Tag: 21st Century

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)
Fish

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

Continue reading
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

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.

Continue reading
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

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

Continue reading
vietnamesisches nashorn Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus
Head of a male Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros that was shot around 1930 in Perak on the Malay Peninsula. It is now kept at the Raffles Museum in Singapore. (© Kloss, C. Boden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Mammals

Vietnamese Javan Rhinoceros

Subspecies believed extinct rediscovered in 1988 The supposedly extinct subspecies of the Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus), the Annamite Javan rhinoceros or Annamite rhinoceros, was not rediscovered until 1988. At first, it was assumed that the rhinoceros subspecies, which once inhabited a large part of Southeast Asia, had become extinct as

Continue reading
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

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

Continue reading