Extinct

Ape evolution: Family tree of extinct apes reveals our early evolutionary history

by

A new family tree of apes that lived in the Miocene between 23 and 5.3 million years ago reveals which are our close relatives and which are only distant cousins Humans 16 March 2022 By Michael Marshall Dryopithecus, an extinct ape from the Miocene JOHN SIBBICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A huge study of fossil apes clarifies … Read more

A Giant Tortoise Species Unknown to Science Has Been Discovered in Galapagos

by

A new species of giant tortoise has been discovered in the Galapagos after DNA testing found animals living on one island had not yet been recorded, Ecuador’s environment ministry said.   Researchers compared the genetic material of tortoises currently living on San Cristobal with bones and shells collected in 1906 from a cave in the … Read more

De-extinction: Resurrecting extinct species from their DNA is essentially impossible

by

A study of the extinct Christmas Island rat suggests we cannot bring back the woolly mammoth and other lost species without important differences Life 9 March 2022 By Michael Le Page An illustration of the Christmas Island rat Joseph Smit/Public Domain It is impossible to bring extinct animals back to life exactly as they were, … Read more

Bringing back the woolly mammoth and other extinct creatures may be impossible | Science

by

An extinct rat that once lived on an island in the Indian Ocean may have put the kibosh on scientists’ dreams of resurrecting more famous extinct animals like the woolly mammoth. The Christmas Island rat disappeared just over 100 years ago, but researchers now say even its detailed genome isn’t complete enough to bring it … Read more

Augmented reality brings back extinct ice age animals | Science

by

Country: Country *AfghanistanAland IslandsAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBolivia, Plurinational State ofBonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCongoCongo, The Democratic Republic of theCook IslandsCosta RicaCote D’IvoireCroatiaCubaCuraçaoCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard Island and Mcdonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)HondurasHong … Read more

It Turns Out Species Can Go Extinct Twice… And The Second Time Is For Keeps

by

Species can actually go extinct more than once. In a biological sense, species become extinct when the last animal of a species stops breathing. But they can also become extinct a second time, researchers say.   When a species disappears from our collective memory and cultural knowledge, it becomes extinct in a different way. That second … Read more

Weird, Extinct Animal Species Identified in First Such Finding in Over 100 Years

by

Peering back hundreds of millions of years into the past can turn up some astonishing findings – as it has with the discovery of a second species of opabiniid, a soft-bodied arthropod with a segmented exoskeleton that lived on the seafloor during the Miaolingian (509-497 million years ago).   The original opadiniid, Opabinia regalis, was … Read more

Arctic Sponges Survive Dark, Hostile Conditions by Feasting on The Extinct

by

The bottom of the Arctic Ocean, below the permanent sea ice, is not a friendly place for life. Down there in the cold dark, nutrients and vegetation are sparse; it’s expected that any life that does manage to eke out an existence under these conditions would be likewise thin on the ground.   Scientists were … Read more

The Famous Fossils Scientists Got Incredibly Wrong

by

We sort of take for granted the depictions of prehistoric beasties illustrated in the books of our childhood. But piecing together Earth’s murky past is a lot harder than it sounds.   Scientists have to rely on fragmentary bones, weathered footprints, impressions in rock – these don’t always capture the fine details of the complex, … Read more

Haast’s eagle: Extinct New Zealand bird was part-eagle part-vulture

by

The Haast’s eagle had a beak and talons suited for capturing live prey, but its skull was adapted for ripping out organs Life 1 December 2021 By Christa Lesté-Lasserre An artist’s impression of Haast’s eagle Katrina Kenny For more than a century, scientists have wondered whether a huge carnivorous bird that went extinct around 600 … Read more