Middle America - Artensterben

One of the few museum specimens of the extinct Guadeloupe ameiva. (© Laure Pierre, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

15. January 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Guadeloupe ameiva—isolation, colonization & the end of an island species

Islands under pressure The West Indies—including the Lesser Antilles—are among the most species-rich regions in the world. Many lizard and snake species are found exclusively there. These endemic species have adapted over millennia to the conditions of individual islands. Yet this very specialization makes them particularly vulnerable: when habitats are

Illustration der Schwaneninseln-Ferkelratte (Geocapromys thoracatus)

The extinct Little Swan Island hutia resembled a guinea pig in appearance and reached a body length of 30 to 40 centimeters. The weight of adult animals is estimated at about one kilogram.

8. November 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Little Swan Island hutia

Survival under extreme conditions As early as 1942, the American zoologist Glover Morrill Allen warned in Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Western Hemisphere about the threats that could endanger the survival of the Little Swan Island hutia, which occurred only on Little Swan Island: “At present the species seems

Neu entdeckte Tiere 2023: Krokodilsmolch Tylototriton ngoclinhensis

The species name ngoclinhensis refers to the type locality of the newly discovered Ngoc Linh crocodile newt (Tylototriton ngoclinhensis): Ngoc Linh Mountain in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. (© Phung TM, Pham CT, Nguyen TQ, Ninh HT, Nguyen HQ, Bernardes M, Le ST, Ziegler T, Nguyen TT (2023) Southbound – the southernmost record of Tylototriton (Amphibia, Caudata, Salamandridae) from the Central Highlands of Vietnam represents a new species. ZooKeys 1168: 193-218.)

9. November 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

Newly discovered animals 2023

It is said that between 11,000 and 58,000 animal and plant species irreversibly go extinct each year, but there is also good news: around 18,000 new species are described and named by taxonomists each year; this number includes extinct or fossilized organisms, as well as bacteria and viruses. Even in