extinct species

At one time, the Eskimo curlew or northern curlew (Numenius borealis) may have been the most abundant shorebird in North America. In the late 1800′s, about two million of these birds were killed per year, and they quickly became very scarce.

The last known Eskimo curlew was killed in Barbados in 1963, though occasional unconfirmed sightings have been reported since then. It is officially classified by the IUCN as critically endangered, but was likely extinct by the late 1960′s. If any survive, the population is likely tiny, numbering 50 or fewer individuals.

There were two species of Rheobatrachus, and they were pretty special. Their name refers to the unique way they incubated their young, different than any other known species of frog. Females swallowed fertilized eggs and once in her stomach acid production would cease, thought due to a chemical contained in the egg jelly. For at least six weeks, the mother ate nothing while the tadpoles developed inside her stomach, which would swell to an enormous size in the body cavity. She vomited them up as fully formed frogs!

They lived in streams and pools, being heavily aquatic. The rarer Northern species, R. vitellinus, occurred in rainforests of the Clarke Range in central eastern Queensland. These frogs were a dark pale brown, with slimy bumpy skin and vivid yellow patches along the underside. R. silus, the Southern frog, was recorded more frequently, living in the Conondale Ranges and Blackall Range in southeast Queensland. It was smaller, more grey in colour, had a cream underside, and dark brown limbs with yellow underneath. R. silus was kept in captivity until the early 1980s, being of great interest to the scientific community. Despite extensive searching none have been seen since 1981. In 1985 chytrid fungus was found in the range of the Northern gastric-brooding frogs, and many dead frogs of other species were observed. It is believed that the spread of chytrid was largely responsible for the extinction of both species.

A rare taxidermied bluebuck (Hippotragus leucophaeus) displayed along with other extinct animals including a quagga, toolache wallaby, huia, Cuban macaw and Carolina parakeet at the Naturhistorische Museum in Vienna, Austria. Photo by Sandstein, 2009.

Glaucopsyche xerces (Xerces Blue)

photo: Larry Orsak

The only photograph of a live Sicilian wolf (Canis lupus cristaldii), late 19th century. 

[ A 1907 illustration of a Rodrigues solitaire by artist Frederick William Frohawk ]

Scientists at the Natural History Museum, UK, have discovered that a strange knob-like ball on the wings of an extinct bird species called the Rodrigues Solitaire was a deadly weapon, used by the bird to defend territory and its mate.

The Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) was a giant flightless pigeon that, like its closest relative the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), became extinct soon after European explorers settled in its habitat. It had a knob-like ball on its wings and although it was known to be aggressive, it was unclear what this structure was for, until now.

Dr Julian Hume and Dr Lorna Steel studied records from the 18th and 19th centuries, when many detailed studies were written by Europeans explorers in Rodrigues, on the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean. They also analyzed in microscopic detail the ball structures on fossil solitaire bones.

They found that the so called ‘musket ball’ was indeed a weapon and that it was not found in any other bird. The largest they uncovered grew to 1.3 inches (3.3 cm), nearly as large as a ping-pong ball.