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Articles on Extinct species

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Skeletal reconstruction of the Langebaanweg sabertooth, with highlighted elements to indicate the bones examined in this study. Adapted from Mauricio Antón (2013)

Sabretooth cats hunted on South Africa’s coast 5 million years ago: this old one was in pain

A closer look at these fossil bones revealed more than the suggestion of a previously undescribed species - it pointed to the individual animal having suffered with osteoarthritis.
Dodos have been extinct for centuries, but it’s not a simple matter to definitively designate a species as extinct. (Shutterstock)

When is a species really extinct?

Species are declared extinct when there have been no verifiable sightings for 50 years. Declaring a species extinct has implications for conservation efforts and policies.
A specimen of Proscelotes aenea collected by Loveridge in 1918 in Lumbo, Mozambique, now kept at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. Licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Search for elusive skinks is filling gaps in Mozambique’s biodiversity data

Species distribution data – or a lack thereof – can have a major bearing on how a country’s Key Biodiversity Areas and protected areas are designated.
North America during the late Pleistocene: a pack of dire wolves (red hair) are feeding bison while a pair of grey wolves approach in the hopes of scavenging. Mauricio Antón

Dire wolves went extinct 13,000 years ago but thanks to new genetic analysis their true story can now be told

Our research shows dire wolves lived in the tropics not the Arctic, and were not especially close relatives of the grey wolf.
Jaime Bran/Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Scientists thought these seals evolved in the north. 3-million-year-old fossils from New Zealand suggest otherwise

This newly discovered ancient monk seal is challenging previous theories about how and where monachine seals evolved. It’s the biggest breakthrough in seal evolution research in about 70 years.

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