplicity: a cat, brought

The Hokkaido wolf, one of two wolf subspecies that went extinct in Japan, was captured in this illustration by the English zoologist St. George Mivart in 1890. (© Mivart, St. George Jackson (30 November 1827 – 1 April 1900), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mammals

18. August 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Hokkaidō Wolf

Harmful animals in Hokkaido In Japanese mythology, both the extinct Honshu wolf and the Hokkaido wolf, also known as the Ezo wolf, are revered as benevolent beings. One legend, similar to the Roman myth of Romulus and Remus, recounts that a son of Fujiwara no Hidehira, a 12th-century Japanese noble

Überreste des Beutelwolfs im UCL Grant Museum in London

Remains of the thylacine, which was exterminated by hunting in the early 20th century. (© Doreen Fräßdorf, photographed at the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology in London, England, 2024)

News

22. July 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Extinctions: How Many Animal Species Have We Already Wiped Out?

There have been five mass extinction events in the history of Earth’s biodiversity, all caused by natural phenomena. It is believed that the sixth mass extinction is currently underway, this time solely driven by human activities. The Thylacine, the aurochs, and the dodo are just a few of the most

The Tonga ground skink is known from only two specimens collected on Tongatapu in the early 19th century. The species reached a snout–vent length of almost 18 centimeters, plus tail. (© Journal, German & Ineich, Ivan & Böhme, Wolfgang. (2024). Was it premature to declare the giant Tongan Ground Skink Tachygyia microlepis extinct?. Salamandra. 60. 82-93.)

Reptiles

20. July 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Tongan Ground Skink

From the South Pacific to the museum—the last Tongan ground skinks The Tongan ground skink, a giant lizard, is known only from two specimens that are now housed in the Natural History Museum of Paris. The French doctors and naturalists Jean-René-Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard collected the two animals