Island gigantism - Artensterben

San-Cristobal-Riesenschildkröte (Chelonoidis chathamensis)

Ancient DNA reveals lost diversity: Distinct lineages of Galápagos giant tortoises once lived on San Cristóbal and Santa Fe but are now extinct. Image: Depositphotos (partnership)

News

1. September 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Genetic Study Confirms Two Additional Extinct Lineages of Galápagos Giant Tortoises

How many species of Galápagos giant tortoises are there, exactly? There is probably no simple answer to this question. On the archipelago’s different islands and volcanoes, separate populations evolved, some of which differ markedly in body shape, behavior, and genetic makeup. One classification system commonly used today groups them as

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,

Historical depiction of Aepyornis maximus. Our knowledge of the elephant birds’ external appearance is incomplete: there are no preserved specimens, only bone finds and eggshells. Reconstructions therefore rely on anatomical inferences and comparisons with modern ratites. (© http://www.50birds.com/gextinct5.htm, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Birds

3. February 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Aepyornis maximus – the largest elephant bird and the mystery of when it went extinct

There wasn’t just one elephant bird The elephant bird is probably one of the best-known of all extinct birds. Hardly any other animal so strongly embodies gigantism, enigmatic traditions, and the fascination of a world of animals that humans now know only in fragments. But the name already misleads: there

Peter Jackson will Südinsel-Riesenmoa zurückbringen

This is what a South Island giant moa may have looked like—the extinct bird species is now set to be "brought back" using modern genetic engineering. The controversial project is supported by director Peter Jackson and the US company Colossal Biosciences.

News

9. July 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

De-extinction: Peter Jackson wants to bring back the extinct giant moa—scientists remain skeptical

New Zealand director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, Braindead) is supporting an ambitious project to revive the South Island giant moa. Together with the US biotech firm Colossal Biosciences, the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre, and the Canterbury Museum, the flightless bird that went extinct in the 14th or

A Haast's eagle attacks already extinct New Zealand moas. The largest moas were the female South Island giant moas. They could reach a weight of up to 300 kilograms. (© John Megahan, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)

Birds

15. September 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Haast’s Eagle

The largest bird of prey in modern times Before humans settled New Zealand about 700 years ago and introduced invasive species like cats and rats, there were no land-dwelling mammals on the islands – aside from three species of bats. Instead, the ecosystem was dominated by approximately 250 bird species.

New Zealand’s unique bird life evolved in isolation over millions of years. The image, created at the end of the 19th century, shows a hunting scene of moas. (© Joseph Smit, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

News

27. July 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

In the Footsteps of Moas: Where New Zealand’s Flightless Birds Find Refuge

The settlement of the Pacific Islands by humans led to rapid waves of extinction for many animal species, whose dynamics are difficult to reconstruct. Among the affected species were the wingless moas, which were only found in New Zealand. These often massive birds went extinct in the 14th or 15th

Replica of Delcourt's giant gecko or Kawekaweau gecko from the Lille Natural History Museum in France. (© Musée d'Histoire Naturelle de Lille, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Reptiles

26. May 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Delcourt’s Giant Gecko

The largest gecko in the world … In the early 1980s, French museum employee Alain Delcourt discovered a forgotten specimen of a single stuffed giant gecko in the basement of the Natural History Museum of Marseille, which had previously been on public display for years. This species was previously unknown

Größenvergleich Megachile pluto und Apis mellifera

Size comparison: Wallace's giant bee Megachile pluto and Western honey bee Apis mellifera (© Abalg with File:Megachile pluto.jpg and File:1911 Britannica - Bee - Apis mellifica.png, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

News

4. February 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

Lazarus effect: Wallace’s giant bee, thought extinct, rediscovered

When a species thought to be extinct reappears, this is known as the Lazarus effect. That is exactly what happened with Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto)—in fact, twice already: after the species was rediscovered for the first time in 1981, a research team has now rediscovered the thumb-sized insect on

The back of the scarab beetle E. giganteus was completely black, red-brown at the sides, with yellow hairs and brownish mouthparts, feet and antennae. (© Rossini M, Vaz-de-Mello FZ, Montreuil O, Porch N, Tarasov S (2021) <a href="https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1061.70130" target="blank"Extinct before discovered? Epactoides giganteus sp. nov. (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae), the first native dung beetle to Réunion island. ZooKeys 1061: 75-86.)

Insects

1. July 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Epactoides giganteus (scarab beetle)

First extinct, then discovered: the scarab beetle Epactoides giganteus In 1817, the French botanist Nicolas Bréon found himself on Réunion, part of the Mascarene island group, which he would not leave again until 1833 due to health problems. During his time there he was director of the botanical garden Jardin

Cormorants are waterbirds and are also called shags when they have a feathered crest. The extinct spectacled cormorant had such a crest. Image: Joseph Wolf[1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Birds

15. June 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

Spectacled Cormorant

The discovery of the spectacled cormorant and several other animals When Danish naval officer Vitus Bering and German physician and naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller set out on the Second Kamchatka Expedition in search of the legendary João-da-Gama-Land in June 1741, aboard the St. Peter and accompanied by the St. Paul,