Sunday, August 17, 2014

Extinct Animals


While there are over a million animal-species in existence today, the fact is that hundreds have gone into extinction. We will only know them through creative creations, but would never be able to see them. In spite of their extinction one is always interested in learning about them. No wonder books and movies are made on dinosaurs, or then some extinct species become characters of comic books.

Here are some extinct animal facts, followed by an exhaustive list of animals that have gone into extinction over the eras of earth’s evolution…

The Tyrannosaurus Rex went extinct 65 million years ago. It was one of the largest animals. It measured up to 43.3 feet in length and 16.6 feet in height. It weighed approximately 7 tons.

The Quagga, which was half-zebra-half-horse animal species went into extinction in the year 1883. This is was one of the most famous animals of Africa. This animal had the zebra stripes only on the front part of the body, which would fade and become wider in the middle of the body, and the hindquarter was brown (no stripes). It was the cruel animal activities that led this animal to extinction. It was on 12th August 12, 1883, that the last of the Quaggas died at the Artis Magistra Zoo (Amsterdam).

The Tasmanian Tiger went into extinct in the year 1936. This animal is regarded to be the largest carnivorous marsupial in modern day and age. It was a native wildlife animal of Australia and New Guinea. Man and his evil ways led this animal to extinction.

Steller's Sea Cow was also known as the defenseless beast. It went into extinction in 1768. This creature’s natural habitat was on the Asiatic coast of the Bering Sea. It got its name because it was discovered by a naturalist, Georg Stellar, in 1741. He was traveling with Vitus Bering, a renowned explorer. The animal was large weighing upto three tons. Though it looked almost like a seal, it had two forelimbs that were stout, as well as tail that was whale-like.

Irish Deer is the largest deer to have ever existed. It went into extinction approximately 7,700 years ago. It was a native animal of Eurasia, grazing the land stretching from Ireland to east of Lake Baikal. It was large sized, with extra large antlers measuring upto 3.65 meters (12 feet from tip-to-tip). The antlers weighed about 90 pounds.

The Caspian Tiger was the third largest tiger species. The last of this tiger was seen in 1970, after which it has been declared amongst the extinct animal species. This tiger was found on the lands of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Aurochs was a large-sized cattle-species. It is recorded to have gone into extinction in 1627. It is said that this cattle evolved from India, migrating to the Middle-East, reaching Europe.

Here is an exhaustive list of other extinct animal species :
Antillean cave rat
Arabian gazelle
Barbados raccoon
Barbados rice rat
Basalt plains mouse
Bavarian pine vole
Big-eared hopping mouse
Blue buck
Canary mouse
Cayman Brac hutia
Cayman Brac nesophont
Cayman hutia
Central hare-wallaby
Central rock rat
Corsican shrew
Cuban spider monkey
Curio's giant rat
Dark flying fox
Desert rat-kangaroo
Dusky flying fox
Falkland Islands dog
Giant deer mouse
Goliath white-toothed shrew
Atlantic gray whale
Guam flying fox
Gull Island vole
Hairy-eared dwarf lemur
Imposter hutia
Jamaican monkey
Jamaican pallid flower bat
Large Corsican field vole
Large funnel-eared bat
Large ghost faced bat
Large Palau flying fox
Large sloth lemur
Large-eared tenrec
Long-tailed hopping mouse
Madagascan pygmy hippopotamus; common Malagasy hippo
Malagasy dwarf hippopotamus
Marcano's solenodon
Marianas flying fox
Negros naked-backed fruit bat
New Guinea big-eared bat
Omilteme cottontail
Pemberton's deer mouse
Przewalski's horse
Queen of Sheba's gazelle
Red gazelle
Sardinian pika
Saudi gazelle
Schaumburg’s deer
Sea mink
Short-horned water buffalo
Southeastern pocket gopher
Standing's hippo
Sturdee's Bonin pipistrelle
Swan Island hutia
Tanzania woolly bat
Tasmanian bettong
Tretretretre
Vietnam warty pig
West Indian porcupine
Western palm squirrel
White-footed rabbit-rat