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Extinct Animals

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extinct animals

Inside the Years-Long, International Effort to Save One Tiny Mexican Fish

Scientists and schoolchildren worked together to bring the tequila fish back from extinction.
Sarah Durn January 13, 2022
insects

Podcast: Grasshopper Glacier

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
The Podcast Team April 8, 2021
Iceland

Great Auk Sculpture at Valahnúkamöl

This five-foot-tall bronze bird is a memorial to a species that was hunted out of existence.
animals

The Quiet Disappearance of Australia's Urban Platypuses

Newspapers used to describe sightings of dozens at a time. These days, one researcher says, "most Australians have never seen one."
Graham Readfern February 15, 2021
caves

Why Europe's Cave Bears Were—and Weren't—Made for Hunkering Down

Their big sinuses were both an evolutionary boon and bust.
Isaac Schultz April 3, 2020
zoos

Can a Salamander Find Salvation in San Antonio?

A zoo lab's successful captive-breeding program may be the best hope for this critically endangered amphibian.
Jennifer S. Holland March 16, 2020
islands

How Reading Lava Flows Reveals a Lost Paradise

Human harm is burned into Réunion’s ecological record.
Isaac Schultz February 25, 2020
animals

How a Minnesota Town Fell In and Out of Love With Its Ginormous Geese

Like most human-fowl relationships, it's complicated.
Molly Monk February 13, 2020
art

See Australian Fauna in These Audubon-esque Illustrations

The 19th-century lithographs document a unique biodiversity that’s slipping away.
Isaac Schultz February 6, 2020
natural history

The French Missionary and the English Duke Who Saved a Chinese Deer From Extinction

A conservation tale 120 years in the telling. 
Marina Wang January 24, 2020
cars

A Tiny Alabama Fish, Twice Declared Extinct, Lives On Near a Car Factory

The spring pygmy sunfish and a Mazda Toyota plant are going to be neighbors.
Sabrina Imbler January 6, 2020
extinct animals

Ice Age Australia Had Giant, Clawed, Swole Marsupials in Its Trees

Something like a koala, except the size of a rhino.
Isaac Schultz September 18, 2019
natural history museums

Zoology’s Favorite Hoax Was an Island Rat That Hopped on Its Nose

Harald Strümpke didn’t just create a lost archipelago, he created a sensation.
Sabrina Imbler September 3, 2019
skulls

For Sale: A Bison's Skull Straight From the Ice Age

The safe way to encounter horns this big.
Isaac Schultz August 2, 2019
New York, New York

Libyan Desert Diorama

This poignant display is now a memorial to these regionally extinct species.
animals

When the Māori First Settled New Zealand, They Hunted Flightless, 500-Pound Birds

The magnificent moa is no more.
Anne Ewbank June 14, 2019
animals

Sold: A Nearly Complete Skeleton of a Dodo

The remains of the long-extinct, flightless bird from Mauritius are waddling off to a new home.
Jessica Leigh Hester May 28, 2019
Rakvere, Estonia

Rakvere Aurochs Statue

This behemoth bovine guards an Estonian town and is a memorial to the lost species.