#extinct life

Dinosaur: the Most Recent common ancestor of Megalosaurus and Iguanodon, and all of that ancestor’s descendants. This includes birds. It does not include pterodactyls. Or cockroaches. Or sharks. Or lizards. Or tuatara. Or mammoths. Or Dimetrodon. Or-

Prehistoric Life: any living thing that existed prior to the development of agriculture. Many things around today, including people, have prehistoric counterparts.

Extinct Life: any living thing that is now extinct, ie, no longer around. This includes things that have gone extinct since agriculture.

Lizard: The Most Recent Common ancestor of modern Iguanas and Worm Lizards, and all of that ancestor’s descendants. This includes snakes. This is a completely separate group from dinosaurs, defined above. They are utterly separate.

Reptile: any animal closer to living lizards than to mammals. This includes all birds, as well as other dinosaurs, turtles, crocodilians, and tuatara. It does not include Dimetrodon.

Synapsid: any animal closer to living mammals than to lizards. This is where Dimetrodon is. Also humans. And mammoths. All mammals are synapsids.

Thirteen years ago today, on July 20th, 2010, I smelled the La Brea Tar Pits, started cough-laughing about how bad it smelled and tripped over my own feet.

September 1, 1914. The day the last known passenger pigeon died.

The day the immense flocks that once soared over the horizon disappeared from the clear blue skies.

The day that the oak and American chestnut trees lost one of their main pollinators and consumers.

The day that the hunters were not able to contact one another about where the flocks gathered, asking one another about the perfect place to hunt the pigeons down.

The day the world's most abundant bird became nothing but a fading memory.