Pinguinus impennis The great auk was a large, flightless diving bird thought to have once numbered in the millions and distributed across the North Atlantic. It is extinct since 1844, having been heavily exploited for its eggs, meat, and feathers. Breeding colonies were found along the east coast of...
Megaloceros giganteus This deer is characterized by immense body size and had the largest antlers of any form of deer known. Irish elk evolved during the glacial periods of the last million years, fossils are found commonly in Pleistocene deposits (2.6 million years ago and ended about 11,700 years...
Rhodonessa caryophyllacea Class: Aves Order: Anseriformes Family: Anatidae LAST SEEN: 1949 IN INDIA CRITICALLY ENDANGERED Size – 60 cm. Physical Description Long-necked duck. Males have head, sides of neck, and hind neck pale rosy pink; tuft of bright pink on head; throat brown; rest of body mainly glossy dark brown...
Acinonyx jubatus venaticus It is a Critically Endangered cheetah subspecies surviving today only in Iran. It once occurred from the Arabian Peninsula and the Near East to the Caspian region, Kyzyl-Kum Desert and India, but has been eradicatedthere during the 20th century. The Asiatic cheetah diverged from the cheetah population in Africa between 32,000 and 67,000 years ago. The word ‘cheetah’ is derived from the Sanskrit chitraka, which...
Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica Commonly known by the name Bucardo Was one of the four subspecies of wild goat to inhabit the Iberian Peninsula 14 C – inhabited much of the northern Iberian Peninsula (most common in the Cantabrian Mountains, Southern France, and the northern Pyrenees) 17 C – their population...
Ectopistes migratorius It is estimated that there were 3 billion to 5 billion passenger pigeons at the time Europeans discovered America. It is believed that this species once constituted 25 to 40 per cent of the total bird population of the United States. Flocks formed avian clouds across eastern North America,...
Extinct genus of giraffids Ranged throughout Africa to the Indian subcontinent Late Pliocene-Modern (5 million-10,000 years ago) S. giganteum remains have been recovered from the Himalayan foothills, dating around 1 million years ago. Suggestions have been made that S. maurusium may have gone extinct as recently as 8,000 years ago. Sivatherium...
Etymology – “tyranno” means tyrant in Greek; “saurus” means lizard in Greek, and “rex” means “king” in Latin. Huge predatory dinosaurs with small arms and two-fingered hands T. rex fossils are found in western North America, from Alberta to Texas. T.rex lived at the very end of the Late...
