extinct

2021 was the best year for the crypto market. As more people are inclined towards alternate sources of income, the cryptocurrency market has seen demand like never before. Though Bitcoin has always managed to draw eyeballs from everywhere around, there are other cryptocurrencies as well, that stand the potential to make it into your investment portfolio. But since from the beginning of 2022, many cryptocurrencies have seen a huge fall and if it continues for forthcoming months or years, these cryptocurrencies might…

An artistic interpretation of a newly discovered extinct species of lizard-like reptile belonging to the same ancient lineage as New Zealand’s living tuatara. The newly discovered Opisthiamimus gregori preys on a now-extinct water bug (Morrisonnepa jurassica), while in the background the predatory dinosaur Allosaurus jimmadseni guards its nest. The scene is the floodplain of a river in Late Jurassic Wyoming, approximately 150 million years ago. A team of scientists describes the new species, which once inhabited Jurassic…

Pour one out for the dugong today—the bulbous yet endearing undersea mammal has hit a worrying new benchmark of species decline. Scientists have declared the animal “functionally extinct” in part of the South China Sea, in a study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Hunting, the fishing industry, aquaculture, and other human activity that’s degraded the seagrass habitat is to blame, according to the researchers. Dugongs are the last surviving species in their scientific family; their closest living…

Fernanda, the only known living Fernandina giant tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus, or “fantastic giant tortoise”), now lives at the Galápagos National Park’s Giant Tortoise Breeding Center on Santa Cruz Island. Credit: The Galápagos ConservancyStephen Gaughran, a geneticist at <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>Princeton University</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Founded in 1746, Princeton University is a private…

The last known thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus, or Tasmanian tiger) died in Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo in 1936. Now, a genetic engineering company that last year announced plans to put thousands of woolly mammoths back on the Siberian steppe has added the lost marsupial wolf to its de-extinction docket.The company’s name is Colossal, and its declared aim is to bring back species wiped off the face of the planet by things like climate change (the mammoths) and humankind (the thylacine). These days, those two threats go…

The Tasmanian tiger once roamed the Australian mainland, Tasmania, and New Guinea. It first appeared around 4 million years ago and was one of the largest living carnivorous marsupials until its extinction. An extinction that was ultimately driven by humankind’s aggression. Now, a genetics company is trying to revive the Tasmania tiger and give it a second chance at life. Colossal Biosciences wants to revive the Tasmanian tiger Image source: ruskpp / AdobeThe Tasmanian tiger roamed its native environment…

Thousands of years ago, across the Eastern Mediterranean, multiple Bronze Age civilizations took a distinct turn for the worse at around the same time.The Old Kingdom of Egypt and the Akkadian Empire both collapsed, and there was a widespread societal crisis across the Ancient Near East and the Aegean, manifesting as declining populations, destruction, reduced trade, and significant cultural changes.  As usual, fingers have been pointed at climate change and shifting allegiances. But scientists have just found a new…

AUSTIN, Texas — The room looked like something inside a haunted house. Rows and rows of metal storage shelves held thousands of glass jars filled with snakes and lizards and frogs, each labeled with a catalog number, like a library of the dead. I was here at the University of Texas at Austin’s herpetology collection on the first day of July to see one particular animal: the Blanco blind salamander. This creature is not exactly what you would call charismatic. Measuring a few inches long, the salamander has no eyes and…

A farm in England was the unlikely source of a Jurassic jackpot: A treasure trove of 183 million-year-old fossils.On the outskirts of Gloucestershire in the Cotswolds, beneath soil that is currently trampled under the hooves of grazing cattle, researchers recently uncovered the fossilized remains of fish, giant marine reptiles called ichthyosaurs, squids, insects, and other ancient animals dating to the early part of the Jurassic period (201.3 million to 145 million years ago).   Of the more than 180 fossils logged…

A species of crayfish thought to be extinct was found in Shelta Cave, where Dr. Matthew L. Niemiller is snorkeling (shown above). Credit: Amata HinkleA cave inside Huntsville’s city was discovered to contain a small, rare crayfish that was previously believed to be extinct.A team led by an assistant professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has uncovered a small, rare crayfish that was believed to have been extinct for 30 years in a cave in the City of Huntsville in northern Alabama. Crayfish are a type…