11 Extinct Animals That Have Been Photographed Alive Animals Published on April 2nd, 2009 | by Bryan Nelson 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. Although commonly referred to as ‘tigers’, and despite having the look of a canid, the Thylacine isn’t remotely related to cats or dogs. >> Also see our latest post: 10 Animals on the Brink of Extinction Quagga Passenger Pigeon Colonial hunters happened. Golden Toad About the Author
A moment of silence for the Western Black Rhino Officially extinct Another beautiful species that we won't see again. The western black rhino, which is a sub-species of black rhino, was was once widespread in the savanna of sub-Saharan Africa, but no more. Wikimedia/Public Domain The IUCN warns that other rhinos could follow saying Africa's northern white rhino is "teetering on the brink of extinction" while Asia's Javan rhino is "making its last stand" due to continued poaching and lack of conservation." Conservation efforts certainly are not futile! Here are some black rhinos (though obviously not western black rhinos...) filmed by the BBC: Via CNN See also: Aw, cute!
The Rate of Extinction: 3 Species per Hour 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. It is man made and rampant, eliminating three animal or plant species every hour. Scientists and environmentalists issued reports about threats to creatures and plants including right whales, Iberian lynxes, wild potatoes and even wild peanuts. Experts gathered on May 22, at the International Day for Biological Diversity, a report on the threatened species from whales and Iberian lynxes to wild potatoes and wild peanuts. The threats to the wildlife diversity vary from habitat loss due to land clearance for farms or cities, poaching, pollution and rising human populations to global warming. determination at all levels - global, national and local," he said. UE's goal is to stop biodiversity loss by 2010, not just to slow down the process.
Clouded leopard declared extinct in Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan) A Formosan cloud leopard, now extinct in Taiwan. By Douglas Main, OurAmazingPlanet The Formosan clouded leopard, a clouded-leopard subspecies native to Taiwan, is now extinct, according to a team of zoologists. "There is little chance that the clouded leopard still exists in Taiwan," zoologist Chiang Po-jen told Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA). "There may be a few of them, but we do not think they exist in any significant numbers." Zoologists from Taiwan and the United States have looked for the animal on and off since 2001, to no avail. Now, the only one left in the country is a stuffed specimen at the National Taiwan Museum, zoologist Liu Jian-nan told CNA. The range of clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) spans from the hills of the Himalayas to Southeast Asia to China.
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. Andrew Pask at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues extracted DNA from four 100-year-old Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, samples. The DNA was badly fragmented, but the team managed to isolate one specific DNA sequence from each of the animals. Bigger questions The team then copied the DNA snippet, coupled it with a gene that produces a blue pigment, and injected it into very early mouse embryos. "We could see it very clearly in the developing cartilage," says Pask. Other researchers have resurrected extinct DNA inside cell lines in the lab. This work isn't a step towards cloning the entire thylacine, Pask stresses. Mammoth revival Journal reference: PloS ONE (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002240)
Slavic mythology Many generations of Slavic artists were inspired by their national folklore: Ilya Yefimovich Repin, Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom (1876) Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation. The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion. Old Slavic religion evolved over more than a thousand years and some parts of it were from neolithic or possibly even mesolithic times. Modern wooden statue of Perun, the god of thunder and lightning, Ruthenia Sources of information[edit] Unlike Greek, Indian or Egyptian mythology, there are no first-hand records for the study of Slavic mythology. Written sources[edit] The most numerous and richest written records are of West Slavic paganism, particularly of Wendish and Polabian tribes, who were forcibly made Christian only at the end of the 12th century. Artistic representation of Saxo Grammaticus
List of recently 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. Marsupials[edit] Sirenians[edit] Steller's Sea Cow (1768), Commander Islands Rodents[edit] Ungulates[edit] Cebu Warty Pig (2000, Philippines) Lagomorphs[edit] Proboscids[edit] Tubulidentata[edit] Bibymalagasia (200 BCE, Madagascar) Soricimorphs[edit] Bats[edit] Cetaceans[edit] Chinese River Dolphin Baiji (2006, China) (officially listed as functionally extinct; it is possible that a few aging individuals still survive) Artiodactyls[edit] Aurochs Carnivores[edit] Javan Tiger, pictured 1938 Subspecies Primates[edit] Koala lemur (1500, Madagascar) Perissodactyls[edit] See also[edit] References[edit]
Extinct frog hops back into the gene pool In what may be considered an early Easter miracle, an extinct species of native frog has begun its rise from the dead. Australian scientists have grown embryos containing the revived DNA of the extinct gastric-brooding frog, the crucial first step in their attempt to bring a species back to life. The team from the aptly named Lazarus project inserted the dead genetic material of the extinct amphibian into the donor eggs of another species of living frog, a process similar to the technique used to create the cloned sheep Dolly. The eggs continued to grow into three-day-old embryos, known as blastulas. Extict since 1983: The bizarre gastric-brooding frog. "This is the first time this technique has been achieved for an extinct species," said one of the project scientists, conservation biologist Michael Mahony. Advertisement Frozen for 40 years In the beginning, the single cell eggs "just sat there", said Professor Archer. The egg donor frog. But the team's success so far did not come easily.