SCIENCE

Extinct Animals

Name: Siti Iyliah Anisa

Class: 6 Budiman
Title: Extinct Animals
Thylacine: the Tasmanian Tiger (extinct since 1936) [Wiki]

The Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of

modern times. Native to Australia and New Guinea, it is thought to
have become extinct in the 20th century. It is commonly known as
the Tasmanian Tiger (due to its striped back), and also known as
the Tasmanian Wolf, and colloquially the Tassie (or Tazzy) Tiger or
simply the Tiger. It was the last extant member of its genus,
Thylacinus, although a number of related species have been found
in the fossil record dating back to the early Miocene.

The Thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland

thousands of years before European settlement of the continent, but
survived on the island of Tasmania along with a number of other
endemic species such as the Tasmanian Devil. Intensive hunting
encouraged by bounties is generally blamed for its extinction, but
other contributory factors may have been disease, the introduction
of dogs, and human encroachment into its habitat. Despite being
officially classified as extinct, sightings are still reported.
Quagga: half zebra, half horse (extinct since 1883) [Wiki]

One of Africa's most famous extinct animals, the quagga was a subspecies of the plains zebra, which
was once found in great numbers in South Africa's Cape Province and the southern part of the
Orange Free State. It was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the
front part of the body only. In the mid-section, the stripes faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces
became wider, and the hindquarters were a plain brown. The name comes from a Khoikhoi word for
zebra and is onomatopoeic, being said to resemble the quagga's call.

The quagga was originally classified as an individual species, Equus quagga, in 1788. Over the next
fifty years or so, many other zebras were described by naturalists and explorers. Because of the great
variation in coat patterns (no two zebras are alike), taxonomists were left with a great number of
described "species", and no easy way to tell which of these were true species, which were subspecies,
and which were simply natural variants. Long before this confusion was sorted out, the quagga had
been hunted to extinction for meat, hides, and to preserve feed for domesticated stock. The last wild
quagga was probably shot in the late 1870s, and the last specimen in captivity died on August 12,
1883 at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.

Because of the great confusion between different zebra species, particularly among the general
public, the quagga had become extinct before it was realized that it appeared to be a separate species.
The quagga was the first extinct creature to have its DNA studied. Recent genetic research at the
Smithsonian Institution has demonstrated that the quagga was in fact not a separate species at all,
but diverged from the extremely variable plains zebra.
Caspian Tiger: the third largest (extinct since 1970) [Wiki]

The Caspian tiger or Persian tiger was the westernmost subspecies of tiger, found in Iran, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
until it apparently became extinct in the 1970s. Of all the tigers known to the world, the Caspian tiger
was the third largest.

The body of this subspecies was quite stocky and elongated with strong legs, big wide paws and
unusually large claws. The ears were short and small, and gave the appearance of being without hair
on the tips. Around the cheeks the Caspian tiger was generously furred and the rest of its fur was
long and thick. The colouration resembled that of the Bengal tiger. Male Caspian tigers were very
large and weighed 169-240 kg. Females were not as large, weighing 85-135 kg. There are still
occasional claims of the Caspian tiger being sighted.
Irish Deer: the largest deer that ever lived (extinct about 7,700 years ago)
[Wiki]

The Irish Elk or Giant Deer, was the largest deer that ever lived. It lived in Eurasia, from Ireland to
east of Lake Baikal, during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The latest known remains of the
species have been carbon dated to about 5,700 BC, or about 7,700 years ago. The Giant Deer is
famous for its formidable size (about 2.1 meters or 7 feet tall at the shoulders), and in particular for
having the largest antlers of any known cervid (a maximum of 3.65 meters/12 feet from tip to tip and
weighing up to 90 pounds).

Discussion of the cause of their extinction has still focused on the antlers (rather than on their overall
body size), which may be due more to their impact on the observer than any actual property. Some
have suggested hunting by man was a contributing factor in the demise of the Irish Elk as it was with
many prehistoric megafauna, even assuming that the large antler size restricted the movement of
males through forested regions or that it was by some other means a "maladaptation". But evidence
for overhunting is equivocal, and as a continental species, it would have co-evolved with humans
throughout its existence and presumably have adapted to their presence.
Cave Lion: one of the largest lions ever (extinct 2,000 years ago) [Wiki]

The cave lion, also known as the European or Eurasian cave lion, is an extinct subspecies of lion
known from fossils and a wide variety of prehistoric art. This subspecies was one of the largest lions.
An adult male, which was found in 1985 near Siegsdorf (Germany), had a shoulder height of around
1.2 m and a length of 2.1 m without a tail, which is about the same size as a very big modern lion.
This male was even exceeded by other specimens of this subspecies. Therefore this cat may have
been around 5-10% bigger than modern lions. It apparently went extinct about 10,000 years ago,
during the Würm glaciation, though there are some indications it may have existed as recently as
2,000 years ago, in the Balkans.
Labrador duck

The labrador duck was never common; it’s believed that this species of duck has been extinct
since 1875. It’s also believed that it was the first bird to be extinct in North America sincer 1500.
It was also called the Pied Duck and it fed on small molluscs. Its extinctions is quite a mystery,
because it was not sought much by hunters. Still, humans are still probably responsable for its
extinction as they caused the decline in mussels and other shellfish on which they are believed to
have fed in their winter quarters, due to growth of population and industry on the Eastern
Seaboard; this meant that the duck had no food left
Dodo
In 1505, Portuguese explorers discovered the island of Mauritius and the 50 pounds flightless dodos
which supplemented their food stores. Imported pigs, monkeys and rats fed on the dodo's eggs in
their ground nests. The last dodo was killed in 1681.
Saber tooth tiger
Saber tooth tigers lived in Europe and North America. They were fast runners for short distances
and probably ambushed their prey in packs. The hoplophoneus species lived 20 million years ago.
The smilodon species lived during the Pleistocene from 1.6 million years ago to 10,000 years ago
when it became extinct.
Carolina parakeet
Once abundant, this extinct species nested in large colonies in the cypress swamps in the South
Atlantic and Gulf States. They migrated up the Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers to the Platte and
regularly to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska, and in the east to Pennsylvania.
Hunted for their feathers and slaughtered as pests, the last reported sighting in the wild was a small
flock in Florida in 1920.
Passenger pigeons
Wonderfully prolific, the passenger pigeon had the vast forests of the North as its breeding grounds,
and travelled hundreds of miles in search of food. It was once thought that no ordinary destruction
can lessen them. One of the most noted of extinct animals, passenger pigeons were reduced from
numbers in the hundreds of millions for food.
Extinction is a normal process in the course of evolution. Species have slowly evolved and
disappeared throughout geologic time as the result of climate changes and the inability to adapt to
survive competition and predation. Since the 1600s, however, the rate of extinction has accelerated
rapidly because of human population growth and human resource consumption. Today, most of the
world's habitats are changing faster than most species can adapt to through evolution, or natural
selection. The current global extinction rate is exponentially greater than the background (normal
rate of extinction in the process of evolution) extinction rate. Many biologists believe that we are in
the middle of the greatest mass extinction episode since the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65
million years ago.

Causes of extinction
There are a number of reasons that can contribute directly or indirectly to the extinction of a species
or group of species. The primary causes of species extinction or endangerment are habitat
destruction, commercial exploitation (such as plant collecting, hunting, and trade in animal parts),
damage caused by non-native plants and animals introduced into an area, and pollution.

The survival of ecosystems (plant and animal communities and their physical surroundings) such as
forests, coral reefs, or wetlands depends on their biodiversity, or variety of plants, animals, and
habitats, as well as the many interactions among these species. The removal or disappearance of
one or several species may irreversibly damage the ecosystem and lead to its decline