Extinct Animals
EXTINCTION - when the last living member of a species disappears
PSEUDOEXTINCTION - as evolution and time never ceases, an animal can become extinct by gradually evolving into something else
COEXTINCTION - when the extinction of one species leads to the extinction of another
MASS EXTINCTION - there have been 5 observable mass extinctions (when more than 50% of species go extinct in a short amount of time, usually caused by a cataclysmic event). The last mass extinction occurred over 65 million years ago when a meteorite collided with Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. Today, we are going through the sixth mass extinction event. It is the first time ever that one species (humans) has caused the extinction of so many. Currently, about 27,000 species a year, or 3 speices per hour, are lost due to human causes Jul 5
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Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning
It has also increased the possibility that it will one day be possible to reproduce long-dead species such as woolly mammoths and even dinosaurs. Dr Jose Folch, from the Centre of Food Technology and Research of Aragon, in Zaragoza, northern Spain, led the research along with colleagues from the National Research Institute of Agriculture and Food in Madrid. He said: "The delivered kid was genetically identical to the bucardo.
Beetle fossils show their colors
The fossils of beetles may open the door to understanding what exactly ancient organisms looked like. Maria McNamara, a postdoctoral fellow in the Yale Department of Geology and Geophysics, used fossilized beetles to show how colors of insects have changed over time, adding to scientists’ understanding of ancient insects’ appearance. McNamara, with help from her colleagues at the Peabody Museum, the Department of Applied Physics and University College Dublin, studied the cuticles of fossilized beetle remains ranging from 15 million to 47 million years old. Using electron microscopy, McNamara saw that the metallic colors of beetles was altered, demonstrating that fossilization changed the metallic color of the beetle. The hue of a beetle depends on refraction of light within its exoskeleton. According to the study, the chemical makeup of the exoskeleton of the insect bends light waves to produce a metallic color.
Rare Photographs of Extinct Animals
Last Thylacine yawning: Note the unusual extent to which it was able to open its jaws From panthers and pandas to rhinos and tigers, dwindling animal numbers speak of the need to step up conservation efforts – if it’s not already too late. As a kind of wake-up call, we decided to take a look at seven extinct species captured on camera. With modern photography having only been invented in the 1820s, these snapshots are visible testament to just how recently the creatures shown were wiped out – and a jarring reminder of the precarious situation for many species still left on the planet. 1. The Tarpan
The Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine have been reported but officially extinct in 1986. One of the great tragedies of the twentieth century was the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger, the largest carnivorous marsupial to have lived in the modern world. Bad enough that this rare beast, found only on the Australian mainland, New Guinea and Tasmania is gone but that its demise was mainly caused by the incursions and depredation of European settlers. The Tasmanian Tiger was neither a feline nor a canine although it looked very much dog-like in body style and size. It shared a small classification of the genus, Thylacinus, with its cousin the Tasmanian Devil.
Tasmanian Tiger
Tasmanian tiger DNA 'lives' again
Seventy years after the ferocious Tasmanian tiger went extinct , its marsupial DNA has been resurrected inside mice. This is the first time that genetic material from an extinct animal has functioned inside a living host. The technique has huge potential, say the researchers.Ichthyosaur
Ichthyosaurs ( Greek for "fish lizard" - " ιχθυς" or " ichthys" meaning "fish" and " σαυρος" or " sauros" meaning "lizard") were giant marine reptiles that resembled dolphins in a textbook example of convergent evolution . Ichthyosaurs thrived during much of the Mesozoic era; based on fossil evidence, they first appeared approximately 245 million years ago ( mya ) and disappeared about 90 million years ago, about 25 million years before the dinosaurs became extinct. During the middle Triassic Period , ichthyosaurs evolved from as yet unidentified land reptiles that moved back into the water, in a development parallel to that of the ancestors of modern-day dolphins and whales . They were particularly abundant in the Jurassic Period, until they were replaced as the top aquatic predators by another reptilian order named plesiosaurs in the Cretaceous Period.
8/25/2007 under Weird Science - TAGS: extinct species From the Quagga --half zebra, half horse-- to the Irish Deer --the largest deer that ever lived--, an impressive list with pictures of amazing animals we will never see. Tyrannosaurus Rex (extinct 65 million years ago) [ Wiki ] Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time, measuring up to 43.3 feet long, and 16.6 ft tall, with an estimated mass that goes up to 7 tons. Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail. Relative to the large and powerful hindlimbs, Tyrannosaurus forelimbs were small and they retained only two digits. Fossils of T. rex have been found in North American rock formations dating to the last three million years of the Cretaceous Period at the end of the Maastrichtian stage, approximately 68.5 to 65.5 million years ago; it was among the last dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.
10 Most Amazing Extinct Animals
About 6 waves of massive extinction are known in the history of the Earth. The last one wiped out the dinosaur world 65 million years ago and was probably due to a meteorite collision. But the recent one has no natural causes.
The Rate of Extinction: 3 Species per Hour
11 Extinct Animals That Have Been Photographed Alive
The current rate of extinction is 100 to 1000 times higher than the average, or background rate, making our current period the 6th major mass extinction in the planet’s history. Although fossil reconstructions or pictorial representations can sometimes be difficult to connect with, it’s impossible to ignore the experience of seeing a photograph of an animal on the brink of extinction. Thus, what follows is a list of 11 extinct animals that were photographed while still alive. Tasmanian Tiger The last Tasmanian Tiger , or Thylacine, known to have existed died in the Hobart Zoo, in Tasmania, Australia, on September 7th, 1936. Despite being the last of its kind, the animal (named “Benjamin”) likely died due to neglect after being locked out of its sheltered quarters during extreme weather.
List of extinct mammals
A large number of prehistoric mammals are extinct, such as Megafauna . See List of prehistoric mammals . This is an incomplete list of historically known extinct mammals , their dates of extinction, and former range. Mammals included are organisms which have been described by science, but which have subsequently become extinct. Many of these animals have become extinct as a result of human hunting, for food or sport, or through the destruction of habitat . [ edit ] MarsupialsDinosaurs
Danielle LeVee, Global Animal The long-extinct woolly mammoth may soon roam the Earth again. Researchers have recently found well-preserved woolly mammoth bone marrow, which contains undamaged nuclei. With nuclei in possession, scientists now have the complete genetic makeup of a woolly mammoth.
Animal Cloning Woolly Mammoth
Megalonyx ( Greek , "great claw") is an extinct genus of giant ground sloths of the family Megalonychidae endemic to North America from the Hemphillian of the Late Miocene through to the Rancholabrean of the Pleistocene , living from ~10.3 Mya —11,000 years ago, existing for approximately 10.289 million years . Type species, M. jeffersoni , measured about 3 m (9.8 ft) and weighted up to 1 ton . [ 1 ] [ edit ] Description
Megalonyx jeffersonii (Giant Land Sloth)
<img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-53862" title="Helicoprion_Bessonovi2" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/03/Helicoprion_Bessonovi2-660x563.jpg" alt="" width="660" height="563" /> Reconstructing the anatomy of prehistoric sharks isn’t easy. With few exceptions – an exquisitely-preserved body fossil here, some calcified bits of skeleton there – teeth make up the majority of the shark fossil record. When those teeth come from a relatively recent species with close living relatives, it is not difficult to imagine what the extinct species might have looked like.
Unraveling the Whorl-Toothed Shark
Glyptodon (Greek for "grooved or carved tooth") was a large, armored mammal of the family Glyptodontidae , a relative of armadillos that lived during the Pleistocene epoch . It was roughly the same size and weight as a Volkswagen Beetle , though flatter in shape. With its rounded, bony shell and squat limbs, it superficially resembled turtles, and the much earlier dinosaurian ankylosaur , as an example of the convergent evolution of unrelated lineages into similar forms. Glyptodon is believed to have been an herbivore , grazing on grasses and other plants found near rivers and small bodies of water. [ edit ] Evolution Restoration