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+    "expedition to far-o\ufb00 lands was incomplete without a zoologist, botanist, or\ngeologist. Initial reports of unusual Human Discovery and Extinction\u2014Human exploracreatures were met with skepticism tion and discovery have been directly responsible for the\nby the scienti\ufb01c community, but as extinction of many of the animals featured in this book.\nspecimens began to trickle back to the Few of these are better known than the dodo, a species\nlearned institutions of Europe, scien- that was wiped out in a little over 60 years. (Renata\ntists realized that the earth was home Cunha)",
+    "Extinction is a fact of nature. All of the species of animal that live on earth will, at some point,\nbecome extinct. Some, through the process of evolution, may give rise to descendents\u2014new\nforms to exploit di\ufb00erent niches\u2014while others may disappear, leaving no line of descent.\nEver since animals made their \ufb01rst appearance in the story of life on earth, billions of\nspecies have disappeared. Some of these have fallen to some huge, cataclysmic events, of\nwhich there have been many in the last few hundred million years, while others have been\noutcompeted by other organisms or were unable to react to small changes in their environment. In 1982, scientists proposed that in the last 500 million years\u2014a window of time in\nwhich animals have evolved to exploit the vast majority of habitats on earth\u2014there have\nbeen around six mass extinction events. It\u2019s fascinating to think how life on earth has been\npushed to the edge on a number of occasions, only to spring back with renewed vigor when",
+    "4\nFEWER THAN\n10,000 YEARS AGO\n\nMOA-NALO\nScientific name: Several species\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Anseriformes\nFamily: Anatidae\nWhen did they become extinct? These birds\nbecame extinct around 1,000 years ago.\nWhere did they live? Their remains have\nbeen found on all the larger Hawaiian\nislands.\n\nMoa-Nalo\u2014Many species of the giant, flightless\nducks known as moa-nalo once inhabited the\nHawaiian Islands. (Renata Cunha)\n\nThe island chain of Hawaii, located around\n3,700 km from the U.S. mainland, is the most\nremote archipelago on the planet. The islands\nthat make up Hawaii appeared from beneath\nthe waves and are e\ufb00ectively the tops of submarine volcanoes that increase in height and area\nas they disgorge their very runny lava. Following\ntheir appearance, these landmasses were quickly\ncolonized by living things. Bacteria, plants,\nfungi, and small animals can be dispersed on\nthe wind, and the waves deposit other pioneers.\n\n\f\n\n64\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "and manatees, the unusual marine animals found in tropical rivers, estuaries, and shallow\nmarine habitats around the world, but it was very much larger. Adults could grow to around\n8 m, and the great bulk of the animal suggests weight in excess of 4,000 kg\u2014possibly over\n8,000 kg. They were gentle animals that apparently spent their time grazing on kelp\u2014leaving great mounds of the seaweed washed up on the shore\u2014and snoozing. In place of teeth,\nthey had a bony ridge in their upper and lower jaws to grind the \ufb01brous algae, and their\nforelimbs were stout \ufb02ippers, which the animals could use to provide purchase on the rocky\nseabed when they were feeding in the very shallow coastal water. The animals\u2019 skin was\nrugged, thick, and black, and Steller likened it to the bark of an old tree. The downfall of\nSteller\u2019s sea cow was its \ufb02esh\u2014a valuable commodity to the crew of the St. Peter, who were\nshipwrecked on Bering Island. Not only were these huge marine animals slow moving and",
+    "SELECTED MUSEUMS IN THE\nUNITED STATES, CANADA,\nAND WORLDWIDE\n\nAmerican Museum of Natural History\nCentral Park West at 79th Street\nNew York, NY 10024-5192\nUSA\nhttp://www.amnh.org\nMuseum of Paleontology\nUniversity of California\n1101 Valley Life Sciences Building\nBerkeley, CA 94720-4780\nUSA\nhttp://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu\nThe Academy of Natural Sciences\n1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway\nPhiladelphia, PA 19103\nUSA\nhttp://www.ansp.org\nCarnegie Museum of Natural History\n4400 Forbes Avenue\nPittsburgh, PA 15213\nUSA\nhttp://www.carnegiemnh.org\nThe Field Museum\n1400 South Lake Shore Drive\nChicago, IL 60605-2496\nUSA\nhttp://www.fieldmuseum.org\n\n\f\n\n194\n\nSELECTED MUSEUMS IN THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND WORLDWIDE",
+    "DODO\nScientific name: Raphus cucullatus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Columbiformes\nFamily: Columbidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The dodo is\ngenerally considered to have gone extinct in\n1681, but any records of it after the 1660s\nhave to be treated with caution.\nWhere did it live? The dodo was only found on\nthe island of Mauritius, 900 km to the east of\nMadagascar.\n\u201cAs dead as a dodo!\u201d No phrase is more synonymous with extinction than this one. The dodo\nDodo\u2014Although the dodo is one of the is the animal that springs to mind when we think\nmost well known recently extinct animals, of extinction. Often portrayed as a stupid, bumvery few remains of this animal survive to bling giant of a bird, the dodo was actually a very\nthis day. (Renata Cunha)\ninteresting animal that was perfectly adapted to\nits island habitat. Unfortunately, its evolutionary path had never counted on humans; thus,\nwhen we discovered these birds, they didn\u2019t last very long.",
+    "Scientific name: Dusicyon australis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivora\nFamily: Canidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last known warrah was killed in 1876.\nWhere did it live? This carnivore was known only from the Falkland Islands.\nRemote and treeless, the Falkland Islands is a small archipelago in the South Atlantic\nOcean. Ravaged by incessant winds and terrible winter storms, these islands are a very\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 200 YEARS AGO",
+    "leaving the water to lay eggs (some species of snake also only leave the water to lay eggs).\nToday, there are around 300 turtle species, ranging from tiny, 8-cm tortoises all the way\nup to the oceangoing giant, the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), which can be 3\nm long and weigh 900 kg.\nEven though some truly bizarre turtles are still with us today, they pale in insigni\ufb01cance compared to an immense, land-living turtle that only became extinct in the last\ncouple thousand years. This was the horned turtle, and in life it must have been an astonishing animal. The horned turtle was around 2.5 m long, and it must have weighed in\nthe region of 500 to 700 kg. By comparison, the largest living land-dwelling turtle is the\nGal\u00e1pagos tortoise (Geochelone nigra) at about 300 kg and 1.2 m long. Imagine a horned\nturtle alongside a Gal\u00e1pagos tortoise and you get an idea of the size of this extinct beast.",
+    "years, and even after the Polynesians and their animals wiped out these small birds on the\nmainland, the population on Stephens Island was safe\u2014until the arrival of Europeans.\nThe British commandeered New Zealand as an extension of their growing empire, and\nin their learned opinion, what Stephens Island needed more than anything was a lighthouse to warn ships away from the rocks. In June 1879, a track to the proposed site for the\nlighthouse was cleared, and \ufb01ve years later, the lighthouse went into operation. In itself,\nthe lighthouse was no threat to the wren, but in those days, lighthouses were operated by\npeople, and people have pets\u2014often, cats.\nAt some point in 1894, a pregnant cat was brought to the island, and it seems that no\nsooner had she arrived than she gave her new owners the slip and escaped. This unassuming cat probably didn\u2019t realize how special she was. No predatory land mammal had ever",
+    "as a big lioness, around 150 kg, or possibly more (for comparison, a really big spotted hyena\nweighs around 90 kg). Due to its short legs, it was only marginally taller at the shoulder\nthan a spotted hyena (about 1 m), and its big skull was equipped with some formidable\nteeth, very well suited to dismembering carcasses.",
+    "but a major entrapment like this only\nneeded to happen once every 10 years\nover a 30,000-year period to account\nfor all the bones in the asphalt deposits.\nThe dead bodies would sink into the tar,\nand as the seep stopped, the volatile elements of the oil continued to evaporate,\nleaving hard, asphalt-impregnated clay\nand sand, and the bones.\nEven before the paleontological importance of this site was recognized,\nranchers took notice of the bones protruding from the asphalt deposits but\nmistakenly believed them to be the re- Rancho La Brea Asphalt Deposits\u2014This is an example\nmains of cattle and pronghorn that had of how an animal met its end in the asphalt deposits.\nwandered into the sticky tar. To date, The bison is attracted to the seep to drink the water\nmore than 660 species of plant and that has pooled on the asphalt. It becomes trapped in",
+    "around the world, top predators are persecuted by humans, while in others, these animals\nare revered. Perhaps the M\u0101ori hunted Haast\u2019s eagle, not only because it competed with\nthem for their food, but also as an act of reverence. In many aboriginal cultures, the body\nparts of powerful predators are collected and worn in the belief that the strengths of the\nanimal will be transferred to the wearer. Hunting and dwindling prey probably killed o\ufb00 the\nHaast\u2019s eagle before the last moa disappeared.\n\u2022 For a long time, it was assumed that Haast\u2019s eagle evolved from the wedge-tailed eagle\nthat is found throughout Australasia. Recently, scientists managed to extract some\nDNA from Haast\u2019s eagle bones, and this was compared to the DNA of living eagles.\nThis showed that the closest relative of Haast\u2019s eagle is the little eagle. Constructing a\nfamily tree from ancient DNA should always be done with caution as thousands of",
+    "FEWER THAN 10,000 YEARS AGO\n\nGIANT DEER\n\nGiant Deer\u2014The giant deer was about the same size as the moose, but its antlers were enormous. Some\nare more than 3.6 m across. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "do. However, these di\ufb00erences aside, so much of the American cheetah\u2019s skeleton is similar\nto the modern cheetah that it is very reasonable to assume these animals had very similar\nlifestyles.\nHow was the American cheetah related to the African cheetah? You would assume\nthat being so similar, the American cheetah and the living African cheetah would be very\nclosely related, and it has been argued that the American cheetah could have crossed the\nBering land bridge into Asia, eventually arriving in Africa and spawning the cheetah we\nknow today. However, nature is never that simple, and it is much more likely that these\nsimilarities arose due the process of convergent evolution\u2014the phenomenon by which\ntwo unrelated species end up resembling one another because they adapt to similar circumstances.\nFortunately for the pronghorn antelope, the American cheetah died out around 10,000",
+    "pushed to the edge on a number of occasions, only to spring back with renewed vigor when\nconditions have become more favorable.\nThese mass extinctions happened such a long time ago that the evidence for what caused\nthem is not immediately obvious, and for some of them, the evidence may have been worn\naway completely. Scientists have attributed these extinctions to meteorite impacts, massive\nvolcanic eruptions, and movement of the solar system through a galactic gas cloud, to name\nbut a few explanations. Regardless of the cause, some of these events saw the disappearance\nof huge numbers of species. The largest of these mass extinctions, which occurred 250 million years ago, resulted in the disappearance of 96 percent of all marine life and around 70\npercent of all terrestrial life. During this time, animal life must have been pushed to the very\nedge, reduced to a shadow of its former glory\u2014perhaps a few species clinging on to life in",
+    "the emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae), ostrich (Struthio camelus), rhea (Rhea sp.), cassowary\n(Casuarius sp.), and kiwi (Apteryx sp.); however, the biggest elephant bird, Aepyornis maxiumus, was enormous. It was about 3 m tall and probably weighed about 450 kg (the giant moa\nof New Zealand was actually taller but was way behind the elephant bird in terms of bulk\u2014\nmoa are discussed later in this chapter). On the island of Madagascar, there were few large\npredators, and the ancestors of the elephant birds had no need to \ufb02y; therefore this ability\nwas gradually lost. Grounded, these birds went on to become animals that were bound to the\nland. Their skeletons show that they had very powerful legs and that they plodded around\nMadagascar on their big feet. The wings were reduced to tiny structures and were probably",
+    "3-mm eggs in a long string in the breeding pool. Compared with many species of toad, the\ngolden toad laid relatively few big, yolk-packed eggs, rather than lots of small ones, and it is\nthought this breeding strategy evolved because of the small size of the pools on which the\ntoad depended. These pools didn\u2019t last very long, and so after the tadpole hatched, the race\nwas on to change into a toadlet as quickly as possible. The abundant yolk in the eggs was the\nfuel for this rapid development.\nAfter hatching, the tadpoles would spend around \ufb01ve weeks in the ephemeral pools before they lost their tadpole features and sprouted limbs, enabling them to begin their life on\nland. What the toads did outside of the breeding season is unknown. We don\u2019t know what\nfood they ate and how they went about catching it. The adults of the majority of other toad\nspecies are pretty unfussy when it comes to food, and they go for just about any creature that",
+    "\u2022 Some animal breeders and zoologists have suggested that the \ufb01ghting bulls of Spain\nhave many aurochslike characteristics and so perhaps they represent the closest living\nrelatives of these extinct beasts.\n\u2022 There is an ongoing, intense debate on how Europe looked after the end of the last\nice age. One group of scientists believes that all of Europe was covered by dense forest\nuntil humans came along and started chopping it all down. Another group supports\nthe idea that feeding and trampling by large animals like the aurochs opened up and\nmaintained large glades and paths within the forest. Bia\u0142owie\u017ca Forest, a World Heritage Site and biosphere reserve on the border between Poland and Belarus, is the last\nremnant of this European wildwood.\nFurther Reading: van Vuure, T. \u201cHistory, Morphology and Ecology of the Aurochs (Bos primigenius).\u201d Lutra 45 (2002): 1\u201316.",
+    "bred these animals to make them more docile. Selective breeding was also used to produce\ntypes of cattle that could yield copious amounts of milk. The udders of the female aurochs\nwere far smaller than the capacious glands in between a modern cow\u2019s back legs.\nHumans domesticated many other animals apart from the aurochs, and it was this change\nfrom a hunter-gatherer existence to an agricultural one that spelled the end for the aurochs.\nOver centuries and millennia, humans changed the habitats in which the aurochs lived.\nThey cut down the forests to plant crops or to make room for their domesticated animals to\ngraze and browse. The land they chose for their \ufb01rst agricultural attempts were those areas\nwith the richest soils: river deltas, valleys, and fertile wooded plains. These were the aurochs\u2019\nnatural habitat, and they were forced into areas where the food was perhaps not quite as\nnutritious. The large size and formidable temperament of these animals made them very",
+    "CARIBBEAN MONK SEAL\n\nCaribbean Monk Seal\u2014Habitat loss, persecution, and competition with humans for food forced the Caribbean monk seal into extinction. (Phil Miller)\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 100 YEARS AGO",
+    "large bipedal primates from other parts of the world, the most familiar of which is\nthe Sasquatch (bigfoot) of North America. The world is certainly huge, with many\nremote places, but is it big enough to hide viable populations of 300- to 500-kg primates during more than 500 years of intense exploration? As the bones of the giant\nape testify, the earth, at some point, has been home to huge primates, but the chances\nof them surviving into the modern day, amid more than 6 billion humans, are vanishingly small. Stories of the Sasquatch and yeti undoubtedly capture the public\u2019s interest,\nbut the stark realization is that they are probably nothing more than \ufb01gments of the\nimagination.\nFurther Reading: Simons, E. L., and P. C. Ettel. \u201cGigantopithecus.\u201d Scientific American, January 1970;\nCiochon, R. L., J. Olsen, and J. James. Other Origins: The Search for the Giant Ape in Human Prehistory. New York: Bantam Books, 1990.",
+    "The megatooth shark was undoubtedly a predator, but what did it eat and where did\nit hunt? The remains that have been found suggest that the shark was an inhabitant of\nshallow, warm to cool temperate coastal waters\u2014habitats that were commonplace around\n10 million years ago. These waters were home to a wealth of marine mammals that had\nevolved from ancestors that took to the water not long (in geological terms) after the extinction of the dinosaurs. This marine mammal fauna consisted of whales, seals, sea lions, and\nthe extinct relatives of dugongs and manatees. It is probable that the megatooth shark ate all\nthese animals, but it may have been a specialist predator of whales. Fossils of extinct whales\nhave been found bearing deep gashes the right size and shape to have been in\ufb02icted by the\nslashing teeth of the megatooth shark. You can just imagine this 50-tonne shark slamming\ninto the side of an ancient, 10-m-long baleen whale and tearing out a huge chunk of blubber",
+    "GIANT HYENA\nScientific name: Pachycrocuta brevirostris\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivora\nFamily: Hyaenidae\n\n\f\n\nMORE THAN 50,000 YEARS AGO\n\nGiant Hyena\u2014The giant hyena was about the same size as a big lioness and was probably capable of dismembering some very large carcasses with its formidable teeth and jaws. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "to remain with the same mate for its whole life, and it is an intriguing thought that these\ngiant, long-dead birds, known only from a few bones, formed pair bonds that lasted their\nentire reproductive life.\nIt would be a fabulous sight to see a bird of the magni\ufb01cent teratorn\u2019s enormity gliding\nover the South American pampas and Patagonia, but this animal has long since disappeared\nfrom the face of the earth. Its demise cannot be attributed to the changes that occurred at the\nend of the last ice age, changes that coincide with the disappearance of other American megafauna. We can\u2019t attribute its demise to our own species as it disappeared a long time before\nmodern humans arrived on the scene in the Americas. It is likely that as the Andes rose into\nthe air over millennia, the perpetual westerly winds that scoured the pampas were reduced. It\nis also possible that the strong westerly winds shifted to the south as the postglacial climate",
+    "Ashley Ward, Rod Wells, Richard S. Williams, Paul Willis, and Michael Wilson.\nThe following institutions have also kindly provided me with photographs: the Natural\nHistory Museum at Tring, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, the Texas Memorial Museum, and the Australian Museum.\nFinally, I would like to say a big thanks to Renata Cunha and Phil Miller for the excellent\nillustrations you will see throughout this book.",
+    "A. Cooper. \u201cEvolution of the Extinct Sabertooths and the American Cheetah-like Cat.\u201d Current Biology 15 (2005): 589\u201390; Christiansen, P., and J. M. Harris. \u201cBody Size of Smilodon (Mammalia: Felidae).\u201d Journal of Morphology 266 (2005): 369\u201384; McCall, S., V. Naples, and L. Martin. \u201cAssessing\nBehavior in Extinct Animals: Was Smilodon Social?\u201d Brain, Behaviour and Evolution 61 (2003):\n159\u201364; Christiansen, P. \u201cComparative Bite Forces and Canine Bending Strength in Feline and Sabertooth Felids: Implications for Predatory Ecology.\u201d Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 151\n(2007): 423\u201337; Anyonge, W. \u201cMicrowear on Canines and Killing Behavior in Large Carnivores:\nSaber Function in Smilodon fatalis.\u201d Journal of Mammalogy 77 (1996): 1059\u201367.",
+    "\ufb02ying; long legs; and powerful feet. Outward similarities in nature can be misleading, and\nthe parallelism between the thunderbirds and the ratites is simply due to the phenomenon\nof convergent evolution. The origins of the thunderbirds are very di\ufb00erent from the origins\nof the ratites. Essentially, they were ducks that grew to enormous proportions in the isolated refuge of Australia.\nThe \ufb01rst bone of a thunderbird was encountered in the late 1820s in the Wellington\nCaves, New South Wales, by a team led by Thomas Mitchell, but almost 50 more years went\nby until the \ufb01rst species of thunderbird was formally identi\ufb01ed by Richard Owen. Since\nthen, many thunderbird bones have been found throughout Australia. The most common\n\ufb01nds have been vertebrae, the long bones of the hind limbs, and toe bones. Bird skulls are",
+    "Scientific name: Zaglossus hacketti\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Monotremata\nFamily: Tachyglossidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The giant echidna died out about 40,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The remains of the giant echidna have only been found in Australia,\nbut its range may have included New Guinea.\nThe monotremes are a very odd group of mammals that have perplexed zoologists for\ndecades. In some ways, they are unquestionably mammals as they have fur, nourish their\nyoung with milk, and are able to keep their body temperature constant by metabolizing\nfood. However, they also have some reptilian features, that is, they lay eggs and their feces,\nurine, and eggs emerge from a common opening: the cloaca. The \ufb01rst species of monotreme\nto come to the attention of European scientists was the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) when the dried skins of this animal were sent to England from Australia. These skins",
+    "of this species came with the arrival of Europeans. The ways of the Europeans were very\ndi\ufb00erent to the ways of the American Indians, and they cleared large areas of forest to\nmake way for agriculture. The Carolina parakeet was not only dependent on the forests",
+    "INDEX\nIndiana, 100\nIndigenous Australians. See Aboriginals\nIndonesia, 13, 66, 166; migration to and\nfrom, 44, 61, 72. See also Flores human;\nHomo erectus\nInjury: cave bears, 115; Neanderthals, 138;\nsustained by predatory mammals, 105\nInnuit, 6\nInsectivore, 59, 60, 156\u201358\nInsulation, 74\nInterstadial (interglacial), 105, 121\u201323, 133;\nWoodgrange, 80\nIntroduced species, 12, 18, 25, 28, 37, 44, 49,\n59, 60, 65, 67\nIowa, 7\nIraq, 76, 78\nIreland, 79, 80\nIrish Elk. See Giant deer\nIsland colonization, 60\u2013 62; Caribbean,\n59\u2013 60, 176; Falklands, 38; Great American\nInterchange, 41\u2013 42; Hawaii, 64; Indonesia,\n129\u201330, 137; Madagascar, 45, 71; Mauritius,\n49; Mediterranean, 116\u201319; New Zealand,\n55\u201356; St. Stephens, 28, 30; South Paci\ufb01c, 152\nIsland rule: dwar\ufb01ng in mammals 75, 117\u201318,\n127\u201331; gigantism in birds, 43\u2013 45, 52\u201358,\n48\u201350, 83\u2013 85, 117\u201318\nIsthmus of Panama, 41\u2013 42, 91, 173, 175, 176\nJaguar, 42, 90, 96, 105, 111, 172\nJamaica. See Antilles\nJurassic, 55\nKamchatka, 45, 47",
+    "The youngest remains of the giant camel are about 1 million years old, and we know that\nthere were no humans in North America to hunt them at that time, so why did they become\nextinct? We don\u2019t know for sure, but climate change was the likely culprit. As the climate\ncooled, the preferred habitat of the giant camel\u2014open forest\u2014may have been replaced by\ngrassland, and this enormous beast was squeezed out of existence.\n\u2022 Today, the camels and their relatives are represented by the dromedary and Bactrian\ncamels of the Old World and the llama (Lama glama), guanaco (Lama guanicoe),\nvicu\u00f1a (Vicugna vicugna), and alpaca (Vicugna pacos) of the New World.\n\u2022 Even though the camels, as a group, originated and underwent most of their evolution\nin North America, they died out there about 10,000 years ago, but millions of years\nago, the ancestors of the two living camel species migrated into Asia via the Bering land\nbridge.",
+    "teeth in the rear of their mouths, but they continued to grow throughout the animal\u2019s life.\nThis and the massive, deep mandible, which, in the living animal, was moved by huge jaw\nmuscles, show that the glypotodonts were herbivorous animals that fed on \ufb01brous plant\nfood. Exactly what plants they ate can only be surmised, but perhaps the grasses and lowgrowing vegetation of the prehistoric South American grasslands were their favored food.\nIt is not clear what predators the glyptodont\u2019s armor was protecting them from. Certainly the fossil record has not o\ufb00ered up any predator that appears to have been powerful\nenough to kill an adult glyptodont. Saber tooth cats, huge terror birds, and jaguar-sized\npredatory marsupials all lived alongside the glyptodonts, but it is hard to believe that any of\nthese animals could have gotten the better of an adult glyptodont. Perhaps only the young\nglyptodonts were vulnerable to predation, as is the case for some of the large mammals that",
+    "WOOLLY RHINOCEROS\n\nWoolly Rhinoceros\u2014The woolly rhinoceros was widespread throughout northern Europe and Asia until\nthe end of the last glaciation. (Phil Miller)\n\nScientific name: Coelodonta antiquitatis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\n\n\f\n\n10,000\u201312,500 YEARS AGO",
+    "to the whinnying alarm of the quagga and most probably attacked by this tenacious horse.\nSome quaggas also found their way to Europe, where they ended up in the big zoos. The\npowers that be at London Zoo thought a quagga breeding program would be an excellent\nidea; however, this quickly came unstuck when the lone stallion lost its temper and bashed\nitself to death against the wall of its enclosure. Regardless of the quagga\u2019s spirited nature,\nit seems there was a trend for quaggas as harness animals, and the cobbled streets of 1830s\nLondon rang out to the sounds of their cantering hooves. Just how they were coaxed into\npulling a carriage full of genteel Londoners is unknown, but they were probably gelded\nbeforehand.\nThe Boers, and the British before them, were quick in taming the verdant lands of South\nAfrica, lands that abounded in game and opportunity. The native tribes of South Africa\nfought these invaders but were forced to abandon their prime territories. The Europeans",
+    "I would like to thank the following people who have helped me with this book by reviewing content and providing me with photographs: Robert McNeill Alexander, Herculano\nAlvarenga, Christine Argot, Jennifer Rae Atkins, Susana Bargo, John Clay Bruner, Per\nChristiansen, Russell L. Ciochon, Darin Croft, Matt Cupper, Chris Dickman, Judith\nField, Claude Gu\u00e9rin, Michael D. Gottfried, Tim Halliday, Fritz Hertel, Don Hitchcock,\nChristine Janis, Paul Johnsgard, Paul Kitching, Rob Kruszynski, Tatiana Kuznetsova,\nDavid Laist, Roger Lederer, Adrian Lister, Je\ufb00rey Lockwood, Marco Masseti, Raoul\nMutter, Pancho Prevosti, Julian Pender Hume, V\u00edctor Hugo Reynoso Rosales, Dave Roberts, Hans Rothauscher, John D. Scanlon, Elwyn L. Simons, Nikos Solounia, John D.\nSpeth, Mary Stiner, Tony Stuart, Ian Tattersall, Eduardo Pedro Tonni, Cis van Vuure,\nAshley Ward, Rod Wells, Richard S. Williams, Paul Willis, and Michael Wilson.",
+    "\u2022 The name \u201clitoptern\u201d means \u201csimple ankle\u201d and refers to the bone structure of the ankle\nof these animals as the articulation of the bones is not as complex as in other large\nherbivorous mammals.\n\u2022 Fossils of Macrauchenia patachonia have been found in Patagonia all the way up to Bolivia, so this was a very widespread species. Many litoptern fossils have been discovered\nin the Lujan formation, near Buenos Aires in Argentina.\n\u2022 The placental mammalian predators that moved into South America during the Great\nAmerican Interchange included familiar animals like the jaguar and puma.\nFurther Reading: MacFadden, B. J. \u201cExtinct Mammalian Biodiversity of the Ancient New World\nTropics.\u201d Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21 (2006): 157\u201365; Reguero, M. A., S. A. Marenssi, and\nS. N. Santillana. \u201cAntarctic Peninsula and South America (Patagonia) Paleogene Terrestrial Faunas\nand Environments: Biogeographic Relationships.\u201d Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology",
+    "Further Reading: \u201cAncient DNA Tells Story of Giant Eagle Evolution.\u201d PLoS Biology 3 (2005): e20;\nBunce, M., M. Szulkin, H.R.L. Lerner, I. Barnes, B. Shapiro, A. Cooper, and R. N. Holdaway. \u201cAncient DNA Provides New Insights into the Evolutionary History of New Zealand\u2019s Extinct Giant\nEagle.\u201d PLoS Biology 3 (2005): e9; Brathwaite, D. H. \u201cNotes on the Weight, Flying Ability, Habitat,\nand Prey of Haast\u2019s Eagle (Harpagornis moorei).\u201d Notornis 39 (1992): 239\u201347.",
+    "groups or how the adults interacted during the breeding season. What we do know is that\nthey were hopelessly ill adapted to deal with human disturbance.\nThe dodo was \ufb01rst described in 1598, although Arab voyagers and Europeans had discovered Mauritius many years previously and had undoubtedly seen its unique animals. The\nlarge dodo excited hungry seafarers who had not eaten fresh meat for many months while\nout at sea; however, the \ufb02esh of the dodo was far from \ufb02avorsome. Even the unpleasant taste\nof the dodo\u2019s tough \ufb02esh didn\u2019t stop people from killing them for food, often in large numbers, and any birds that could not be eaten straight away were salted and stored on the ship\nfor the rest of the voyage. Hunting the dodo was said to be a very easy exercise. It couldn\u2019t\n\ufb02y or even run at any great speed, and it also had the great misfortune of being completely\nunafraid of humans. Dodos had never seen a human, and as a result, they had not learned",
+    "bacteria that are responsible for the process of decay. Well-preserved bones and tissue,\nthousands of years old, can be found in the lake clays, with only peat staining to show\nfor their long entombment.\n\u2022 Most of the Irish specimens have been found beneath the peat in a layer known as lake\nclays. Geologists know that these clays were deposited between 10,600 and 12,100\nyears ago and belong to a period of time known as the Woodgrange Interstadial. This\nperiod occurred toward the end of the last ice age and was marked by a climate that\nwas similar to today\u2019s. This period produced conditions perfect for preservation, which\nis why we \ufb01nd so many specimens of giant deer from this time.\n\u2022 The most complete skeleton of a giant deer, now on display at the Paleontological Institute in Moscow, was discovered near the Russian town of Sapozhka. This \ufb01ne specimen really gives a sense of how imposing the living animal must have been.",
+    "warrah had probably never seen humans and had therefore never learned to be afraid of\nthem, an unfortunate fact that contributed to the extinction of this interesting dog.\nAlthough the Falkland Islands are a harsh place, certain breeds of hardy sheep were well\nsuited to the conditions, and they were introduced to the islands as a way of laying the foundations for the \ufb01rst human colonies on the islands. The sheep thrived on the islands, and as\nhumanity tightened its grip on the Falklands, the warrah was seen as a menace that had to\nbe exterminated. Like all dogs, the warrah was an opportunistic feeder, and it undoubtedly\nfed on the introduced sheep and lambs that nibbled the Falkland Island grass, but islanders,\nin their ignorance, believed the warrah was a vampire that killed sheep and lambs to suck\ntheir blood, only resorting to meat eating in times of desperation. Horri\ufb01c myths can be\nvery compelling, especially on a group of small islands where news travels fast and where",
+    "Scientific name: Panthera leo atrox\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivore\nFamily: Felidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The American lion became extinct around 10,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? This cat was widespread in America, and its remains have been found\nfrom Alaska all the way down to Southern California. No remains have been found in\nthe eastern United States or on the Florida peninsula.\nThe American lion is a very well known fossil animal. More than 100 specimens of this\ncat have been recovered from the asphalt deposits of Rancho La Brea alone, and disjointed\nbones and entire skeletons have been recovered from a host of other sites. All this material\ngives us a good idea of what this animal looked like as well as how it lived.\n\n\f\n\n10,000\u201312,500 YEARS AGO",
+    "The diprotodon had a big skull, and like its feet, this was also quite fragile, with lots of\nhollow spaces. In the way of teeth, the skull contained four molars in each jaw, three pairs of\nupper incisors, and one pair of lower incisors. From this dentition, we can deduce that the\ndiprotodons were herbivorous\u2014probably browsers, rather than grazers, as their incisors\nenabled them to strip vegetation from branches. The molars, with their \ufb02at surfaces, ground\nthe food before it was swallowed. In the skeletal remains of some diprotodons found at\nLake Callabonna, the remains of saltbush were identi\ufb01ed where the stomach would have\nbeen. This plant is far from nutritious, and it is likely that they only ate such things when\nthey were starving, for example, during the dry season. So we know these marsupials were",
+    "183\n\n\f\n\n184\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\ncivilizations that its populations exploded, and the wild animals were tamed or bred\nout of existence. The Bactrian camel still exists in the wild, but the population is no\nmore than 1,000 animals, and they are limited to the northwestern corner of China\nand Mongolia, where they manage to survive in the unbelievably hostile Gobi Desert.\n\u2022 The camels use a pacing gait to get around. The legs on the left side of the body step\ntogether, followed by the right legs. This unusual gait may look awkward, but it is\nactually a very energy-e\ufb03cient way of getting around. A camel\u2019s pace can be quite unstable because of all the side-to-side motion; however, this is counteracted by its welldeveloped footpads.\nFurther Reading: Harrison, J. A. \u201cGiant Camels from the Cenozoic of North America.\u201d Smithsonian\nContributions to Paleobiology 57 (1985): 1\u201329; Breyer, J. \u201cTitanotylopus (= Gigantocamelus) from the\nGreat Plains Cenozoic.\u201d Journal of Paleontology 50 (1976): 783\u201388.",
+    "these bears over hundreds of thousands of years, and where the passages are quite narrow, the\nwalls have been polished by the comings and goings of countless furry bodies over the ages.\nSuper\ufb01cially, the cave bear was very similar to the living brown bear, but it was undoubtedly a distinct species. It was much bigger than a European brown bear (Ursus arctos), and\nsome adult males, fat from feeding in preparation for the winter hibernation, probably\nweighed in the region of 400 kg. The cave bear also had a relatively large head and short,\npowerful limbs, while the brown bear has a leggier appearance. The most notable feature of\nthe cave bear\u2019s skeleton is its large, domed skull, which has a characteristically steep forehead. Unfortunately for this extinct bear, this vaulted cranium did not house an enlarged\nbrain. Cutting one of these ancient skulls in half shows that the braincase of the cave bear",
+    "ing this extinct human as a stooped,\nthe greatest mysteries in human evolution. (Phil Miller)\ntroll-like beast. True, the Neanderthals may have had quite a brutish appearance by our terms, what with their stout limbs,\nbroad chests, projecting brows, and powerful jaws, but in recent times, our view of our\nlong-dead relatives has changed, as more remains have come to light. These remains are not\nridiculously common, but they do tell us a story of a species\u2014another human species\u2014\nwith which we once shared the earth, and it has become clear that Neanderthals, far from",
+    "seems that some predators were aware of the dangers of the pits, or at least were repelled\nby the odor of the tar. Whatever the reason, the treasure trove of dire wolf remains from\nRancho La Brea gives us an unsurpassed record of the appearance and life of this animal.\nFurther Reading: Leonard, J. A., C. Vila, K. Fox-Dobbs, P. L. Koch, R. K. Wayne, and B. Van\nValkenburgh. \u201cMegafaunal Extinctions and the Disappearance of a Specialized Wolf Ecomorph.\u201d\nCurrent Biology 17 (2007): 1146\u201350.",
+    "Gondwanaland\u2014a probable landmass in the Southern Hemisphere that separated many\nmillions of years ago to form South America, Africa, Antarctica, and Australia.\nGreenhouse gas\u2014any gas in the atmosphere that traps the heat re\ufb02ected from the earth\u2019s\nsurface, e.g., carbon dioxide or methane.\nHolocene\u2014the present geological epoch, which began around 10,000 years ago.\nHominid\u2014a collective term for extinct and extant humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and\norangutans.\nInterstadial\u2014a period of colder temperatures during an interglacial.\nInvertebrate\u2014any animal that lacks a vertebral column.\nIridium\u2014a very dense metallic element that is rare on earth but more common in asteroids\nand meteorites.\nIsland rule\u2014a principle in evolutionary biology stating that members of a species get\nsmaller or bigger depending on the resources available in the environment.\nJoey\u2014the name given to an infant kangaroo or wallaby.\nJurassic\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 145 to 199 million years",
+    "of speed, and it has been estimated that some species of terror bird could reach speeds of\n100 km per hour\u2014comparable to a cheetah. The combination of running, big talons, and\na monstrous beak made the terror birds very e\ufb00ective predators. It is possible to imagine\none of these birds snapping at the hooves of ancient mammals as it pursued them across\nthe grasslands of the Americas. Smaller animals were probably immobilized with the sharp\ntalons before being torn apart by the fearsome hooked bill or even swallowed whole after\nhaving their skull crushed in the bird\u2019s vicelike grip. Larger prey animals may have been\ndisemboweled with kung fu\u2013style kicks, and it is even possible that crushing kicks may have\nbeen used to crack the larger bones of big prey to get at the nutritious marrow within.\nEven if the last terror bird became extinct around 1.8 million years ago, these were successful animals that, as a group, survived for more than 50 million years, some of them even",
+    "and carry certain choice cuts back to its lair, where cubs were probably waiting for food. In\nChina, there is clear evidence of the giant hyena carrying food back to its lair. Zhoukoudian\nis a cave system near Beijing, and it is here that paleontologists found a great haul of mammal bones in the 1930s, including the remains of several giant hyenas. The hyenas had undoubtedly used these caves as lairs, and this is where they brought bits of carcasses to feed\ntheir growing cubs. Amazingly, the remains of at least 40 Homo erectus individuals were also\nunearthed in the caves. The question is, did our ancient ancestors live in these caves, or were\ntheir dismembered remains carried there by the giant hyenas? Homo erectus was de\ufb01nitely\ncapable of making and using weapons (see the entry \u201cHomo erectus\u201d in chapter 6), but was",
+    "GREENWOOD PRESS\nWestport, Connecticut \u2022 London\n\n\f\n\nLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data\nPiper, Ross.\nExtinct animals : an encyclopedia of species that have disappeared\nduring human history / Ross Piper ; illustrations by Renata Cunha and\nPhil Miller.\np. cm.\nIncludes bibliographical references and index.\nISBN 978\u20130\u2013313\u201334987\u20134 (alk. paper)\n1. Extinct animals\u2014Encyclopedias. I. Title.\nQL83.P57 2009\n591.6803\u2014dc22\n2008050409\nBritish Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.\nCopyright \u00a9 2009 by Ross Piper\nAll rights reserved. No portion of this book may be\nreproduced, by any process or technique, without the\nexpress written consent of the publisher.\nLibrary of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008050409\nISBN: 978\u20130\u2013313\u201334987\u20134\nFirst published in 2009\nGreenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881\nAn imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.\nwww.greenwood.com\nPrinted in the United States of America",
+    "actually a shallow sea, and these single-celled organisms died and sank to the bottom, where they\nbecame part of a thick layer of sediment. As the climate changed and the continents moved around,\nthe sea disappeared, and the dead plankton, entombed under tonnes of overlying sediment, were\nslowly converted into an oil and gas deposit by the pressure and heat. Fractured rocks above this oil\n\ufb01eld provided a path to the surface, through which the crude oil seeped, accumulating in numerous\npools that dotted what is today known as Hancock Park. Over thousands of years, some of these\nseeps ended, while new ones began, but all the while, they were a trap for a myriad of species of animals. Sometimes a seep produced a tar pit that was deep enough to trap really large animals. How\nanimals became trapped in the tar isn\u2019t known for sure, but it is thought that water, leaves, and dust\naccumulated on the tar pits and animals were deceived into wading in to bathe or drink. This was",
+    "South America actually originated in North America, for example, the llamas and tapirs. Other\nmigrants from the north included horses; cats such as the cougar and jaguar; dogs; bears; and several\ntypes of rodent, to name but a few animals. Some South American mammals managed to cross the\nland bridge into North America, but many of these are now extinct, including the glyptodonts and\ngiant ground sloths. The only surviving North American mammals to have their origins in South\nAmerica are the Virginia opossum, the nine-banded armadillo, and the North American porcupine.\nFor reasons that are not completely understood, the South American species did not fare well\nwhen it came to invading the north, while the North American species thrived in the South American lands. The only ancient South American animals to make any lasting impression in North\nAmerica were the ones with some sort of protection. The extinct glyptodonts, like the armadillos,",
+    "divide them another way into three groups: there are marine forms, with legs modi\ufb01ed\ninto \ufb02ippers, for example, the leatherback turtle; terrestrial forms, with thick, pillarlike\nlegs, for example, the Gal\u00e1pagos tortoises; and semiaquatic forms, for example, terrapins and snapping turtles.\n\u2022 Many of the living species of turtle may soon follow the horned giant to extinction\nas they are incredibly endangered. Some of the very rare species only survive in small\npopulations on isolated islands, while the oceangoing species are at risk from \ufb01shing\nhooks, drift nets, and direct hunting. Without complete and active protection, it is very\nlikely that some of the most amazing turtles could be extinct within 30 years.\n\u2022 As turtles lead such slow lives, they are among the most long-lived of the all the vertebrates. The Gal\u00e1pagos tortoise can live to be at least 150 years old. One famous, longlived radiated tortoise (Geochelone radiate) was presented to the Tongan royal family in",
+    "of other herbivores were well within the predatory abilities of the saber tooth cats, and they\nrepresented a feast for any animal that could bring them down. Catching and killing a large\nherbivore is no mean feat, even for a hugely powerful, 400-kg cat with 20-cm canines.\nExactly how S. populator and the other Smilodon species caught and killed their prey has\nbeen a bone of contention for decades, but a look at the remains of these long-dead animals\ndoes give us some clues. Their stocky build and their relatively short limbs indicate that they\nwere probably ambush predators. They may have skulked behind bushes and other vegetation\nand pounced on an unfortunate ungulate when it came within range. This is a plausible ex-",
+    "Indonesia at least 840,000 years ago, may have come into contact with them. Their reaction\nto these animals is hard to imagine, but if the giant apes were gentle plant eaters, they could\nhave been just another animal to kill and eat.\nOne thing is certain: the bones of this animal are very rare, but it\u2019s hopefully only a matter of time before more complete remains are unearthed to give us a better idea of how this\nanimal looked and when it vanished.\n\u2022 The yeti is known by many names, including the \u201cabominable snowman,\u201d a name that\nwas undoubtedly coined by British explorers in the nineteenth century. There are monasteries in Nepal that treasure the supposed remains of the yeti, including a scalp and\nthe bones of a hand. Tests have been conducted on the scalp, and the skin is actually\nfrom a goat.\n\u2022 The tales of the yeti are not the only stories of giant primates. There are reports of\nlarge bipedal primates from other parts of the world, the most familiar of which is",
+    "species. I say almost all because birds are the direct descendents of these animals. Every time\nyou look at your bird feeder or see a \ufb02ock of geese heading south for the winter, you are see-",
+    "New Guinea. The site also yielded no fewer than 11 complete skeletons of the marsupial lion, an animal that was only previously known from a handful of skeletons. The largest animal in the assemblage\nwas the extinct giant wombat, Phascolonus gigas, which, at 200 kg, goes to show that the sinkhole was\nquite some pitfall trap.\nAll of the amazing animals the scientists discovered fell through the opening of the sinkhole and\nended up on the chamber \ufb02oor some 30 m beneath the surface. Not many of the remains were found",
+    "that the female laid between 26 and 40 eggs and that these were then fertilized by the male.\nAgain, this is the normal amphibian approach when it comes to breeding as fertilization in\nall these animals is external. It is not completely clear what happened next as it was never",
+    "can be fairly certain that the marsupial lion was a specialist predator because it possessed so\nmany unique features that bear no resemblance to any other predatory marsupials we know,\nalive or dead. We do know that the marsupial lion shared its home with that other great\nantipodean predator, the thylacine, and for two top predators to have coexisted in space and\ntime, they must have lived in quite di\ufb00erent ways. It\u2019s plausible to think of the thylacine as a\nwol\ufb02ike predator, using its stamina to chase down prey, and the marsupial lion as more of an\nambusher, taking its prey unaware and dispatching it with its battery of weapons.\nAlong with many of the other unusual mammals that once roamed Australia, the marsupial lion became extinct around 40,000 years ago. This date coincides with a period of",
+    "same position in which they had died thousands of years previously.\nFurther Reading: Wroe, S., C. McHenry, and J. Thomason. \u201cBite Club: Comparative Bite Force in Big\nBiting Mammals and the Prediction of Predatory Behaviour in Fossil Taxa.\u201d Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 272 (2005): 619\u201325; Prideaux, G. J., J. A. Long, L. K. Ayliffe, J. C. Hellstrom,\nB. Pillans, W. E. Boles, M. N. Hutchinson, R. G. Roberts, M. L. Cupper, L. J. Arnolds, P. D. Devine,\nand N. M. Warburton. \u201cAn Arid-Adapted Middle Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna from South-Central\nAustralia.\u201d Nature 445 (2007): 422\u201325.",
+    "normally lived in small groups, although larger \ufb02ocks would gather in the presence of\nabundant food, and it was not unusual to see 200 to 300 birds in a brilliant, raucous gathering. Like so many other parrots, the Carolina parakeet was a monogamous, long-lived\nspecies that brooded two white eggs in the cavities of deciduous trees. During most of\nthe day, the Carolina parakeet would roost in the highest branches, and it was only in the\nmorning and evening that the small \ufb02ocks would take to the wing in search of food and\nwater. Like other parrots, it could use its strong bill to crack open seeds and nuts to get at\ntheir nutritious contents.\nThe productive lands of North America suited the Carolina parakeet, and for hundreds\nof thousands of years, this bird brought a riot of color to the deciduous forests of this continent. Even when the \ufb01rst humans to colonize North America encroached on the woodlands of the Carolina parakeet, it continued to thrive. The turning point in the survival",
+    "Extinction Insight: Ice Ages\nIt took a very long time indeed for humans to determine that the earth is far from the stable home\nwe think it is. Changes in the geometry of the oval orbit along which the earth circles the sun,\nchanges in the earth\u2019s tilt over time, changes in the way in which the earth progresses along this orbit,\nand other, as yet unknown factors all contribute to what can only be described as a very variable\nclimate, both in the short and long term.\nFor immense stretches of time, the earth has been a hothouse with no trace of ice anywhere,\na colossal ball of ice, and every variation in between. Currently we consider ourselves to be in the\nmiddle of a pleasant, balmy period, but in actual fact, the earth is locked in the grip of an ice age,\nand it has been for the last 2 million years. Phrases like \u201csince the last ice age ended\u201d are a dime a\ndozen, but the truth of the matter is that we are merely in what is known as an interglacial, a warm",
+    "Australia was once home to a unique collection of beasts, including giant marsupials\nand fearsome reptiles. However, scurrying around the big feet of this megafauna were a\nhuge number of small marsupials that evolved to \ufb01ll most of the ecological niches occupied\nby placental mammals in other parts of the world. There were rabbitlike marsupials, tiny\nmouselike animals, even a marsupial equivalent of a mole, to name but a few. Some of these\nanimals can still be found today, but many ended up going the same way as the other long\ngone denizens of Australia.\nThe pig-footed bandicoot was one of these animals. For millions of years, this odd little marsupial, which was no bigger than a kitten, lived throughout Australia, but in recent\ntimes, it became restricted to the arid and semiarid inland plains. This bandicoot, with its\nrabbit ears, was probably a familiar sight to the Australian Aborigines as it hopped and\nbounded around the plains.",
+    "like the giant lemur must have been prized as food, and as the forests were cleared to make\nway for crops, the native animals of the island were squeezed into smaller and smaller patches\nof habitat. Shortly after the arrival of the Indonesians, Bantu people from the east coast of\nAfrica also migrated to Madagascar, and they brought their own types of devastation.",
+    "to be a survival mechanism that allows the insects to disperse into new habitats when\nthings get a little cramped during periods of worsening environmental conditions that\nconcentrate the nymphs into ever shrinking areas. In their normal or solitary phase,",
+    "GIANT APE\n\nGiant Ape\u2014A giant ape shown alongside the silhouette of a modern human to give an idea of size. They\nmay have been even larger than this, although it is not known if they were bipedal. (Phil Miller)\n\n179\n\n\f\n\n180\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "When did it become extinct? This marsupial appears to have gone extinct approximately\n40,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The marsupial lion was found only in Australia.\nThe word marsupial conjures up images of cuddly creatures like the kangaroo, koala bear,\nand wombat, but many thousands of years ago, some very di\ufb00erent marsupials stalked Australia, and one of these, the marsupial lion\u2014a relative of the wombats and kangaroos\u2014was\nprobably the most bizarre pouched mammal that has ever lived. Sir Richard Owen, the\nrenowned Victorian paleontologist, was \ufb01rst to describe this animal from a small collection\nof skull fragments, and in a 1859 Royal Society paper he said these bones must have come\nfrom \u201cthe fellest and most destructive of predatory beasts.\u201d He described it as a marsupial\n\u201clion.\u201d For many years, the deductions of Richard Owen were questioned as this was an extinct marsupial whose closest relatives were vegetarians. However, over time, more remains",
+    "When did it become extinct? The estimates for when the last scimitar cat became extinct\nvary between 10,000 and 13,000 years ago, but it is possible that they survived into\nmore recent times.\nWhere did it live? The remains of the scimitar cat have been found in North America,\nEurasia, and Africa.\nThousands of years ago, the world was a dangerous place, what with the saber tooth cats\non the prowl\u2014predators that must have surely been greatly feared by our ancestors. If fearsome saber tooths were not enough, there were other species of powerful, large-fanged cats\nthat stalked the earth at the same time, and among the most well known of these are the\nscimitar cats.\nFossils of scimitar cats are not as common as those of the saber tooth cats, but the remains of 33 adults and kittens of one species (Homotherium serum) were found in a cave in\nTexas. Some of these skeletons were complete, giving us a good idea of what the scimitar",
+    "Jurassic\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 145 to 199 million years\nago.\nKeel\u2014the large extension of the sternum (breastbone) that serves as a muscle attachment\nin all \ufb02ying birds.\nKelp\u2014large seaweeds often found growing in so-called forests in shallow, nutrient-rich\nwaters.\nKeratin\u2014a structural protein that is found in skin, hair, hooves, and claws.\nLaurasia\u2014the northern part of the Pangaean supercontinent comprising Asia, Europe, and\nNorth America.\nMagma\u2014molten rock that sometimes forms beneath the surface of the earth.\nMalagasy\u2014anything related to the island of Madagascar, including the people and the\nlanguage.\nMantle\u2014the 2,900 km thick layer of the earth\u2019s interior that surrounds the core.\nM\u0101ori\u2014the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand and their language.\nMarsupial\u2014a group of mammals native to Australasia and South America that give birth\nwhen the young are in a very early stage of development; the remainder of their development takes place in a pouch.",
+    "their range to cover much of the Northern Hemisphere. This success was mainly due to one\nspecies: the woolly rhinoceros.\nThe woolly rhinoceros was about the same size as the biggest living rhinoceri, the white and\nIndian rhino, but thanks to its shaggy coat, it probably looked a lot more imposing. This ice age\nbrute was around 1.8 m tall and 3.5 m long, and it probably weighed in the region of 3 tonnes.\nOn its head were two horns, the longest of which was around 1 m. As its name suggests, the\nwoolly rhinoceros was completely clothed in thick fur, and this pelage, together with a thick\nlayer of fat beneath its skin, helped to insulate its body from the cold. Our ancestors were\nobviously well aware of the woolly rhinoceros as it has been depicted numerous times in European cave paintings. Some of these cave paintings appear to show the woolly rhinoceros with a\ndark-colored band of fur around its middle. Whether this was artistic license on behalf of the",
+    "Scientific name: Mammuthus primigenius\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Proboscidea\nFamily: Elephantidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The woolly mammoth is thought to have become extinct\naround 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, although a dwarf race of this species survived until\naround 1700 b.c.\nWhere did it live? The woolly mammoth roamed over a huge area of the prehistoric earth,\nincluding northern North America and northern Eurasia.\nWhat African safari would be complete without a sighting of an elephant? We associate\nthese majestic animals, the largest of all land-living animals, with warm places, yet thousands of years ago, the world was a very di\ufb00erent place\u2014a much chillier place\u2014and a longdead relative of the elephants we know today actually thrived in bitterly cold conditions.\nThe species was the woolly mammoth, and in essence, it was an elephant covered in a dense\npelage of shaggy hair.",
+    "actually seen, but at some point after the eggs were fertilized, either when they were still\neggs or when they had hatched into tiny tadpoles, the female swallowed as many of her o\ufb00spring as she could. To the uninitiated, this may have looked like maternal cannibalism, but\nin fact, this was part of this frog\u2019s unique reproductive strategy. The eggs or small tadpoles\nslipped down their mother\u2019s throat and ended up in her stomach, and this is where they\ngrew. In all animals, the stomach is the organ that plays a major role in digestion. Cells in\nthe lining of the stomach produce very strong acid that breaks down food into its component fats, proteins, and carbohydrates so that enzymes can begin their digestive work. This\nharsh, acidic environment is hardly ideal for developing o\ufb00spring, but over millions of years,\nthese frogs evolved a couple of tricks that turned the stomach into a snug little capsule for",
+    "\u2022 The great auk was just one species of a number of giant, \ufb02ightless auks that inhabited the\nAtlantic. All of them, except the great auk, became extinct several thousand years ago.\n\u2022 The great auk\u2019s similarity in both appearance and lifestyle to the penguins of the\nSouthern Hemisphere is a very good example of convergent evolution, the phenomenon whereby two unrelated species come to resemble each other as a result of having\nto adapt to similar environments.",
+    "prey when the solenodon bites. The solenodons even have modi\ufb01ed teeth for delivering this\nlethal cocktail. The large incisors on the lower jaw of the animal are equipped with a groove\nthat channels the venom into the wound made by the teeth. Exactly how the solenodon\nvenom kills the prey is unknown, but the venom produced by the American short tail shrew\n(Blarina brevicauda) causes the blood vessels to expand, leading to low blood pressure, paralysis, convulsions, and eventually, death. As the solenodons are closely related to the true\nshrews, we can assume that their venom has a similar e\ufb00ect.\nNot only do the solenodons produce venom, but they also produce potent secretions from\nthe base of their legs, which is said to have a strong, goatlike smell. Exactly what these secretions are for is unknown, but it is highly likely that they use this pungent aroma to mark their\nterritory and communicate their willingness to mate to members of the opposite sex\u2014such",
+    "Sicily is one of the more well known Mediterranean islands, important throughout antiquity because of its strategic location. Up until around 11,000 years ago, Sicily was free of\nhumans, and a number of mammals had taken up residence on the island and evolved into\ndistinct species. One of the most bizarre inhabitants of the prehistoric Sicily was the dwarf\nelephant. As with all terrestrial island mammals, we can never be sure how the ancestors of\nthe dwarf elephant reached Sicily, but they could have swam or crossed via a temporary land\nbridge that was revealed when sea levels were much lower. Elephants will take to the water\nwithout hesitation, and they can even use their long trunk as a snorkel (there are many reliable\nreports of Indian elephants, Elephas maximus, being sighted several kilometers out at sea). It is\nthought that the dwarf elephant evolved from the straight-tusked elephant (Elephas antiquus),",
+    "sustain their considerable bulk, and as this died back and the standing water disappeared,\nthey may have slowly perished. The ancestors of the Australian Aborigines \ufb01rst reached\nAustralia at least 50,000 years ago; there is little direct evidence of humans hunting the\ndiprotodon, but there is evidence from the Cuddie Springs site suggesting that people may\nhave scavenged from the carcasses of these animals or ambushed them at water holes. It\nhas also been suggested that humans altered Australian habitats by starting bush\ufb01res as\na way of clearing land or driving prey from cover. However, of the 69 species of extinct\nAustralian mammal known today, only 13 are known to have lived within the period of\nhuman occupation. Perhaps people just accelerated a process that had started well before\nthey arrived.\n\u2022 It has been suggested that the diprotodons were semiaquatic like the hippopotamus,\nspending most of their time in lakes and rivers, browsing on aquatic vegetation.",
+    "their absence, there was no advantage in being big. Large size can evolve in a species due to\ncompetition because in some ways, a larger body is more e\ufb03cient than a small one. In the\nabsence of this pressure, the species may shrink as a lot of resources and time are needed to\ngrow to a large size.\nExactly how these tiny, extinct elephants lived will never be known, but an animal only\nslightly heavier than a pig had quite a di\ufb00erent life than its enormous ancestors. Straighttusked elephants on the mainland were able to feed on tree leaves and other lofty plant\nmatter, even uprooting whole trees they liked the look of, but the Sicilian dwarf may have\nfed on low-growing vegetation, perhaps using its trunk to bring low-growing vegetation",
+    "HORNED TURTLE\n\nHorned Turtle\u2014With their spiked heads and tails, the horned turtles are among the largest and most\nbizarre turtles ever to have lived. (Renata Cunha)\n\nScientific name: Meiolania sp.\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Sauropsida\nOrder: Testudines\nFamily: Meiolaniidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last of these turtles is thought to have become extinct\nabout 2,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The bones of these extinct turtles have been found on Lord Howe\nIsland, 600 km from mainland Australia and the islands of New Caledonia.\nThere would be very few people who would fail to recognize a turtle, such is the familiarity of these unusual reptiles. Although the fossil record is full of peculiar beasts,\nit has been said that the turtles are among the oddest vertebrates to have ever lived. Al-\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 10,000 YEARS AGO",
+    "far back on its body, it shu\ufb04ed around and may have resorted to hops or sliding on its belly\nto overcome small obstacles. The ungainliness of the great auk on land was undoubtedly one\nof its downfalls because it could be caught with such ease.\nBirds, no matter how well adapted they are to an aquatic existence, are always tied to the\nland. They need to return to land to lay their eggs and rear their young. During the breeding\nseason, the great auks made use of low-lying islands to mate and lay their eggs. The female\ngreat auk only laid one egg per season, directly onto the bare rock. The egg was quite a specimen, weighing around 330 g. Every egg in the breeding colony was patterned slightly differently so that parents could easily recognize their own developing youngster. The parents\nprobably fed the hatchling on regurgitated \ufb01sh collected during frequent \ufb01shing trips, and\non this diet rich in proteins and fats, the young grew quickly. They had to, as the summer in",
+    "Extinction Insight: The Lottery of Fossilization\nMany extinct animals are only known from bones, yet it is an often overlooked fact that the odds\nare stacked squarely against the remains of an animal surviving at all. It has been estimated that only\none animal in billions will become a fossil. Of the billions of animals that have ever lived, only a tiny\nfraction have left durable remains. The dinosaurs, although considerably older than the animals\nmentioned in this book, are a perfect example of just how rare fossilization is. The dinosaurs are a\nvery well studied group of fossil animals, yet in the 183 years since the \ufb01rst dinosaur was described,\n330 species have been named. We\u2019ll never know for sure how many species of dinosaur have walked\nthe earth, but it must have been many, many times more than 330.\nThe rarity of fossilization is not surprising when you consider the fate of an animal after it has",
+    "Scientific name: Megaloceros giganteus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Artiodactyla\nFamily: Cervidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The most recent remains yet recovered of the giant deer\nhave been aged at around 7,000 years using radiocarbon dating, but the species could\nhave survived into more recent times.\nWhere did it live? This deer was a found throughout Europe and east into central Asia.\nSeveral well-preserved skeletons of this splendid beast have been found in the peat bogs\nof Ireland, which is why it used to be familiarly known as the \u201cIrish elk\u201d; however, its range\nwas not restricted to Ireland. Bones of this animal have turned up all over great swathes of\nEurope, and more rarely, in Asia, and it was certainly known by our forebears.\nThe giant deer was another species from the group of mammals collectively known as\nmegafauna. Like many of the animals that adapted to the cold conditions of the ice age, the",
+    "came and went in quite a short period of time. During this era, the protection of the aurochs\nwas much less of a priority, and the last two populations got smaller and smaller through\nneglect and hunting. From 1602, records show that aurochs were only found in Jaktor\u00f3w\nForest, and a royal decree was issued in 1604 to protect the remaining individuals. This was\ntoo little too late, and by 1627, the species was extinct\u2014the forests of central Europe would\nno longer hear the bellow of an aurochs bull.\n\u2022 The ancestors of the aurochs are believed to have evolved in India around 1.5 to 2 million years ago, from which time they spread throughout the Middle East, Asia, and\nEurope. For much of their existence, the earth was going through ice ages and intervening warm periods, and as the aurochs were not adapted to survive in intensely cold environments, their range probably increased as the ice sheets withdrew and contracted\nas the ice sheets extended south.",
+    "it was a scavenging animal, rather than an active predator.\nThis giant bear\u2019s closest living relative is the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) of South\nAmerica, but in appearance, it was unique, with long limbs and a short, wide head. Fully\ngrown, they were enormous\u2014an adult male could have easily tipped the scales at 900 kg (by\ncomparison, a really big male polar bear is around 600 kg). The way the bones of the giant\nshort-faced bear articulate suggest that this huge carnivore was easily able to rear up onto\nits back legs. A big, standing male was around 3.4 m tall, with a vertical reach extending to\naround 4.3 m\u2014this is more than 1 m above a basketball hoop. Like modern bears, this extinct brute probably reared up to sni\ufb00 the air for the telltale odor of meat and to intimidate\nanimals that dared to get between it and its food. We know that the short-faced bear had\na big space in its skull for nasal tissue, and its sense of smell was probably very keen\u2014even",
+    "nutritious. The large size and formidable temperament of these animals made them very\npopular hunting targets for food and sport. Habitat loss, competition with their domesticated relatives, and hunting all contributed to the gradual disappearance of the aurochs.\nIn 1476, the last known aurochs lived in the Wiskitki and Jaktor\u00f3w forests, both of which\nare in present-day Poland. These last two populations of aurochs were owned by the Duke\nof Mazovia, and as they were favored animals for hunting, they eventually received royal\nprotection, making it an o\ufb00ense for anyone other than a member of the royal household to\nkill an aurochs. Unfortunately, what is now Poland fell into turbulent times, and many kings",
+    "that used its size to drive predatory animals from their kill before digging in to the carcass.\nThe image of a 5-tonne brute ambling over to a group of dire wolves, scaring them o\ufb00,\nand then devouring their kill is quite fantastic. Regardless of this research, it is decidedly\nunlikely that this giant lived in this way, and like its living relatives, the giant ground sloth\nwas probably a herbivore, but it may have been able to use its forelimbs and teeth to defend\nitself.\nAs with almost all of the long-dead animals that once roamed South America, we cannot\nbe certain what brought about the demise of the giant ground sloth. It has been speculated\nthat the arrival of modern humans, with spears and arrows, led to their extinction, but it\nis reasonable to assume that there was something much more far-reaching happening at\nthe time that wiped these animals out. Climate change is one of the usual suspects, and we",
+    "we can also get a good idea of how it moved by looking at the proportions of the limbs, and\nit seems that this marsupial lion was no long-distance athlete; instead, it probably ambled\nabout, employing short bursts of speed when the need arose.\nThe most amazing thing about this animal\u2019s skeleton is the skull\u2014it\u2019s big and heavy, with\nsome incredible teeth. This marsupial had the most specialized dentition of any carnivorous\nmammal. Carnivorous placental mammals have enlarged canine teeth for stabbing their prey,\nbut the marsupial lion\u2019s canines are small and probably close to useless. The two pairs of incisors, on the other hand, are big and pointy, giving the skull an appearance that is reminiscent\nof a large rodent. Further down the mouth are enormous premolars that can be as much as 60\nmm long. These incredible cheek teeth must have worked like a pair of bolt cutters\u2014slicing",
+    "\u2022 The vestiges of these hind legs can be seen in the most primitive of the living snakes:\nthe large constrictors (boas, pythons, and the anaconda). In some of these species, the\nmale has a pair of tiny spurs on the back end of his body, which are used during mating. These spurs are the last vestige of the snake\u2019s hind limbs. If you were to cut one of\nthese snakes open, you would see the pelvic bones and the vestigial leg bones.\n\u2022 The Wonambi takes its name from one of the \u201crainbow snakes,\u201d the mythical serpents in\nthe creation stories of the Aboriginal people. Perhaps these myths are based on reality?\nFurther Reading: Scanlon, J. D., and M.S.Y. Lee. \u201cThe Pleistocene Serpent Wonambi and the Early\nEvolution of Snakes.\u201d Nature 403 (2000): 416\u201320; Scanlon, J. D., and M.S.Y. Lee. \u201cThe Serpent\nDreamtime.\u201d Nature Australia, summer 2001; Brown, S. P., and R. T. Wells. \u201cA Middle Pleistocene\nVertebrate Fossil Assemblage from Cathedral Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia.\u201d Transactions of the",
+    "us to look over the next hill or mountain range at what lies beyond. The ability to construct seafaring craft is likely a very ancient skill, and people have used boats and rafts to reach distant islands\nwithout knowing if there was any landmass to reach. This desire to move and explore is so ingrained\nin us that the bones of our ancestor Homo erectus have been found in Indonesia, thousands of\nmiles from where the species originated\u2014Africa. This was way before the age of trains, planes, and\nautomobiles, and even horses, so our ancient ancestors dispersed largely by foot and, to a lesser\nextent, by seacraft. Modern man followed the same dispersal routes out of the ancestral homeland\nand eventually colonized the whole globe, apart from the poles.\nThe discovery of new lands was good for our species, but it has been incredibly bad for the animals with which we share the planet. Islands have been hit the hardest, particularly the ones that",
+    "The quagga, like the dodo, is one of the more familiar animals that has gone extinct in\nrecent times. Amazingly, this horselike animal was wiped out before anyone had \ufb01gured out\nwhat it truly was. In Victorian times, it was the trend among naturalists to describe new\nspecies wherever and whenever possible, and the zebra of Africa received a good degree of\nattention from these early taxonomists. Zebras vary widely in size, color, and patterning,\nand all of these subtle di\ufb00erences were thought to represent subspecies and even distinct\nspecies. With the advent of molecular biology and DNA sequencing, it rapidly became clear\nthat there was little validity in what the gentleman scholars of the previous age had proposed. Very recently, scientists managed to isolate some DNA from the mounted skins of\nthe quagga that can be found in several museums around the world. It turned out that the\nquagga was very likely a subspecies of the plains zebra and not a distinct species at all.",
+    "to be particularly dense on the eastern seaboard. They came to these immense forests (only\nremnants of which remain today) to raise young on a diet of tree seeds (mast), forming huge\nnesting colonies in the tall trees. As with most pigeons, the nest of the passenger pigeon\nwas a rudimentary a\ufb00air of twigs that served as a platform for a single egg. The parent birds\nnourished their hatchling on crop milk, the cheeselike substance secreted from the animals\u2019\ncrops that is unique to pigeons.\nThis cycle of migration had probably been going on for hundreds of thousands, if not\nmillions, of years, but all was about to come to an end as Europeans \ufb01rst arrived in the Americas. Their arrival signaled the end for the passenger pigeon, and many more species besides.\nEuropeans, in their attempts to settle these new lands, brought with them new ways and\nmeans of growing food. The forests were hacked down to make way for these crops, and the",
+    "Yeti, 180, 181\nYucatan peninsula, 9, 10\nYukon, 100, 105, 126\nYuribei River, 76\n\nVanuatu, 2, 3\nVegetarian, 138, 140, 174\nVenom, 59, 60, 149, 159\nVestigial, 54, 160\nVictorian, 34, 137\u201338, 140, 173\nVietnam, 180\nVivianite, 106\n\nWallaby, 155, 159\nWarrah, 36\u201338\nWeta, 31\nWhale, 46, 167\nWhaler, 27, 46\nWolf: characteristics, 37; predator, 32, 126;\nselective breeding, 33. See also Convergent\nevolution; Dire wolf\nWollemi pine, 150\nWombat, 140, 141, 143\u2013 44, 161\nWonambi, 158\u2013 60\nWoolly mammoth, 73\u201376. See also Mammoth\nWoolly rhinoceros, 106\u2013 8\nWrangel Island, 75\nWyoming, 21, 22. See also Cave\n\nZealandia, 67\nZebra, 33\u201336, 178\nZhoukoudian, 178\nZoo: Hobart, 11\nZoological Museum, Copenhagen, 41\nZoology, Krakow Museum of, 108",
+    "SICILIAN DWARF ELEPHANT\nScientific name: Elephas falconeri\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Proboscidea\nFamily: Elephantidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This elephant became extinct around 10,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? This animal was endemic to some of the Mediterranean islands and\nmany remains have been found in Sicily.\nToday, the multitude of islands that dot the Mediterranean are where many Europeans\nchoose to spend their summer vacations. Long before these islands became destinations for\nvacationers, they played host to various key events in human history. Some of the earliest\ncivilizations had their beginnings on these islands, but if we travel even further back, to a\ntime before modern humans started to leave Africa, these islands supported their own endemic animals, almost all of which are sadly extinct.\n\n\f\n\n10,000\u201312,500 YEARS AGO",
+    "the much smaller females.\nThe living bison is divided into two subspecies: the plains bison (B. bison bison) and the\nwood bison (B. bison athabascae). It is thought that the latter species has more in common\nwith the giant bison in terms of behavior. The giant bison is not thought to have lived in\nthe immense herds that the plains bison forms because despite its size, relatively few fossil\nspecimens have been found in comparison to later bison. It may have formed, instead, small,\nclose-knit family groups. The fossils of the giant bison have been found over a wide geographic area, and this could indicate that the animal was able to live in a variety of habitats,",
+    "Child of the U.S. Signal Corps was charged with assessing just how big this swarm was,\nand to get an idea, he measured the speed of the locusts as they were \ufb02ying past and then\ntelegraphed surrounding towns to get an idea of its extent. The swarm was estimated to be\nabout 2,900 km long and 180 km wide. Observers in the Nebraskan towns over which this\nswarm passed reported that the gigantic cloud of insects obscured the sun and took \ufb01ve days\nto pass overhead. This begs the question of how many locusts there were in this enormous\nswarm. Estimates are as close as we\u2019ll ever get, but it has been calculated that there must\nhave been around 12 trillion insects in this aggregation. All these \ufb02uttering insects weighed\nsomewhere in the region of 27 million tonnes, and if the desert locust of the Old World is\nanything to go by, then this swarm may have eaten its own weight in food every day just to\nsustain itself. Luckily, the Rocky Mountain locust was not a fussy eater\u2014it would nibble a",
+    "globe. Often, these birds were giants of their kind, and the great auk, as its name suggests,\nwas no exception. The Northern Hemisphere\u2019s version of the penguin, the great auk was a\nlarge bird that stood around 75 cm high and weighed about 5 kg when fully grown. Like\nthe other auk species, the great auk had glossy black plumage on its back and head, while its\nunderside was white. In front of each eye was a white patch of plumage.\nAlthough the wings of the great auk were rather short and stubby, they were used to\ngreat e\ufb00ect underwater, where they would whirr away to propel the animal forward very\nrapidly through this dense medium. Like all auks and the unrelated penguins, the great\nauk was very maneuverable underwater, and it would pursue shoals of \ufb01sh at high speed,\nseizing unlucky individuals in its beak. From remains of its food that have been found o\ufb00\nthe coast of Newfoundland, we know that the great auk hunted \ufb01sh that were up to about",
+    "The giant lemur probably clung to existence until around 500 years ago, and it was almost certainly still in existence when the Portuguese \ufb01rst reached this island in a.d. 1500.\nInterestingly, it appears that the Malagasy people were terri\ufb01ed of the giant lemur species\nand would apparently run away in fear whenever they chanced on one. After generations of\npersecution, the feeling was probably mutual, and the giant lemurs probably did everything\nthey could to keep out of the way of humans, until the forests had dwindled to such an extent that there was nowhere left to hide.\n\u2022 To say that Madagascar has been trashed is an understatement. Since humans colonized the island, around 90 percent of the original forest cover has been lost. This\ntreasure trove of biological diversity has been reduced to a shadow of its former glory.\nIndeed, we only have a rough idea of how many species of unique animal and plant\nhave disappeared since humans \ufb01rst arrived.",
+    "INDEX\nNantucket, 8\nNeanderthal, 108, 115, 129, 137\u201339\nNebraska, 7, 8, 21, 22, 100, 183\nNepal, 181\nNest: bird, 15, 17\u201318, 40, 48, 54, 85, 170;\ndisturbance, 49, 65; insect, 157; mammal, 12,\n25, 59; mound, 65\u2013 68; reptile, 150\nNew Caledonia, 65\u2013 68, 70, 152, 166\nNewfoundland, 38\u201339\nNew Guinea, 11, 13, 54, 55, 66, 156\u201358, 161\nNew World: colonization, 75, 97, 113; fauna, 58,\n169\u201370, 183; Great American Interchange,\n41\u2013 42\nNew York State, 100\nNew Zealand, 28\u201331, 52\u201358, 61, 67, 134, 166\nNiche: colonization, 55\u201356; extinction of the\ndinosaurs, 175; speciation, 85, 123, 160, 176.\nSee also Convergent evolution\nNile, 78\nNitrogen, 126\nNon-native species. See Introduced species\nNorth America: camel evolution, 182, 183;\ncolonization by animals, 99, 127, 132, 133,\n175\u201376; colonization by humans, 7, 14, 18,\n133; Great American Interchange, 41\u2013 42,\n173; horse evolution, 33; insectivores, 60;\nmegafauna, 91, 97\u2013101, 103, 105, 112, 121,\n132\u201333; prehistoric landscape, 100, 111, 126;",
+    "have seemed numerous, but the enormous \ufb02ock the hunters preyed on was the entire global\npopulation of this bird, and hunting quickly took its toll. During the birds\u2019 feeding stops\non their long route north, the hunters would close in on the \ufb02ock and, sensing danger, the\nbirds would take to the wing, an e\ufb00ective defense against land predators and birds of prey\nbut completely useless against shotguns. The birds were so tightly spaced as they left the\nground that a single blast from a shotgun, with its wide spread of shot, could easily kill 15 to\n20 individuals. The birds were shot in such huge numbers that countless numbers of them\nwere simply left to rot in big piles. The rest were taken away, piled high on horse-pulled\ncarts. Such senseless slaughter of the Eskimo curlew on its northbound journey was bad\nenough, but it was not long before the hunters turned their attention to the birds\u2019 breeding\ngrounds.",
+    "by the name of Georg Wilhelm Steller, who was the ship\u2019s o\ufb03cial mineralogist. Steller also\nhappened to be a physician and a very keen naturalist. His journey on the ship through the\nBering Sea would be a remarkable one, on which he would make many zoological discoveries. Steller diligently documented everything he saw, and most of what we know about\nSteller\u2019s sea cow is thanks to the notes he and a crew mate, Sven Waxell, made in their\njournals.\nThe sea cows were observed around Bering Island and Copper Island, where they could\nbe observed \ufb02oating among and feeding on the vast marine forests of kelp that grew in the\nshallows around these islands. Steller\u2019s observations give us an insight into how this animal\nlived and what it looked like. Steller\u2019s sea cow was a huge animal and one of the biggest creatures to have become extinct in very recent times. It was very closely related to the dugongs\nand manatees, the unusual marine animals found in tropical rivers, estuaries, and shallow",
+    "bizarre herbivores was no match for the most powerful saber tooth cat that has ever lived\n(Smilodon populator\u2014see the entry \u201cSaber Tooth Cat\u201d earlier in this chapter). The soft underside of the litoptern\u2019s long neck was probably a very attractive target for the saber tooth\ncat, and it is likely that they were commonly killed and eaten by these formidable felines.\nThe larger terror birds must have been quite capable of killing the smaller litopterns as well\nas juveniles of the larger species.\nSpeed gave the smaller litopterns some protection from predators, but their most e\ufb00ective defense was probably strength in numbers, and it is very likely that these extinct animals lived in herds in the same way as living herbivorous mammals. It makes sense for any\nlarge animal with lots of enemies to live in herds as there will always be several pairs of eyes\non the lookout for danger. Almost all predators rely heavily on the element of surprise, and",
+    "Madagascar on their big feet. The wings were reduced to tiny structures and were probably\nnot visible beneath the bird\u2019s plumage. These birds had become so well adapted to a life without \ufb02ight that the large and specially modi\ufb01ed chest bone (keellike sternum) found in most\nbirds, which serves as an attachment for the wing muscles, had all but disappeared.\nWe don\u2019t know exactly what the elephant birds ate, but we can assume from the shape\nof their bill that they were not carnivorous. Some people have suggested that certain Madagascan plants that are very rare today depended on the elephant birds for the dispersal of\ntheir seeds. The digestive system of these large birds was ideally suited to breaking down the\ntough outer skins of these seeds. Some were digested, but others passed through the bird\nintact and in a state of readiness for germination.\nThe remains of the elephant bird that have been found to date allow us to build up a",
+    "the native fauna of the Greater Antilles is a shadow of what it once was due to the arrival of\nhumans: \ufb01rst, Amerindians, and much later, Europeans.\nThe solenodons have su\ufb00ered badly at the hands of humans and their introduced animals.\nOne species, Marcano\u2019s solenodon, a native of Hispaniola, is actually extinct and is only known\nfrom skeletal remains. Although we only have bones to work with, we can safely assume that\nMarcano\u2019s solenodon was very similar to the surviving solenodons in both appearance and\nlifestyle. Solenodons are a fascinating group of animals. In appearance, they look like large,\nwell-built shrews and are about the same size as a very large brown rat (Rattus norvegicus),\nwith reddish brown fur; a long, mobile snout; tiny eyes; and a long, scaly tail. The limbs of the\nsolenodons are very well developed and the digits are tipped with long, sharp claws.\nLike the living solenodons, Marcano\u2019s solenodon must have been a burrowing animal",
+    "isolated islands. The shrinkage of the Sicilian elephants is identical to what happened to the\nhominids who made it to Flores in Indonesia (see the entry \u201cFlores Human\u201d in chapter 6).\nIt is impossible to say how long the dwar\ufb01ng process took, but it was probably very quick\nin evolutionary terms as failure to adapt to new surroundings swiftly leads to extinction.\nAfter thousands of years of gradual shrinkage, the Sicilian elephant was a fraction of the\nsize of its ancestors. In life, it probably weighed around 100 kg, about 1 percent the size of\na large straight-tusked elephant. Although food is a limiting factor on small islands that\ncan lead to dwar\ufb01ng, the lack of predators and competition are also important. Large size\nis an excellent defense against predators, but on Sicily, where predators were notable by\ntheir absence, there was no advantage in being big. Large size can evolve in a species due to",
+    "The large living eagles most often take prey that is considerably smaller than themselves\nso they can carry it away to a safe perch out of the way of scavengers. There were no scavengers in New Zealand large enough to challenge a Haast\u2019s eagle for its kill, and therefore\nit could tackle large prey and eat them where they died. At a kill, the only animals a Haast\u2019s\neagle feared were others of its kind.\nAs formidable a predator as it was, the Haast\u2019s eagle was no match for humans, who\n\ufb01rst reached New Zealand around a.d. 1300. It is now a largely accepted theory that humans, through hunting and habitat destruction, brought about the extinction of the moa\nand many other unique New Zealand birds. Humans undoubtedly saw and knew this raptor, and whether they persecuted it or revered it is a bone of contention. In some cultures\naround the world, top predators are persecuted by humans, while in others, these animals",
+    "a result, they are not very e\ufb00ective at supporting the reptile\u2019s weight. Also, legs that sprout\nfrom the side of the body are not very good when it comes to long-distance walking or running. To make any progress on land, a crocodile moves in a snakelike fashion, with its spine\n\ufb02exing in a horizontal plane, allowing its limbs to gain ground. This movement squeezes\nthe lungs, and if the reptile moves at anything more than a walking pace, it quickly becomes\nbreathless.\nThe body plan of the Quinkana was very di\ufb00erent from that of living crocodiles. No\nlimb bones of this animal have ever been found, but similar, yet more ancient crocodiles had\nrelatively long legs that were able to support more of the animal\u2019s weight. This arrangement\nwas much better suited to a life on land compared with the crocodiles we know today. It\u2019s\ndoubtful that these reptiles were capable of high-speed, long-distance pursuits, but over\nshort distances, they must have been quite deadly.",
+    "terror birds, we do know that one of their number somehow managed to cross into North\nAmerica and spread through the southern states. For a long time, it was assumed that the\nNorth American terror bird spread north via the land bridge, but analysis of its ancient\nbones paints an alternative picture, as they appear to have reached the southern states of\nAmerica before the land bridge formed. Perhaps falling sea levels, due to the growth of the\npolar ice sheets, revealed a path of island stepping-stones across the gap of open ocean that\nwould become the Isthmus of Panama. These stepping-stones allowed the giant birds to\ncolonize the prehistoric North America. Maybe other species of terror bird, the remains of\nwhich are as yet undiscovered, also reached North America before following the rest of their\namazing kind into the pages of earth history.\n\u2022 The closest living relatives of the terror birds are the seriemas of South America. A",
+    "the most complex and dangerous migrations in the animal kingdom. As the short, northern\nsummer ended and the curlew\u2019s young had been reared, the birds took to wing for the beginning of an arduous and dangerous journey. Its migration took it in an immense clockwise\ncircle, starting from the subarctic Canadian tundra, through the Western Hemisphere and\neast through Labrador, down through the Atlantic and across the southern Caribbean. The\nbirds continued this epic journey until they reached their wintering grounds on the Argentinean Pampas. Some of the migrating birds went even further, eventually reaching Chile.\nThe birds would spend a few months in South America until the spring returned to the\nnorth and the pull of hundreds of thousands of years of habitual behavior forced them into\nthe air, en masse, for the return leg. The return to the breeding grounds took them through",
+    "15\n\n\f\n\n16\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nPASSENGER PIGEON\n\nPassenger Pigeon\u2014Once the most numerous bird on the planet, the graceful passenger pigeon was a very\nfast flyer. (Natural History Museum at Tring)",
+    "is also possible that the strong westerly winds shifted to the south as the postglacial climate\nchanged. Without these strong winds to give them a helping hand into the air, these giant\nbirds may have simply been too large to \ufb02y, and over thousands of years, they slowly died out,\nleaving just fragments of their bodies to provide us with a window to the distant past.\n\u2022 Four other teratorn species have been identi\ufb01ed, but the species described here is the\nonly one known so far from South America. Bones of two of the other species have\nbeen found in great abundance in the asphalt deposits of Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles\n(see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 4). The magni\ufb01cent teratorn was by far the\nlargest of these extinct birds.\n\u2022 The teratorns and their living relatives, the New World vultures are more closely related to the storks than they are to other birds of prey. This is another example of\nconvergent evolution, as they have come to resemble the true vultures of the Old\nWorld.",
+    "123\n\n\f\n\nThis page intentionally left blank\n\n\f\n\n6\nMORE THAN 12,500\nYEARS AGO\n\nGIANT SHORT-FACED BEAR\n\nGiant Short-Faced Bear\u2014A giant short-faced bear, the largest bear ever, is seen here using its great size to\nscare a pack of wolves away from their kill\u2014a bison. (Richard Harrington)\n\nScientific name: Arctodus simus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivora\nFamily: Ursidae\n\n\f\n\n126\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "It is amazing to think that these giant, bizarre turtles roamed some of the isolated islands\nof the western Paci\ufb01c into very recent geological times, but exactly why they died out is another mystery. We do know that island animals have su\ufb00ered badly at the hands of humans,\nand we can be almost certain that the \ufb01rst thing to spring to the mind of the \ufb01rst human\nwho saw these shelled giants was, \u201cCan I eat it?\u201d A slow-moving turtle, regardless of its size,\nis no match for humans and their various weapons. Lord Howe Island and New Caledonia\nare small areas of land, and they could never have supported large populations of such big\nanimals; therefore it is very likely that when humans did discover the horned turtle, they\nwiped them out in a matter of centuries, or possibly even decades.\n\u2022 Apart from the way that living turtles bend their necks to hide their heads, we can\ndivide them another way into three groups: there are marine forms, with legs modi\ufb01ed",
+    "the grasshoppers are very sensitive to the presence and proximity of others of their\nkind. When things start to get a bit too cozy, the insects switch from intolerance to attraction, forming so-called bands of nymphs. The locusts take on the appearance of the\nswarming insect and \ufb02y o\ufb00 in search of more space and food.\n\u2022 Settlers in the native range of the locust also killed huge numbers of beavers and\nwidened streambeds, both of which led to increased \ufb02ooding and the death of locust\neggs and young in the ground. These settlers also planted alfalfa over huge swathes of\nground, a plant that the locust was not fond of eating. It has also been suggested that\nbird species from the eastern United States followed the settlers along corridors of cottonwood, preying on huge numbers of insects, including the locust.\n\u2022 Female Rocky Mountain locusts used a pair of tough valves at end of their abdomens\nto excavate a tunnel and deposit their eggs below the surface of the soil, where they",
+    "of the gigantic structures. The giant deer\u2019s dietary requirements were probably very similar to\nmodern deer, feeding mainly on grasses. It is also possible their great size allowed them access\nto high-growing vegetation that was out of reach for other deer and browsing mammals.\n\u2022 The span of the giant deer\u2019s antlers was a severe handicap in heavily wooded habitats,\nso we can assume that it was an animal of open country, where it could \ufb01nd abundant\nfood. These open spaces would also have provided the giant deer with some degree of\nprotection from its enemies as predators must have found it di\ufb03cult to take the deer\nby surprise.\n\u2022 The National Museum of Ireland has more than 200 specimens of giant deer skulls\nand antlers, all of which were found in the country\u2019s peat bogs and lakes. Peat bogs\nare excellent preservers of ancient remains as there is very little oxygen present for the\nbacteria that are responsible for the process of decay. Well-preserved bones and tissue,",
+    "they were starving, for example, during the dry season. So we know these marsupials were\nbrowsers, but what e\ufb00ect did this have on their activity; were they energetic creatures, always dashing about on the Australian plains, or did they lead a more sedate lifestyle? If the\nmodern wombats are anything to go by, the diprotodons may have had a very slow metabolic rate, enabling them to make the very best of low-energy plant food. If this were the\ncase, then they probably only moved with any urgency when they really needed to.\nLike all marsupials, diprotodons had a pouch. There are even bones of adult female diprotodons that are accompanied by the tiny skeletons of their joeys, which were in the pouch\nwhen their mothers died. Marsupial babies are born at a very early stage of development.\nLittle more than embryos, they struggle through their mother\u2019s fur to the pouch and latch\nonto one of the teats inside. The teat expands in their mouth, and they\u2019re locked in place for",
+    "hunters to snare them with nets.\n\u2022 Large numbers of skins and preserved specimens of passenger pigeons found their\nway into private collections, with at least 1,500 preserved specimens held around the\nworld.\n\u2022 It has been suggested that before Europeans arrived and settled in North America, the\npopulations of the passenger pigeon were held in check by Amerindian hunting. As\nthe tribes of these people dwindled, so did their in\ufb02uence on the animals and plants of\nthe eastern United States, and populations of animals like the passenger pigeon experienced explosive growth.\n\u2022 The hunting of the passenger pigeon was so intense that in 1878, a single hunter\nshipped more than 3 million birds to the big cities of the eastern United States. Nets\nand traps caught vast numbers of birds, and a variety of shotguns were used by professional hunters, marksmen, and trapshooters.\nFurther Reading: \u201cA Passing in Cincinnati\u2014September 1, 1914.\u201d In Historical Vignettes 1776\u20131976,",
+    "ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST\nScientific name: Melanoplus spretus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Arthropoda\nClass: Insecta\nOrder: Orthoptera\nFamily: Acrididae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last\nRocky Mountain Locust\u2014The Rocky Mountain losighting of this insect was in 1902.\ncust formed enormous swarms, possibly the largest\nWhere did it live? The native range of\nknown aggregations of any animal. (Phil Miller)\nthis insect was the eastern slopes of\nthe Rocky Mountains, extending from the southern forests of British Columbia\nthrough Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and the western parts of the Dakotas. In some\nyears, the species was able to extend its range to take in one-third of Manitoba, the\nDakotas, Minnesota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, the western half of Nebraska,\nand the northeastern part of Colorado.\nIn the late nineteenth century, much of the United States was a frontier where people sought",
+    "The problem is that the human population is growing out of control. In around\n8000 b.c., the human race numbered around 5 million individuals. In 1750, there were\naround 750 million people, but today, there are around 6.6 billion of us. At the moment,\nthe human population grows by 76 million people every year. Imagine trying to \ufb01nd living\nspace, food, and water for all those people. Also, better health care means that the population growth is accelerating. As the human population grows, more and more pressure is\nplaced on the natural world. We destroy natural ecosystems to make space for our crops and\nbuildings, and yet more pristine habitats are ruined by the poisonous products of our agriculture and industry. The tropical rainforests are the most biologically diverse habitat on the\nplanet. They cover only 2 percent of the earth\u2019s surface, yet they are home to 50 percent of\nall living species. They are so rich in life that a single rainforest tree may be home to several",
+    "Scientific name: Ectopistes migratorius\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Columbiformes\nFamily: Columbidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last known passenger pigeon died on September 1,\n1914, in Cincinnati Zoo.\nWhere did it live? The passenger pigeon was a native of North America, but during their\nwinter migrations, the birds headed south, with some reaching as far as Mexico and\nCuba.\nIn the late nineteenth century, anybody who suggested that the passenger pigeon was in\ndanger of imminent extinction would have been branded a fool. The passenger pigeon existed in such colossal numbers that it is astonishing that it is no longer with us. The species\nwas so numerous that there are many accounts of the bird itself and the enormous \ufb02ocks in\nwhich it collected. Estimates for the total number of passenger pigeons in North America go\nas high as 9 billion individuals. If these estimates are anywhere near the true number, then",
+    "tinged with gray on its back that faded to yellow on its underside and muzzle. Another\ncharacteristic feature of the seal was the hoodlike rolls of fat behind its head. For hauling its\nbody out of the water, the nails on the seal\u2019s front \ufb02ippers were well developed, while those\non the rear \ufb02ippers were simpler.\nAlthough this species only became extinct in recent times and was captured in a few\nphotographs, very little information was collected on its biology. As with the other seals, the\nCaribbean monk seal must have been an accomplished marine predator more at home in the\nwater than out of it. Like other monk seals, it probably had a liking for small reef \ufb01sh and\neels as well as invertebrates such as octopi, spiny lobsters, and crabs. As for predators, the\nonly animals in the Caribbean, other than humans, that could have dispatched a fully grown\nmonk seal are sharks. In the water, the agility and keen senses of the adult seals would have",
+    "some suggesting the thylacine would pursue its prey over long distances, while others report\nthat it was an ambush predator. In Tasmania, it may have relied on both of these predatory\ntactics depending on the habitat in which it was hunting.\nRecords of the behavior of the thylacine suggest that it was active at dusk and dawn and\nduring the night; however, this behavior may have been unnatural\u2014a response to human\npersecution. During the day, thylacines built a nest of twigs and ferns in a large hollow tree\nor a suitable rocky crevice, and when the dusk came, they would leave these retreats in the\nforested hills to look for food on the open heaths.\nSadly, the thylacine\u2019s predatory nature brought it into con\ufb02ict with the European settlers\nwho started to raise livestock on the productive island of Tasmania. The killing of sheep and\npoultry was attributed to the thylacine, even though they were rarely seen. The authorities",
+    "these animals looked like and how they lived. In the same way that reconstructions of the\ngiant shark have been produced from nothing more than teeth (see the earlier entry in this\nchapter), paleontologists have used the teeth and jawbones of these giant apes to build a\npicture of what the living creatures may have been like.\nAs their name suggests, the giant apes were large animals. Estimates for just how large they\nwere vary, but some experts think that G. blacki (the larger of the two species) could have been\n450 kg. As no leg bones of these animals have ever been found, we cannot say for sure exactly how they moved, though they most likely walked around on all fours like gorillas (Gorilla\ngorilla). If G. blacki were to rear up on its hind legs, it\u2019s estimated to have been over 3 m tall\u2014a\ntruly startling thing to imagine. Obviously, these estimates have to be treated with caution because all we have to go on are the teeth, and it is possible that they belonged to an ape with a",
+    "MORE THAN 12,500 YEARS AGO\n\nthese reptiles, and it is very likely that they survived on these islands until the arrival of\nhumans in quite recent times.\n\u2022 Other mekosuchine crocodiles, close relatives of Quinkana, have also been discovered\nin Australia. Some of these remains are around 24 million years old, which shows that\nQuinkana and its relatives were a successful group of animals.\n\u2022 Over the last 50 million years or so, at least \ufb01ve other groups of crocodiles have stalked\nthe land, and for a while, some of them competed with mammals in North America and\nAsia for the supremacy of terrestrial habitats following the demise of the dinosaurs.\n\u2022 The name Quinkana comes from the Aboriginal word quinkan. To some of the indigenous people of Australia\u2019s Cape York Peninsula, quinkans are humanoid spirits that\nlive in caves and other dark places.\nFurther Reading: Molnar, R. E. \u201cCrocodile with Laterally Compressed Snout: First Find in Australia.\u201d Science 197 (1977): 62\u201364.",
+    "making it very di\ufb03cult to approach wary prey.\nThe long legs and the large nasal cavity of these cats have led some scientists to suggest that they could pursue their prey over long distances. These felines were undoubtedly",
+    "195\n\n\f\n\n196\n\nSELECTED MUSEUMS IN THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND WORLDWIDE\n\nFinnish Museum of Natural History\nZoological Museum\nPohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13\nHelsinki\nFinland\nhttp://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi\n\n\f\n\nINDEX",
+    "\u2022 Some Smilodon bones have been found in situations that have led some scientists to\nsuggest that they were social and hunted in groups. The brains of S. fatalis are very\nsimilar in size and structure to similarly sized modern-day cats, and we are very familiar with the complex social behavior of the lions. There is no direct evidence for welldeveloped social behavior in any Smilodon species, but it is possible that they lived in\ngroups and depended on teamwork to catch their prey.\n\u2022 It was once thought that the Smilodon species had quite a weak bite, but recent research\nsuggests that their bite was probably as powerful as that of the largest modern big cats.\nThey could also probably use their neck muscles to drive their teeth through the tough\nhides of their prey.\nFurther Reading: Barnett, R., I. Barnes, M. J. Phillips, L. D. Martin, R. Harington, J. A. Leonard, and",
+    "INDEX\nRadiocarbon dating, 79\nRainbow Snakes. See Wonambi\nRancho La Brea, 85\u2013 87; bird remains, 28, 119,\n120, 170; canid remains, 113; cat remains,\n93, 104, 106\nRat. See Introduced species\nRatite, 43, 55, 145\u2013 46\nRegurgitation, 40, 149\nRhea, 44, 55, 145\nRhinoceros. See Giant rhinoceros; Woolly\nrhinoceros\nRiggs, Elmer, 172\nRoc, 45\nRock paintings, 78, 148; See also Cave\nRocky Mountain locust, 21\u201323\nRocky Mountains, 21, 23\nRodrigues Island, 49\u201350\nRodrigues solitaire, 50\nRollo Beck, 28\nRothschild, Lionel Walter, 30, 62\nRunning: adaptations, 33, 101\u2013 4, 164; bears,\n126, 128; birds, 175; marsupials, 13, 24;\nreptiles, 149, 151\nRussia, 76, 80, 114, 164, 165\nSaber tooth cat, 91\u201394; comparison with\nthe pouch-knife, 171\u201373; comparison\nwith the scimitar cat, 95, 96; Eurasian\nPleistocene predators, 164; hominids,\n136; North American Pleistocene predators,\n126, 133; South American Pleistocene\npredators, 90, 110, 169. See also Rancho\nLa Brea\nSaltbush, 144, 162\nSardinia, 75\nSasquatch, 181",
+    "Scientific name: Thylacosmilus atrox\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Sparassodonta\nFamily: Thylacosmilidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The pouch-knife became extinct around 4 million years ago.\nWhere did it live? The remains of this animal are only known from Argentina.\n\nThe skull of the pouch-knife clearly shows the huge\nextensions of the mandible that protected the long\ncanines. The long root of the canines can be seen\nextending beyond the eye. Very few remains of this\nanimal are known. (Ross Piper)",
+    "rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). This shy, rarely seen animal is the smallest of the\nliving rhinoceri, and bizarrely, its whole body is thinly covered in reddish fur.\nFurther Reading: Orlando, L., J. A. Leonard, V. Laudet, C. Guerin, C. and H\u00e4nni. \u201cAncient DNA\nAnalysis Reveals Woolly Rhino Evolutionary Relationships.\u201d Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 28\n(2003): 76\u201390.",
+    "Imagine how the earth\u2019s climate was cooled by the Siberian eruptions. The e\ufb00ect must have\nbeen like a nuclear winter, and photosynthesizing organisms, the basis for all food chains on\nland and most in the oceans, died en masse. Huge amounts of noxious gases pouring into\nthe atmosphere acidi\ufb01ed the moisture in the air, and thousands of years of global acid rain\nmade the oceans more acidic, dissolving corals and countless other organisms that secrete a\nshell of calcium carbonate. As the eruption occurred over an area the size of Europe, molten\nrock heated seawater, and immense storms may have formed. These hypercanes, with winds\nin excess of 800 km per hour, sucked dust, debris, and gases into the high atmosphere, eroding the ozone layer until the earth was stripped of its protection from ultraviolet radiation.",
+    "ESKIMO CURLEW\nScientific name: Numenius borealis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Charadriiformes\nFamily: Scolopacidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The\nEskimo curlew is thought to have\nbecome extinct around 1970.\nWhere did it live? In the northern\nsummer, the Eskimo curlew spent its\ntime in the Canadian subarctic. Its\nwintering grounds were the Argentinean\nPampas, south of Buenos Aires.\nThe story of the Eskimo curlew is a sad\ntale of greed and senseless waste and a perfect example of how destructive our species can be. The Eskimo curlew was a small\nwading bird, no more than 30 cm long,\nwith an elegant, 5-cm-long beak. Like the\nEskimo Curlew\u2014In addition to existing in huge other curlew species, the Eskimo curlew\nnumbers, the Eskimo curlew annually tackled one had a distinctive, beautiful call, and the\nof the most arduous migrations in the natural world. Inuit name for this bird, pi-pi-pi-uk, is an\n(Renata Cunha)\nimitation of the sound they made on the",
+    "that like the majority of extravagant male adornments found in nature, the antlers were a\nproduct of sexual selection and no bigger than expected when we take into account the size\nof the animal that carries them. In deer and their relatives, the size and structure of their\nantlers is important when it comes to the breeding season. A male deer\u2019s antlers are a measure of how strong and \ufb01t he is. In many cases, two male deer do not have to \ufb01ght to work\nout who is the more dominant as simply posturing and showing o\ufb00 the antlers will su\ufb03ce,\nbut when the need arises, they are potent weapons, and stags will lock antlers, wrestle, and\nattempt to injure one another.\nBy looking at the size, structure, and placement of the giant deer\u2019s antlers on its head\nand the structure of the animal\u2019s skull, it is very likely that males of this species fought,\nespecially when two equally matched stags crossed paths. The bone at the top of the skull",
+    "GIANT BEAVER\n\nGiant Beaver\u2014The giant beaver was about the same\nsize as a modern black bear. (Richard Harrington)\n\nGiant Beaver\u2014This picture shows the giant\nbeaver\u2019s skull and mandible compared to that of a\nmodern American beaver. The difference in size is\nstartling. (Richard Harrington)\n\nScientific name: Castoroides ohioensis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Rodentia\nFamily: Castoridae\n\n99\n\n\f\n\n100\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "CUBAN GIANT OWL\nScientific name: Ornimegalonyx oteroi\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Strigiformes\nFamily: Strigidae\nWhen did it become extinct? It is thought that this giant owl became extinct around\n8,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The remains of this bird have only been found in Cuba.\nCuba is a collection of tightly packed islands in the Caribbean Sea. As we have seen, islands\nare treasure troves of biological diversity as any animal that somehow manages to reach an\nisolated island can evolve independently of its relatives on the mainland. Long ago, Cuba was\nhome to a unique collection of animals that evolved from North American and South American\nimmigrants. One of the most bizarre Cuban animals was the giant owl.\n\n83\n\n\f\n\n84\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "nibbling wood is one way of keeping the ever-growing incisors in check. Like its surviving\nrelatives, the giant beaver probably got some of its sustenance from eating bark to supplement the nutrients it obtained from eating aquatic vegetation.\nThe modern-day beavers love water and spend a lot of their time in lakes and rivers,\nbut they are also very mobile on land and often travel good distances on foot from one lake\nto another. It has been suggested that due to its great size, the giant beaver may have been\nslow and clumsy on land; therefore it may have been predominantly an aquatic animal, only\nleaving the water to search for food. With that said, the immense bulk of the hippopotamus\n(Hippopotamus amphibius) does not stop it leaving the water to graze at night.\nWhere exactly did the giant beaver live? Many giant beaver bones have been found in\nold swamp deposits, so we can assume that this giant rodent preferred lakes surrounded",
+    "19\n\n\f\n\n20\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nEarth\u2019s secrets are revealed to us slowly, and as scientists continually explore the far corners of our\nplanet, searching for the remains of animals, they will add to our knowledge of what the earth was\nlike and how it is changing. With every passing year, new species are added to the list of animals that\nwere. Who knows what remarkable creatures will be found buried in sediment or frozen in permafrost in the future? The remains of some unknown animals will come to light only to be eroded away\nby the very forces that revealed them, and the only evidence of their existence will be lost forever.\n\n\f\n\n2\nFEWER THAN\n200 YEARS AGO",
+    "were semiconcealed by sediment, while\nothers were lodged between rocks and\nboulders. Obviously, these were not\nthe remains of creatures that had died The Nullarbor Plain Caves\u2014A caver is shown descendrecently, and realizing the importance ing through a narrow sinkhole into one of the Nullarbor\nof their \ufb01nd, the cavers alerted the Plain caves, which yielded an unparalleled haul of ancient\nauthorities. Following the discovery, a animal remains in an incredible state of preservation.\nteam of paleontologists and geologists (Clay Bryce)\nvisited the site and lowered themselves\ninto the caves. It soon became clear to them that this was a very important \ufb01nd, probably one of the\nmost signi\ufb01cant paleontological discoveries on Australian soil. What lay before them was a more or\nless complete record of the animals that once stalked the Nullarbor Plain above their heads. The\nremains of the animals were perfectly preserved, but they were fragile, and before any of the bones",
+    "Sumerian craftsmen were not prone to \ufb02ights of fancy, and the animals we see in Sumerian\nrein rings are clearly real species known to these people. The animal in the Kish artifact\nalso has a long, heavy rope extending from its snout. Could this indicate that it had been\ncaptured alive and tamed?\nIf this theory is proven to be correct, it is an amazing discovery. Sivatherium belongs to\na group of animals collectively known as sivatheres, the largest of which was around 2.2 m\nat the shoulder. Like the living gira\ufb00e (Gira\ufb00a camelopardalis) and the shy, forest-dwelling\nokapi (Okapia johnstoni ), Sivatherium was a herbivore feeding on grasses, leaves, or bushes,\nvery much like the moose (Alces alces). O\ufb00shoots of the gira\ufb00e family, the notable characteristics of the sivatheres were the huge horns adorning their strengthened skulls and a pair\nof stubby horns (ossicones) above their eyes. The combination of a strong skull and huge\n\n77\n\n\f\n\n78\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "low latitudes have been most a\ufb00ected by these changes, but animals have the ability to migrate\nin the face of worsening conditions, even if it means that their populations may shrink. When\nhumans arrived in North America, the giant bison had also felt the squeeze of climate change\nand had evolved into a smaller form, which in turn evolved into the smaller modern bison.\nHunting probably had a considerable impact on populations, but bison were distinctive in\nbeing able to withstand these pressures and even to increase in number, until the arrival of the\ngun \ufb01nally drove them to near-extinction in the nineteenth century.\n\u2022 It is thought that the bison that migrated into North America from Asia were steppe\nbison (Bison priscus). They were, in turn, ancestral to the giant bison, which, through\nevolutionary change, spawned the two American bison subspecies we know today.\n\u2022 In the United States and Canada, archeologists have unearthed what appear to be",
+    "Passenger pigeon, 7, 15, 16\u201318\nPasserine (perching) birds, 29\u201330\nPatagonia: animal remains, 83, 109\u201311, 176;\nmagni\ufb01cent teratorn, 70\nPeat bogs: animal preservation, 19, 79\u2013 80, 101\nPenguin, 37, 39\u2013 40\nPermafrost: animal preservation, 20, 32, 75\u201376\nPerrisodactyls, 109\nPet trade, 3, 15\nPigeon, 7. See also Passenger pigeon\nPig-footed bandicoot, 23\u201326\nPinniped. See Seal\nPleistocene: Australian birds; 148; Australian\nmammals, 154; big cats, 92, 96; humans, 115;\n158; megafauna; 42, 133, 178. See also Cave,\nNullarbor Plain\nPliny the Elder, 168\nPliocene, 175\nPoland, 32\u201333, 50\u201352, 108\nPolo, Marco, 45\nPolynesian, 29, 53\u201354, 65. See also M\u0101ori\nPopulation crash, 2, 5\nPouch (marsupium). See Marsupial\nPouch-knife, 171\u201373\nPoultry, 12\nPrairies. See Grassland\nPredation: absence of, 10, 29\u201330, 44, 48\u2013 49,\n53\u201355, 64 \u2013 65, 67, 84, 118, 176; aerial, 55\u201358;\nconvergent evolution, 12, 13; dominant, 27,\n85, 149, 175; extinction, 162; hominids, 136;\nmarine, 9, 165\u2013 68; migration, 7, 8; non-native",
+    "FEWER THAN 200 YEARS AGO\n\n\u2022 Bones from archaeological sites in Florida suggest that the great auk may have migrated south over the winter to escape the worst of the weather.\n\u2022 The museums of the world hold many great auk remains. There are numerous skins\u2014\nmany of which have been used to create stu\ufb00ed reconstructions\u2014eggs, and bones. However, complete skeletons of the great auk are very rare, with only a few known to exist.\nThe eyes and the internal organs from the two last known great auks were removed and\npreserved in formaldehyde. These poignant reminders of the extinction of this fascinating animal can be seen in the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark.\nFurther Reading: Olson, S. L., C. C. Swift, and C. Mokhiber. \u201cAn Attempt to Determine the Prey of\nthe Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis).\u201d Auk 96 (1979): 790\u201392; Fuller, E. The Great Auk. New York:\nAbrams, 1999.",
+    "others of its kind. They were known to communicate with complex displays, one of which\ninvolved the bird extending its neck to full length and then arching backward until its head\nalmost touched its back (the crested caracara displays in the same way). Unfortunately, the\nsigni\ufb01cance of these displays is now lost, but perhaps it was the way that one quelili asserted\ndominance over another.\nThe quelili was probably the dominant predatory land animal on Guadalupe for tens\nof thousands of years, but due to its position in the food chain and the small size of its\nisland home, it would never have been very common. An island like Guadalupe could have\nnever supported more than a couple hundred quelili, but in the narrow geological window\nin which it lived, this bird was a successful scavenger and predator.",
+    "Many of the modern crocodile species can take very large prey; they do this by dragging\nthe unfortunate animal into the water and drowning it. Quinkana was more of a landlubber, and killing large animals without the advantage of water was probably very di\ufb03cult. If\nit latched its powerful jaws onto the hind leg of something like a diprotodon, it may have\nfound itself in serious trouble as an enraged, 3-tonne marsupial would have been able to\nin\ufb02ict serious injury on a 250-kg reptile. With this limitation in mind, perhaps Quinkana\nhad to be content with preying on smaller animals that were killed with a simple snap of\nthe jaws, or with hamstringing larger prey and tracking them to their deaths, a similar technique to that employed by the Komodo dragon.\nThe most recent Quinkana remains are around 40,000 years old, and as is the case for",
+    "Scientific name: Megalania prisca\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Reptilia\nOrder: Squamata\nFamily: Varanidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This lizard is thought to have become extinct around\n40,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The remains of this animal have only been found in Australia.\nThousands of years ago, Australia was home to more than just giant marsupials. Between\n1.6 million and 40,000 years ago, a giant lizard also stalked this fascinating place. Remains\nof the giant monitor lizard are rare, but enough remnants have been found to allow the\nentire skeleton of this animal to be reconstructed, and it seems that this was a true giant.\nThe largest living lizard is the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), and in the wild, they\ncan grow to around 3.1 m in length and 166 kg in weight\u2014imagine a bulkier version of the\nKomodo dragon, which could have been anywhere up to 7 m long and more than 1,000 kg\n\n\f\n\nMORE THAN 12,500 YEARS AGO",
+    "\u2022 Of the 16 to 18 specimens collected and sold by Lyall, only 12 can be found today in\nmuseum collections around the world. This is all there is of this interesting little bird.\n\u2022 The prices paid for a Stephens Island wren in 1895 are astonishing. Lyall\u2019s middleman,\na man by the name of Travers, was o\ufb00ering two specimens for \u00a350 each. In 1895, an\naverage lighthouse keeper\u2019s annual salary was \u00a3140.\n\u2022 Currently we don\u2019t how the ancestors of the Stephens Island wren managed to cross\nthe 3.2 km of ocean to reach the island from the mainland. The populations of this\nbird on the mainland were also \ufb02ightless, so it must have \ufb02oated to the island on rafts\nof vegetation. Stephens Island is also home to one of the rarest amphibians in the\nworld, Hamilton\u2019s frog. This animal will die if it is immersed in seawater for any length\nof time, so it, too, must have \ufb02oated across to Stephens Island on large rafts of vegetation that were detached from riverbanks during \ufb02oods and storms.",
+    "India. It lost touch with India for the last time around 88 million years ago, and ever since,\nit has been isolated in time and space. It is this isolation that makes Madagascar such an\ninteresting place from a biological point of view. Around 75 percent of the larger Madagascan animals are found nowhere else on earth\nThe ancestors of some of the animals and plants that inhabit Madagascar were marooned as the island became more and more isolated, but the lemurs, probably the most\nfamiliar of all Madagascan animals, are thought to have evolved from an ancestor that\ninadvertently reached the island from Africa by drifting on a raft of \ufb02oating vegetation.",
+    "which dampen air noise during \ufb02ight. These adaptations allow them to \ufb01nd prey in low light levels\nand to make an approach without alerting the hapCuban Giant Owl\u2014The ground-dwelling\nless victim.\nCuban giant owl stood about 1 m high,\nSince the \ufb01rst bones of the giant owl came to dwarfing most modern owls. (Renata\nlight, lots of remains have been found all over Cunha)\nCuba, including three more or less complete skeletons. These bones indicate a large animal that was predominantly a ground dweller.\nIsolated on the island of Cuba, the giant owl deviated from the owl norm and took up\nlife on the ground. Although there are owls today that spend a lot of time on the ground\n(e.g., the burrowing owl, Athene cunicularia), they still have large wings and powerful\n\ufb02ight muscles and can take to the air with ease. Unlike some other ground-dwelling birds\nthat have completely forsaken the power of \ufb02ight, the sternum of the giant owl does",
+    "\u2022 The ancestors of the moa are thought to have walked across to New Zealand when it\nwas still part of the massive landmass known as Gondwanaland. Over tens of millions\nof years, tectonic forces rafted the lands of New Zealand apart until they became an\nisolated group of islands. The ancestors of the kiwis are thought to have \ufb02own to New\nZealand after it had become separated.\n\u2022 New Zealand is an oceanic archipelago that consists of two large islands, North Island\nand South Island, as well as many smaller islands. The land area and the diversity of\nthe habitats on these islands provided the original inhabitants with a wealth of niches\ninto which to evolve, and birds became the rulers of this realm.\n\u2022 Since the arrival of humans to New Zealand, more than 58 species of native birds have\nbecome extinct.\n\u2022 All birds evolved from small dinosaurs about 155 million years ago in the late Jurassic",
+    "example, long, thin legs. Over millennia, these primitive horses gradually assumed the\nappearance of the modern horse, with the key feature of having only one digit in contact with the ground, making them \ufb02eet-footed animals of the plains.\n\u2022 Today, the only surviving truly wild horse is Przewalski\u2019s horse, a sturdy, pony-sized\nanimal that roams the wilderness of Mongolia. Extinction almost claimed this horse,\ntoo, but captive specimens allowed a breeding and reintroduction program, which has\nreturned small numbers of these animals to the wild.\nFurther Reading: Jansen, T., P. Forster, M. A. Levine, H. Oelke, M. Hurles, C. Renfrew, J. Weber, and\nO. Olek. \u201cMitochondrial DNA and the Origins of the Domestic Horse.\u201d Proceedings of the National\nAcademy of Sciences USA 99 (2002): 10,905\u201310.",
+    "Archeologists, without any knowledge of long-dead beasts, described the mystery animal\nas a stag, but a young paleontologist saw this ring and realized at once that the sculpture\nsurmounting it appeared to be a Sivatherium, a relative of the gira\ufb00e that was previously\nthought to have disappeared around 1 million years ago. The horns of the sculpture have\nbeen broken, but Edwin Colbert recognized the distinctive shape from the Sivatherium\nskulls he had seen. More important, he noticed the stumpy horns between the eyes and\nthe large horns of the sculpture, a feature unique to Sivatherium. Is it possible that this unmistakable animal survived into recorded history and was known to the early Sumerians?",
+    "America from the north. S. gracilis probably also gave rise to S. fatalis, which is the most\nwell known of these animals as bones from at least 1,200 individuals have been found\nin the asphalt deposits of Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d\nin chapter 4).\n\u2022 The asphalt-stained and well-preserved bones of the Rancho La Brea pits tell us a great\ndeal about these animals, including the a\ufb04ictions and diseases that troubled them. The\nS. fatalis bones show evidence of infections, healed breakages, muscle damage, osteoarthritis, and even wounds in\ufb02icted by others of their kind. Torn muscles and ligaments show that these cats used enormous force when attacking their prey. These\nremains give us an unparalleled glimpse of the earth many thousands of years ago (see\nthe \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 4).\n\u2022 The Smilodon species and the other saber tooth cats are sometimes mistakenly called",
+    "the time that wiped these animals out. Climate change is one of the usual suspects, and we\nknow that the earth\u2019s habitats were going through some massive changes at the time these\nanimals went extinct. Global temperatures were changing, and land-dwelling animals everywhere were being a\ufb00ected. Hunting may have had an e\ufb00ect, but it may have been minor\ncompared to the ravages of climate change.\nToday, there are still vast areas of South America where people rarely venture, and some\npeople believe that a species of giant ground sloth may have somehow survived the events\nthat wiped out its relatives and is alive and well in these remote areas. Local inhabitants call\nthe beast the mapinguary, and it is said to rear up on its back legs and emit a foul-smelling\nodor from a gland in its abdomen\u2014not only that, but the creature is said to be impervious to bullets and arrows, thanks to some very tough skin on its belly and back. Without",
+    "MARSUPIAL LION\nScientific name: Thylacoleo carnifex\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Diprotodontia\nFamily: Thylacoleonidae\n\n139\n\n\f\n\n140\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nMarsupial Lion\u2014The marsupial lion is an Australian oddity. Its grasping thumb and fearsome teeth are\nclearly visible in this image. (Rod Wells)",
+    "it is highly unlikely that these huge birds were meat eaters, or even scavengers. They lack\nthe equipment of true predatory animals. The bill may be big, but it certainly isn\u2019t hooked, a\nnecessary tool for any animal hoping to tear chunks of \ufb02esh from a carcass. Also, the feet of\nthe thunderbirds lack the talons we see in all predatory birds, regardless of their size. Last,\nthe eyes of the thunderbird are not positioned in a way to provide binocular vision: they\nare situated on either side of the head and give good all-around vision but leave blind spots\ndirectly in front of and behind the animal. This is the vision of an animal that is hunted, not\na hunter. Chemical analysis of numerous egg shell fragments from one type of thunderbird\nshows that this species was undoubtedly a herbivore with a penchant for eating grass. Other\ncommon thunderbird fossils also point to herbivory. Along with the bones of thunderbirds,",
+    "itself from predators, however, this primitive primate lacked upper incisors. Projecting from\nthe nose of the giant lemur\u2019s skull is a bony lump, very similar to the structure that can be\nseen on the skull of a black rhinoceros, and like this large ungulate, the giant lemur may have\nhad a prehensile upper lip to bring leaves to its mouth.\nThis extinct lemur was undoubtedly equipped to defend itself, but from what? The largest mammalian predator found in Madagascar today is the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox), a very\nagile animal whose closest living relatives are the mongooses. However, at 10 kg, a fossa was\nno match for this large, powerful primate. Recent \ufb01nds show that Madagascar was once\nhome to a giant fossa (Cryptoprocta spelea), a predator that was about 1.8 m long and 17 kg\nin weight, and like the living fossa, this giant was nimble and at home in the trees. It is this\nanimal that probably preyed on the giant lemur.",
+    "\u2022 The Smilodon species and the other saber tooth cats are sometimes mistakenly called\n\u201csaber tooth tigers.\u201d They are cats, no question, but they are not closely related to the\ntigers we know today.",
+    "STEPHENS ISLAND WREN\nScientific name: Xenicus lyalli\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Passeriformes\nFamily: Acanthisittidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This small bird is thought to have become extinct in 1894.\nWhere did it live? The wren was found only on Stephens Island, New Zealand.\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 200 YEARS AGO\n\nStephens Island Wren\u2014A cat and a lighthouse keeper almost certainly drove the tiny, flightless Stephens\nIsland wren into extinction. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "For hundreds of thousands of years, these giant marsupials were very widespread, as\ntheir bones have been found all over Australia. In some places, such as Lake Callabonna in\nSouth Australia, lots of diprotodon skeletons have been found together. Hair thought to be\nfrom a diprotodon has also been found as well as footprints preserved in the hardened surfaces of old lake beds. These impressions show that the diprotodon had hairy feet, and we\ncan assume that the whole animal was covered with fur and was not naked like a rhinoceros.\nThese footprints, the places in which they have been found, and the delicate skeletal structure of the diprotodon\u2019s feet suggest that these were animals that spent a lot of their time\npadding around on the soft earth and mud bordering lakes and rivers.",
+    "coat to enhance its insulating properties. Another interesting adaptation protected them\nfrom the cold still further: a patch of hairy skin that hung over the anus to prevent the escape of precious warmth. The African elephants are renowned for their ears, which in large\nspecimens can be around 1.8 m long, but the woolly mammoth\u2019s ears were only around 30\ncm long\u2014yet another adaptation to a cold climate as a greater surface area of skin will allow\nmore of the body\u2019s heat to escape. Large ears help an African elephant to stay cool, but the\nmammoth was struggling to stay warm.\nApart from its shaggy fur, the other striking feature of the woolly mammoth was its\nenormous, curving tusks. The tusks of elephants are actually teeth that have grown out of\nthe mouth, and in the woolly mammoth, they kept on growing until they were around 4 m\nlong. Like in modern elephants, these tusks were probably important to establish a pecking",
+    "will be felt most powerfully in these lofty reaches. Something did happen around 40,000\nyears ago that toppled the giant monitor and many other unique Australian species. Due\nto global cooling, the climate of Australia is thought to have become much drier, and as the\nrainfall patterns changed, the vegetation began to adapt to the new climatic regimes, and\nmuch of Australia became the arid landscape we know today. As the vegetation changed, the\npopulations of the large marsupial herbivores started to dwindle and vanish, until the giant\nmonitor lizard had nothing left to eat. Humans may have encountered this giant lizard, and\nit must have been a source of wonder and fear. There is long-standing theory that humans\nchanged the face of Australia by starting wild\ufb01res. If this occurred, the large-scale burning\nnot only deprived the lizard\u2019s prey of food, but may have also killed the reptiles themselves\nand destroyed their nests.",
+    "then what happened to these diminutive humans? Around 12,000 years ago, an immense\nvolcanic eruption shook the area, and it is possible that this caused the demise of this species. However, Flores lore tells of mysterious dwarves called ebu gogo (literally translated,\nthis means \u201cgrandmother who eats anything\u201d). According to folklore, the ebu gogo were alive\nwhen Portuguese trading ships reached Flores 400 years ago, and some islanders believe\nthat they were still around up until 100 years ago. Whether these accounts are genuinely a\nfolk memory of extinct Flores humans or simply \ufb01reside stories will never be known, but\nthey are nonetheless very interesting.\n\u2022 In total, Liang Bua cave yielded bones from eight individuals of the Flores human,\nbut so far, only one cranium has been discovered. More excavations on the island will\nhopefully reveal a complete skeleton of this hominid.\n\u2022 The origins of the Flores human are unclear. Tools aged at 840,000 years old, thought to",
+    "fresh meat.\nThe oldest Homo erectus fossils are around 1.8 million years old, and the most recent\nremains could be fewer than 100,000 years old, so this was a very successful and widespread\nspecies. What happened to Homo erectus? The likely cause of the extinction of Homo erectus\nwas competition with modern humans, who treaded the same paths out of Africa, eventually colonizing almost the entire globe. Our species, Homo sapiens, was probably inferior to\nHomo erectus in terms of brute strength and stamina, but our unparalleled advantage was\nour brain and the language and ingenuity it gives us.\n\u2022 As Homo erectus evolved on the hot, arid plains of equatorial Africa, it was adapted to\ncope with the powerful sun\u2019s rays. An upright stance presents less of the body\u2019s surface\nto the heat of the sun, and it was probably hairless, which allows the evaporation of\nsweat to cool the underlying blood. Its skin was darkened with melanin, a pigment that",
+    "up the gangplanks of waiting ships and being driven into crudely constructed stone pens\nto make the slaughter even easier. Once killed, the birds were sometimes doused in boiling water to ease the removal of their feathers. The plucked bodies were then skinned and\nprocessed for their oil and meat. The oil was stored and taken back to the cities of Europe,\nwhere it was used as lamp fuel, whereas the feathers and down from the bird were used to\nstu\ufb00 pillows. The slaughter was relentless, and as breeding pairs of the great auk could only\nproduce one egg per year, the species was doomed. It is known that the populations of great\nauk o\ufb00 the coast of Norway were extinct by 1300. By 1800, the last large stronghold of this\nbird, Funk Island, was targeted by hunters, and the great auk was e\ufb00ectively on a headlong\ncourse for extinction. The island of Geirfuglasker, o\ufb00 the coast of Iceland, was the last real",
+    "wars, all the technological advances have come to pass in a narrow, warm window. It would be very\nna\u00efve for the human race to think that these balmy conditions are going to last forever, and the deep\nsea and ice cores have shown us that the transition from warm to cold can be astonishingly quick\u2014a\ncouple of decades. These rapid changes are recorded in ice cores from Greenland, and there is no\nreason to think that the next transition won\u2019t be similarly swift. Climate change is a hot topic at\nthe moment; it appears everywhere in the news, and it seems that the earth\u2019s climate is beginning\nto destabilize, which some people think heralds a new climatic age. If this is the case, what are we\nheading into? The mass media have exhausted the term global warming, and it is highly likely that\nthe observed increases in temperature are likely to prolong the present interglacial, the Holocene,\nbut eventually, the natural variations in the earth\u2019s orbital elements will lead to another ice age. Over",
+    "times more energy than the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated. Huge waves ravaged the\nearth\u2019s low-lying areas, and the huge quantities of dust and gas ejected into the atmosphere\nplunged life into darkness for months, if not years. With insu\ufb03cient sunlight, plants and\nother photosynthesizing organisms everywhere died, and the animals followed. Some geologists have suggested that the earth was hit by several asteroids around 65 million years\nago, but the other craters are yet to be found. As most of the planet is covered by water, lots\nof impact craters may be buried beneath the waves and hundreds of meters of sediment.\nAt around the same time as the Chicxulub crater was formed, the earth was struck by\na second terrible event, a second huge volcanic \ufb02ood eruption that produced the Deccan\nTraps in India. Again, it\u2019s feasible that the impact triggered an outpouring of basalt on the\nother side of the world, and the e\ufb00ects of both together spelled disaster for all life.",
+    "When did it become extinct? The megatooth shark is thought to have become extinct\naround 1.6 million years ago.\nWhere did it live? This shark appears to have had a global, subtemperate distribution as\nits fossils have been found in Europe, Africa, North and South America, southern Asia,\nJapan, Indonesia, Australia, New Caledonia, and New Zealand.\nThe great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is one of the most formidable predators\nin the ocean, yet it would be dwarfed next to the megatooth shark\u2014the largest predatory\n\ufb01sh that has ever lived. As its name suggests, megatooth\u2019s mouth bristled with an abundance\nof triangular, serrated teeth that make a great white\u2019s dentition look pretty tame.\nSharks and their relatives have a skeleton composed mainly of cartilage, which in life is\na very light and \ufb02exible frame. In death, however, this frame rots away to nothing as there\nare no minerals, for example, apatite, that can be replaced by other minerals to form fossils.",
+    "a few bones that have been unearthed over the years. Of these remains, the most recent\nones are around 1.6 million years old, but there is anecdotal evidence that this species survived into much more recent times. Some of the native tribes of central Asia and southern\nRussian as well as medieval chroniclers tell stories of a great black bull with a single horn on\nits head. There is no doubt that whatever animal prompted these stories is long extinct, but\nit is possible that the giant rhino survived for long enough to feature in the folk memory of\nthese people. Some people even suggest that the legend of the unicorn stemmed from the\nfolk memory of the giant rhino, but whatever the truth may be, it is intriguing to think that\nour ancestors on the lonely plains of central Asia once walked among these gigantic, singlehorned rhinoceri.\n\u2022 The line of mammals that gave rise to the living rhinoceri we know today\u2014the white",
+    "Scientific name: Megaladapis edwardsi\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Primates\nFamily: Lepilemuridae\nWhen did it become extinct? The giant lemur became extinct around 500 years ago,\nperhaps even more recently.\nWhere did it live? The giant lemur was found only in Madagascar.\nMany, many millions of years ago, what we know today as Madagascar was part of\nGondwanaland, the enormous landmass that occupied the Southern Hemisphere. Madagascar was hemmed in by Africa to the west and India to the east, but over the ages, the\nslow but ceaseless movements of the immense plates that make up the surface of the earth\ntore Gondwanaland apart, and around 165 million years ago, Madagascar drifted free of\nAfrica, but over the next 40 million years or so, it still retained intermittent contact with\nIndia. It lost touch with India for the last time around 88 million years ago, and ever since,",
+    "the air, en masse, for the return leg. The return to the breeding grounds took them through\nTexas, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska. Completing such an arduous migration, nonstop, was an impossible task, so the enormous \ufb02ock often alighted to refuel. The prairies of\nthe Midwest were favored refueling stops, and the birds used their long bills to probe the\nsoil for insect eggs, larvae, and pupae. Interestingly, it is thought that these refueling stops\nwere heavily dependent on the Rocky Mountain locust, another extinct animal that once\nlived in unparalleled aggregations.\nThe risks of this journey were varied and grave. The North Atlantic is ravaged by storms,\nand each year, many of the curlews were blown o\ufb00 course to \ufb01nd themselves alone and\nhungry in the cold expanse of the North Atlantic. Some stragglers even found their way to\nBritain and the decks of Atlantic ships. It seems that the entire world population of Eskimo",
+    "unique animals\u2014the most notable of these being the lemurs.\n\u2022 The elephant bird has always been shrouded in myth and legend. In the thirteenth\ncentury, the great explorer Marco Polo recounted tales of a huge bird of prey that could\ncarry an elephant in its huge talons. Known as the roc or rukh, the stories of this bird\nconvinced sailors who visited Madagascar and saw eggs of the elephant birds that the\nisland was home to this giant raptor. This is where the name \u201celephant bird\u201d may have\ncome from, and it appears to have stuck, even when Europeans realized that the elephant bird was actually like a giant ostrich.\n\u2022 Memories of the elephant bird persisted for a long time in the stories and histories of\nsome of the native Madagascan people (Malagasy). These stories describe the elephant\nbirds as gentle giants. Although these accounts are liable to exaggeration, it gives us\nsome idea of what the living elephant bird may have been like.",
+    "Birds, with their power of \ufb02ight, are probably the \ufb01rst large animals to reach uncolonized\nislands, and one group of these animals, which reached Hawaii, evolved into bizarre creatures.\nThese were the moa-nalo, and they were a group of \ufb02ightless, gooselike birds that lived on\nall the main Hawaiian Islands. The word moa means \u201cfowl\u201d and nalo means \u201clost,\u201d so their\nHawaiian name can be translated as \u201clost fowl.\u201d The remains of these birds have been found\nin sand dune blowouts, where the wind has uncovered their bones, and in sinkholes and lava\ntubes, both of which probably act as natural traps. These bones show that these birds were\nabout the same weight as a swan, but much stockier, with a robust pelvis and powerful, thick\nlegs. Moa-nalo also had very large bills that have been likened to the horny jaws of the giant\ntortoises that inhabit the Gal\u00e1pagos Islands and some of the islands in the Indian Ocean.",
+    "Cretaceous\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 65 to 145 million\nyears ago.\nCro-Magnon\u2014a term usually used to describe the oldest modern humans of Europe.\nCuticle\u2014the nonmineral outer covering of an organism.\nDevonian\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 359 to 416 million\nyears ago.\nDinosaur\u2014a group of reptiles that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for about 160 million\nyears until the end of the Cretaceous.\nEcosystem\u2014a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their\nenvironment.\nEndemic\u2014an organism exclusively native to a certain place.\nEndocast\u2014the replica of a brain that is formed when sediments or other materials \ufb01ll the\nburied cranium of a dead animal.\nEurasia\u2014the landmass comprising Europe and Asia.\nFauna\u2014the animal life in an ecosystem.\nFemur\u2014in all vertebrates with legs, the bone between the hip and knee.\nFirn\u2014ice that is at an intermediate stage between snow and glacial ice.\nFlora\u2014the plant life in an ecosystem.",
+    "food up in smoke, the thunderbirds were forced to eat other plant matter, and it seems\nthat they may not have been able to adapt to this change. In the centuries that followed\nthe human colonization of Australia, the thunderbirds dwindled away to extinction.",
+    "all living species. They are so rich in life that a single rainforest tree may be home to several\nspecies of plant, animal, and microbe found nowhere else on earth, but with every passing\nyear, they are being burned and chopped down. Every second that passes sees the loss of one\nand a half acres of tropical rainforest, and if the present rate of destruction continues, the\ntropical rainforests will be consumed in 40 years, with tragic consequences for every living\nthing on the planet.\nLike the tropical rainforests, the world\u2019s oceans teem with life, but the condition of the\nmarine ecosystem is now nothing less than a global emergency. Huge \ufb02eets of \ufb01shing vessels haul millions of tonnes of \ufb01sh, crustaceans, and mollusks out of the water every year,\nand many stocks of commercial species have collapsed completely because of this relentless",
+    "When did it become extinct? This bear is thought to have died out around 12,500 years\nago.\nWhere did it live? This bear and its close relatives were only found in North America.\nTheir remains have been found from Alaska and the Yukon to Mexico and from the\nPaci\ufb01c to the Atlantic coasts.\nThousands of years ago, northern North America was not the land of forest that it is\ntoday. Expansive grasslands stretched out toward the horizon, which were populated by\ngreat herds of herbivorous mammals, including mammoth, bison, deer, and caribou. Predators like the saber tooth cat, scimitar cat, and dire wolf stalked these herds, and dependent on them were the scavengers. One of these scavengers was the largest bear that has\never lived\u2014a bear so big that even when it was standing on all fours, it could still look a\ngrown man in the face. This was the giant short-faced bear, and in these prehistoric northern climes, it was the dominant carnivorous animal, although it is now widely believed that",
+    "Scientific name: Thylacinus cynocephalus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Dasyuromorphia\nFamily: Thylacinidae\nWhen did it become extinct? It became extinct in the year 1936, although uncon\ufb01rmed\nsightings are still reported.\nWhere did it live? The thylacine was native to Australia and New Guinea, but in relatively\nrecent times, its range was limited to Tasmania, the island o\ufb00 the southeastern tip of\nAustralia.\nA short, black-and-white, silent \ufb01lm showing an unusual doglike animal pacing up and\ndown in a zoo enclosure is a poignant reminder of the last known thylacine, known a\ufb00ectionately as Benjamin. The \ufb01lm was shot in 1933 at Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, and three\nyears after the \ufb01lm was shot, Benjamin died\u2014some say through neglect, but whatever the\ncause, his demise was the end of the species.\nThe range of the thylacine, also inaccurately known as the Tasmanian wolf or Tasmanian",
+    "family tree from ancient DNA should always be done with caution as thousands of\nyears lying in the ground can severely damage DNA, and old samples can be contaminated with DNA from sources too numerous to list.",
+    "The remains of this bird were \ufb01rst discovered\nin Cueva de Pio Domingo in western Cuba, and\nit was thought, initially, that they belonged to a\nCuban species of terror bird because of their size.\nThe bones clearly belonged to a large bird that spent\nmost of its time on the ground. In the early 1960s,\na paleontologist was examining these bones, and he\nsaw them for what they really were: the remains of\na giant, extinct owl. Today around 220 owls species\nare recognized and zoologists separate them into\ntwo groups: the typical owls and the relatively longlegged and highly nocturnal barn owls. For most\nowls, the day begins when the sun goes down, when\nthey leave their daytime retreats to hunt their prey.\nThere can be few predators as beautifully adapted\nas the owls. Their senses of sight and hearing are\nacute, and their wing beat is mu\ufb04ed by the soft barbule tips on the leading edge of the \ufb02ight feathers,",
+    "her nocturnal forages. Amazingly, when baby solenodons accompany their mother, they never\nlet go of her greatly elongated teats, so when the baby is really small, it simply gets dragged\naround, but as it grows, it is able to trot alongside its mother with the teat clasped \ufb01rmly in its\nmouth. The young solenodon stays with its mother for several months, and even when it has",
+    "\u2022 The migration of straight-tusked elephants to Sicily was not an isolated event. Many\nislands in the Mediterranean had their own species of dwarf elephant, which descended\nfrom the big, straight-tusked elephant that swam across from the mainland or traversed a temporary land bridge or series of small islands. The Cypriot dwarf elephant\n(Elephas cypriotesi) was about twice the size of the Sicilian species, but it was still very\nmuch smaller than its ancestors.\nFurther Reading: Masseti, M. \u201cDid Endemic Dwarf Elephants Survive on Mediterranean Islands up\nto Protohistorical Times?\u201d In The World of Elephants\u2014International Congress, 402\u20136. Rome, 2001;\nPalombo, M. \u201cEndemic Elephants of the Mediterranean Islands: Knowledge, Problems and Perspectives.\u201d In The World of Elephants\u2014International Congress, 486\u201391. Rome, 2001; Masseti, M., and\nM. R. Palombo. \u201cHow Can Endemic Proboscideans Help Us Understand the \u2018Island Rule\u2019? A Case",
+    "Homo erectus was robust and equipped with big teeth. This mandible was powered by large\nmuscles and was undoubtedly suited to chewing tough food.\nUsing a complete skull of Homo erectus, anatomists and artists can build up a picture of\nthe face of this extinct hominid. If you stare into the face of one of these reconstructions,\nyou can see yourself, but the overall impression is of an animal that was barely human. The\nmental capabilities of Homo erectus can only be guessed. A frequent question is whether\nthese hominids were able to express themselves with language, and detailed studies of Turkana Boy suggest that their power of speech was very minimal, perhaps limited to simple\nsounds\u2014the precursors of complex speech. We do know that they made tools, as stone artifacts have been found at the same locations as their bones and from other locations around\nthe world. The bones of Homo erectus are so rare that these tools give us a better picture of",
+    "QUINKANA\nScientific name: Quinkana fortirostrum\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Reptilia\nOrder: Crocodilia\nFamily: Crocodylidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The most recent Quinkana remains are around 40,000\nyears old.\nWhere did it live? Quinkana was an Australian reptile.\n\n\f\n\nMORE THAN 12,500 YEARS AGO\n\nQuinkana\u2014Quinkana was one of a number of unusual, land-dwelling crocodiles that roamed Australia\nand the islands of the South Pacific for many millions of years. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "Komodo dragon as a model. This famous monitor lizard has been closely studied for years,\nand we know a great deal about its general biology. Like the Komodo dragon, the giant monitor probably relied on ambush to catch its prey. It may have skulked in the undergrowth\nnear a watering hole and waited for a hapless victim to come within distance. All lizards,\nparticularly the large monitor lizards, are incapable of maintaining a burst of speed for any\nsigni\ufb01cant distance. Their bodies are badly designed for long-distance running as their legs\nare splayed out to the side and their spines \ufb02ex from side to side, which makes breathing\nimpossible during energetic movement. In contrast, the legs of a four-legged mammal are\ndirectly beneath it, and its spine \ufb02exes up and down, which actually helps with breathing\n(think of a greyhound or cheetah running at full speed). So the giant monitor was limited\nto lightning strikes from cover, which is still a very e\ufb00ective technique. When the victim",
+    "persecuted the last remaining seals for their blubber and meat or in self-serving attempts\nto protect their catch. With the combination of habitat loss, hunting, and competition for\nfood, the monk seal was pushed to extinction.\n\u2022 Even though the last reliable sighting of the Caribbean monk seal was in 1952, people still report seeing this animal. Most of these sightings are reported by divers and\n\ufb01shermen, but it is highly likely that they are confusing the monk seal with hooded\nseals, which occasionally stray south from their northern range o\ufb00 Canada, or with\nCalifornia sea lions, which occasionally escape from navy training programs, traveling\ncircuses, or captive facilities around the Caribbean.\n\u2022 The Caribbean monk seal is one of three monk seal species. The other two species,\nthe Mediterranean monk seal and the Hawaiian monk seal, are both listed as endangered species and are declining. Mediterranean monk seals now number around 500",
+    "Breeding, 17, 72; grounds, 6\u20137, program, 35;\nseason, 9, 31, 72, 74 \u201375, 78, 80, 91, 98\u201399,\n133, 157, 165, 183; selective, 32\u201333, 35, 51,\n52; slow, 49, 121, 170. See also Aurochs; Dodo;\nDu; Gastric-brooding frog; Golden toad; Great\nauk; Moa\nBritish Columbia, 21\nBrowser, 98, 107, 144\nBuller, Walter, 30\nBunyip, 145\nBustard, 169\nCalifornia, 75, 104, 119. See also Cave, Potter\nCreek; Rancho La Brea\nCamel, 109, 126, 181\u2013 84\nCanada, hooded seals, 10; migration route, 17;\ngeographic range, 38, 132, 133\nCanid. See Dog\nCapelin (\ufb01sh), 39\nCaracara, 26\u201328\nCarapace, 173. See also Glyptodont;\nHorned turtle\nCaribbean, 7. See also Caribbean monk seal;\nCuban giant owl; Marcano\u2019s solenodon\nCaribbean monk seal, 8\u201311\nCarolina Parakeet, 13\u201315\nCarrion, 27, 120\u201321, 127. See also Scavenge",
+    "QUAGGA\nScientific name: Equus quagga quagga\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Perissodactyla\nFamily: Equidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last quagga, a captive specimen, died in 1883.\nWhere did it live? The quagga was only found in South Africa, particularly in the Cape\nProvince and the southern part of the Orange Free State.\n\n33\n\n\f\n\n34\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nQuagga\u2014A subspecies of the plains zebra, the quagga retains some degree of striping. (Natural History\nMuseum at Tring)",
+    "impressive sight. An adult giant rhino was around 6 m long, 2 m at the shoulder, 5 to 6\ntonnes, and probably covered in dense fur. By comparison, the biggest white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) on record was just over 4 m long and 1.8 m tall, and weighed around 3.5\ntonnes, which gives you a good idea of how big the giant rhino was.\nThe skulls of this animal that have been found indicate that this beast was the proud\nowner of a single, huge horn, estimated to have been around 2 m long. We can never be sure\nof the appearance of the horn because one has never been found due to the simple fact that\nunlike deer antlers, rhinoceros horn is actually made out of very dense keratin \ufb01bers, the\nsame protein that makes your hair and nails. In life, these horns are a potent weapon, but in\ndeath, they rot away, leaving no remains.\nThe white rhino, even with its stubby legs, is a quick, nimble runner able to reach speeds",
+    "Flora\u2014the plant life in an ecosystem.\nFolk memory\u2014stories that are passed, orally, from one generation to the next.\nForaminifera\u2014tiny, single-celled organisms, often shelled, that live in profusion in the\noceans.\nGizzard\u2014the muscular organ found in the digestive tract of birds and other animals that\ngrinds up food.",
+    "descendents of the giant bison\u2014which, by Clovis times (about 13,000 years ago), was a grassland animal swelling in numbers. Along with the mammoths and the mastodons, this was still\none of the larger land mammals of North America, and killing an adult probably provided a\nsmall group of humans with enough food for many weeks and an abundance of raw materials\nfor making tools, shelter, and clothing. Is it possible that human hunting caused the demise of\nthis bison? The likely answer is no. As with all the other great beasts that once roamed North\nAmerica, we cannot attribute the disappearance of the ancient bison to a single event or factor.\nFor almost the last 2 million years, the earth\u2019s \ufb02ora and fauna have had to adapt to massive,\ncyclic climatic changes, some of which have been very abrupt: the glaciations and their associated interglacials (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 5). The inhabitants of the high and",
+    "individuals, and Hawaiian monk seals number about 1,200. Hawaii and the Mediterranean are both densely populated tourist destinations, and demands for beachfront\nproperty exert direct pressure on the habitats of both seal species. It will take a lot of\npublic awareness and active protection to ensure the survival of these animals.\n\u2022 The monk seals are a type of true seal, and they belong to a group of animals called\nthe pinnipeds. The other members of this group are the eared seals (sea lions and fur\nseals) and the walruses. These semiaquatic mammals are thought to have evolved from\na bearlike ancestor around 23 million years ago.\nFurther Reading: Boyd, I., and M. Stanfield. \u201cCircumstantial Evidence for the Presence of Monk\nSeals in the West Indies.\u201d Oryx 32 (1998): 310\u201316; Debrot, A. \u201cA Review of Records of the Extinct",
+    "xxi\n\n\f\n\nxxii\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nthe disappearance of the dinosaurs, the mammals, birds, and crocodiles all vied with each\nother to take the place of the extinct reptiles. Eventually, the mammals were successful, and\nthey evolved remarkably quickly to \ufb01ll the niches in the post dinosaur world.",
+    "MERRIAM\u2019S TERATORN\n\nMerriam\u2019s Teratorn\u2014Merriam\u2019s teratorn was larger than the living condors, and its remains have been\nfound throughout much of the United States. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "Apatite, 166\nArchipelago, 36, 55, 63\u2013 65\nArgentina: Amerindians, 91; bird fossils, 169,\n176; marsupial fossils, 171\u201372; megafauna, 90;\nmonotreme fossils, 158; ungulate fossils, 111\nArizona, 119",
+    "means of growing food. The forests were hacked down to make way for these crops, and the\npassenger pigeons were quick to exploit this new source of food. Settlers \ufb01rst killed the passenger pigeons to protect their crops, but they soon realized that these birds were a massive\nsource of nutritious food, and the slaughter began in earnest. The adult birds were normally\npreyed on when they were nesting. Trappers equipped with nets constructed smoky \ufb01res beneath the nesting trees to force the adults into taking \ufb02ight. Trees with lots of nests were cut\ndown, enabling trappers to get their hands on the young pigeons. The slaughter was senseless\nand wasteful, with often only the feathers of the birds being taken to be used as stu\ufb03ng. Of\ncourse, the birds were valued as cheap food, and millions of birds were taken by train to the\nbig cities on the East Coast of the United States. It has been said that during the end of the",
+    "The bones of the American lion are very similar to the lion (Panthera leo) we know today,\nbut scientists disagree on how these two animals are related. We do know that felines of lion\nproportions crossed into America via the Bering land bridge, and the American lion may\nsimply be a subspecies of the living lion or possibly the same as the extinct European lion\n(Panthera leo spelaea), commonly known as the cave lion. Alternatively, the American lion\nmay have been a distinct species and more similar, genetically, to the jaguar (Panthera onca).\nThis extinct American cat was a big animal and one of the largest predators of the Americas,\nsecond only to the short-faced bears. It was around 25 percent larger than an average African lion, and it also had relatively longer legs.\nWe know this was a big, fearsome cat, but can ancient remains shed any light on how\nthis feline lived? Is it possible to say whether the American lion was a social animal that",
+    "population was probably no more than a few thousand individuals, and it is therefore no\nsurprise to learn that hunting quickly led to the extermination of this animal. Because the\nwarrah was so very tame, hunting was a breeze, and all the hunter needed was a piece of\nmeat and a knife. He held out the piece of meat to tempt the animal and stabbed it with\nthe knife when it came within range. Other hunters used ri\ufb02es or poison, but regardless\nof which particular method was used to kill the warrah, it was exceedingly rare by the\n1860s.\nAmazingly, a live warrah found itself in London Zoo in 1868 after being transported on\na ship with a menagerie of other exotic animals, most of which perished during the journey.\nThis warrah, far from home, survived for several years in the zoo, but it was one of the last of\nits species. Back in the South Atlantic, the onslaught of the sheep farmers and the hunters",
+    "among scavenging animals were commonplace, and the teratorns probably jostled for space on\nthe carcass until one of them lost its footing and ended up in the tar itself.\nIn terms of behavior, the closest comparable living bird to Merriam\u2019s teratorn may be the\nbald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), a \ufb01sh specialist with no qualms about eating carrion\nfrom a large carcass. Perhaps Merriam\u2019s teratorn, like the bald eagle, was primarily a \ufb01sh\neater but was occasionally drawn to the bounteous supply of carrion at Rancho La Brea,\nwhich, back then, was very close to the coastline.",
+    "There were once around 50 species of lemur living on Madagascar, but tragically, 15\nor more species have become extinct since humans arrived on the island. It is possible\nthat all of these lemurs evolved from a single ancestral species that \ufb02oated across from\nAfrica.\nEssentially, the lemurs are primates, albeit primitive ones, and all of their close relatives that\nonce lived in other parts of the world have long since become extinct, probably outcompeted by\nthe ancestors of the Old World monkeys and apes. However, the lemurs were safe from competition on Madagascar, and there they \ufb02ourished, evolving into a variety of forms to exploit\nthe various habitats on the huge island. Today, the pygmy mouse lemur (Microcebus myoxinus)\nis the smallest living lemur at around 30 g, whereas the largest, the indri (Indri indri), can\nweigh as much as 10 kg. Like any other group of animals, the lemurs were not without their",
+    "verge of decomposing altogether.\nWhen we think of the remains of long-dead animals, we normally think of digging around in\nrock to \ufb01nd fragments of the living animal. Although this is often the case, animal remains are preserved in other ways, some of which are astounding. In some places in Siberia and Alaska, whole\nanimals, such as mammoths, were frozen so quickly and later buried that they are almost perfectly\npreserved in \ufb02esh and bone, and today they provide us with the best glimpse we have of what these\nice age animals were like. In very dry places, a dead animal can become mummi\ufb01ed. Some ground\nsloths have been preserved in this way, and even though the vast majority of their soft tissues have\nbeen eaten by insects and other small animals, fragments of skin and hair, thousands of years old,\nremain. Some animals met their end in peat bogs, and these deep beds of slowly decomposing plant",
+    "taking on the mantle of top land predator in the ecosystems in which they lived. However,\naround 2.5 million years ago (during the Pliocene epoch), something happened that completely changed the course of life for South America\u2019s unique animals\u2014the Great American\nInterchange (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 2). The land bridge that formed between North and South America, what is now known as the Isthmus of Panama, allowed\nanimals from the north to migrate into South America. Among them were lots of predatory\ncats, and it has been proposed that these animals were so e\ufb00ective as predators that they\noutcompeted the terror birds. The talons and beaks of the terror birds were no match for\nthe teeth, claws, and hunting prowess of the invaders from the north. This is a very neat\nanswer for the cause of the extinction of the terror birds; however, the extinction of successful animals is very rarely due to one factor, but a combination of events. Perhaps climate",
+    "Nowak, R. M., ed. Walkers Mammals of the World. 6th ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University\nPress, 1999.\nOwen, D. Tasmanian Tiger: The Tragic Tale of How the World Lost Its Most Mysterious Predator.\nBaltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.\nProthero, D. R. After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,\n2006.\nQuammen, D. The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. New York: Scribner,\n1997.\nQuirk, S., M. Archer, and P. Schouten. Prehistoric Animals of Australia. Sydney: Australian Museum,\n1983.\nRich, P. V., and T. H. Rich. Wildlife of Gondwana: Dinosaurs and Other Vertebrates from the Ancient\nSupercontinent. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.\nRich, P. V., and G. F. van Tets. Kadimakara: Extinct Vertebrates of Australia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton\nUniversity Press, 1991.\nStrahan, R. The Mammals of Australia. Sydney, Australia: Reed Books, 1996.",
+    "\u2022 Rodrigues Island, 560 km to the east of Mauritius, was once home to another species\nof big, \ufb02ightless bird. This bird, known as the Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria),\nwas \ufb01rst recorded in 1691, yet by the 1760s, at the very latest, it, too, had gone the\nsame way as its relative, the dodo. R\u00e9union Island, also in the Mauritius group, was\nsaid to be the home of a completely white dodo called the \u201cR\u00e9union solitaire\u201d; however,\nit has now been established that this bird was actually an ibis, rather than a dodo.\nSadly, this bird is also extinct. Albino dodos were actually observed on Mauritius and\nundoubtedly added to the confusion over the identity of the R\u00e9union solitaire.\n\u2022 Although the dodo is a very familiar extinct animal, remarkably few remains of it exist\nin collections. There are a few complete skeletons, a few disjointed bones, and a head\nand foot that still have tissue attached. The foot and head came from the last stu\ufb00ed",
+    "specimen, which was once on display in the Oxford Ashmolean Museum. Apparently,\nby 1755, the specimen was in quite a sorry state, and it was said that the curator ordered it to be burned. This recklessness is now thought to be a myth and the burning\nwas, in fact, a desperate attempt by museum workers to salvage what they could from a\nbadly disintegrating specimen, leaving us with the remnants we have today.\n\u2022 Mauritius and its neighboring islands, thanks to their isolation in the Indian Ocean,\nwere home to many species of unique animal before the arrival of Europeans and the\ndestructive animals they had in tow. At least we have a good idea of what the dodo\nand Rodrigues solitaire looked like\u2014unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many\nof the other animals with which these birds shared their home. We now know these\nislands harbored other \ufb02ightless and \ufb02ying birds, bats, giant tortoises, and even snakes,",
+    "They lived in great herds and could often be found grazing with wildebeest or hartebeest and\nostriches. It has been suggested that grazing together a\ufb00orded these animals greater protection from their principal enemy, the lion, thanks to a combination of their talents: the birds\u2019\neyesight, the antelopes\u2019 sense of smell, and the quaggas\u2019 acute hearing. A lion would have",
+    "short distances, they must have been quite deadly.\nThe fossil record of Quinkana is not fantastic, but from the remains we do have, it is possible to estimate the size of this beast\u2014estimates run from 2 m all the way up to 5 m\u2014but\nthe living animal was probably around 3 m long. A 3-m-long, terrestrial crocodile must have\nbeen quite an animal and surely an e\ufb00ective predator. The crocodiles are all meat eaters, and\nQuinkana was no di\ufb00erent. However, unlike today\u2019s crocodilians, which have conical teeth,\nQuinkana jaws were lined with lots of curved, bladelike teeth that were e\ufb00ective tools for\nslashing at prey.\nExactly what this reptile hunted and how it hunted them is a mystery, but the Komodo\ndragon gives us valuable insight on the hunting and feeding behavior of a giant reptile.\nQuinkana\u2019s Australia was a very di\ufb00erent land to the place we know today. The Australian",
+    "These industrious e\ufb00orts can change whole habitats. Did the giant beaver do the same, constructing enormous structures of saplings and cut wood? We have no way of knowing for\nsure, but in 1912, part of a young giant beaver\u2019s skull and its possible lodge were discovered\nnear New Knoxville in Ohio. The lodge was said to have been 1.2 m high and 2.4 m across\nand was built from saplings with a diameter of 7.5 cm.\nLike many of the other great beasts that once roamed North America, the giant beaver\nbecame extinct around 10,000 years ago. The exact cause of its demise is a mystery. As a\nspecies, the giant beaver survived for around 2 million years, and in that time, glaciers expanded and retracted as the earth\u2019s climate oscillated between longer cold and shorter warm\nperiods for at least 10 cycles. The giant beaver survived all of these oscillations and the\nchanges they brought, except the last one. Humans have been implicated in the extinction",
+    "M. R. Palombo. \u201cHow Can Endemic Proboscideans Help Us Understand the \u2018Island Rule\u2019? A Case\nStudy of Mediterranean Islands.\u201d Quaternary International 169/170 (2007): 105\u201324.",
+    "been hard-pressed to surprise a group of animals cooperating in this way, and it is very likely\nthat lions caught very few healthy adult quaggas.\nThis defense was very e\ufb00ective against lions, but it was not so successful against the\nBoers, who were equipped with horses and guns. As the Boers moved inland, they exterminated these giant herds of ungulates, primarily for food but also for their high-quality\nskins. Quaggas were also captured live and put to various uses. By all accounts, the quagga\nwas a very lively, highly strung animal, and the stallions were prone to \ufb01ts of rage, so taming one of these animals must have been very interesting and practically impossible. In the\nearly days of the Boers\u2019 settlement of South Africa, the quagga was sometimes kept as a\nguard horse to protect domestic livestock. Any intruder, be it a lion or a rustler, was treated\nto the whinnying alarm of the quagga and most probably attacked by this tenacious horse.",
+    "glyptodonts heavily armored, but they also had a fearsome weapon in the shape of their tail.\nIn some species, this was forti\ufb01ed with rings of bony plates, whereas other species sported\na thuggish club or dangerous looking, macelike growth. Any predator would have to have\nbeen wary of a glyptodont\u2019s lashing tail if it were to survive to see another day.\nThe level of protection displayed by the glyptodont came at a price because it was very\nheavy indeed. The short, squat legs would only have been able to propel the great bulk of\nthe beast at a very lumbering pace. Bones and the way they \ufb01t together allow scientists to\nestimate how the living animal moved. Simulations of a glyptodont\u2019s gait show that it would\nbe struggling to amble along at anything more than around 4 to 5 km per hour. Bones can\nalso give us insight into how the animal went about its everyday life. Glyptodonts only had\nteeth in the rear of their mouths, but they continued to grow throughout the animal\u2019s life.",
+    "close quarters. Hunting a cave bear must have been a very dangerous business. They\nmay have been herbivorous, but they were immensely strong and probably very easily\nangered. A large, rearing cave bear was at least 3 m tall, and a swipe from one of its\nmassive paws would have easily snapped the neck of a human assailant.\nFurther Reading: Kurten, B. The Cave Bear Story. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.",
+    "old swamp deposits, so we can assume that this giant rodent preferred lakes surrounded\nby swamp, and it seems to have \ufb02ourished in an area around the Great Lakes. Three\nalmost complete skeletons have been found in Indiana and Minnesota. Toward the end of\nthe last ice age, this region was dotted with numerous swamps and lakes\u2014the probable\npreferred habitat of this giant rodent. The density of lakes, marshlands, rivers, and streams\nprobably lent itself to the dispersal of an animal that was not fond of leaving the water.\nGiant beaver remains have been found over a very large area, so they were obviously occupying an ecosystem rich in aquatic habitats. Even if the giant beavers rarely moved far over\nland, they could have dispersed over great distances by traveling between the extensive\nnetwork of interconnected lakes that once studded North America, the remnants of which\nwe still see today.",
+    "and destroyed their nests.\n\u2022 The giant monitor lizard is a favorite of cryptozoologists who believe that this reptile\nstill haunts the Australian outback. There have been numerous sightings that people\nattribute to this lizard, some of which have been reported by very credible witnesses.\nIt is worth remembering that Australia is a huge, sparsely populated place. A startling example of just what secrets this place still holds is the Wollemi pine (Wollemia\nnobilis), which was discovered in 1994. This living fossil had clung to existence in\nsome remote canyons in the Blue Mountains. If a static species, such as a tree, can\nremain undetected during two centuries of scienti\ufb01c endeavor, then what are the\nchances of a highly mobile, albeit giant lizard, still being at large in the Australian\nwilderness?\n\u2022 The larger monitor lizards spend almost all of their time on the ground, but they\nare pro\ufb01cient climbers and excellent swimmers. However, when young they prefer to",
+    "global cooling, which entered a harsh phase around 2 million years ago. Temperatures at\nmidlatitudes dropped by around 15 degrees Celsius, and as more and more water got locked\nup in the growing glaciers, megatooth\u2019s shallow water habitats became scarcer and colder,\nand the shark was forced into dwindling pools of habitat, unable to catch su\ufb03cient prey to\nfuel its enormous bulk. Some of the whales on which megatooth probably fed also became\nextinct at around the same time, supporting the theory that shallow, warm-water habitats\ndisappeared due to global cooling.\n\u2022 The megatooth shark existed for around 20 million years, and although it is often assumed to be a close relative of the great white, their exact relationship is still uncertain.\n\u2022 Although adult megatooth sharks were at the very top of the food chain, the young\nwere fair game for many marine predators.\n\u2022 Sharks have the amazing ability to continually replace their teeth. As a tooth breaks",
+    "FLORES HUMAN\nScientific name: Homo \ufb02oresiensis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Primates\nFamily: Hominidae\n\n127\n\n\f\n\nFlores Human\u2014Here a female Homo floresiensis, barely 1 m tall, walks back to her group\u2019s cave with a large\nrodent she has killed. (Phil Miller)\n\n\f\n\nMORE THAN 12,500 YEARS AGO",
+    "probably a way of intimidating and confusing predators in the hope that the downed bird\nwas only injured, thus giving it time to escape. This was probably a very successful strategy\nagainst predatory mammals and birds, but a man armed with a gun was a very di\ufb00erent\nopponent. As the rest of the \ufb02ock attended the bodies of the fallen, the hunter was able\nto pick o\ufb00 more of the unfortunate birds, and it was not unusual for an entire \ufb02ock to be\nwiped out in this way.\nThe years passed, and the Carolina parakeet lost more and more habitat and su\ufb00ered\nthe continued persecution of ignorant humans. To make matters worse, thousands of the\nbirds were captured for the pet trade, and thousands more were killed to supply the hat\ntrade with colorful feathers for the latest in fashionable ladies\u2019 head wear. The senseless\nslaughter and collection continued, and by the 1880s, it was very clear that the Carolina",
+    "\u2022 All birds evolved from small dinosaurs about 155 million years ago in the late Jurassic\nperiod. Ratites, the group of birds to which the moa belonged, evolved in Gondwanaland in what we know as South America. As this supercontinent was wrenched\napart over millions of years into the landmasses with which we are familiar today, the\nratites evolved into the moa and kiwis of New Zealand, the elephant birds of Madagascar (see the entry earlier in this chapter), the emu of Australia, the cassowary of\nAustralia and New Guinea, the ostrich of southern Africa, and the rheas of South\nAmerica.\nFurther Reading: Worthy, T. H., and R. N. Holdaway. The Lost World of the Moa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002; Turvey, S. T., O. R. Green, and R. N. Holdaway. \u201cCortical Growth Marks\nReveal Extended Juvenile Development in New Zealand Moa.\u201d Nature 435 (2005): 940\u201343; Bunce,",
+    "Cuba probably only saw them rarely. The disaster for the solenodons, especially Marcano\u2019s\nsolenodon, were the animals introduced by Europeans. Apart from occasionally falling victim to boa constrictors and raptors, solenodons had no enemies before the arrival of Europeans, and as a result, their defenses against cats and dogs are pitiful. If pursued by one of\nthese predators, the solenodon stops in its tracks and hides its head between its forelimbs.\nDisastrously ill equipped to cope with the in\ufb02ux of new predators, Marcano\u2019s solenodon was\nwiped out, and the remaining Hispaniolan and Cuban species are now woefully endangered.\n\u2022 The solenodons are an ancient group of insectivorous mammals that have changed\nlittle in millions of years. They are known from North American fossils between\n26 and 32 million years old.\n\u2022 There is some debate over the closest living relatives of the solenodons, but they are",
+    "short and quite broad, indicating that they were attached to some very powerful muscles.\nThese worked together with the muscles in the shoulders and back to provide tremendous\nforce. Without doubt, the most impressive feature of S. populator is the massive canine teeth\nin the upper jaw. They were huge\u2014far bigger than any tooth that has graced the mouth of\nany cat before or since. These formidable curved fangs were around 20 cm long, and to accommodate them, the mouth could open extraordinarily wide, up to 120 degrees (a modern\nlion\u2019s maximum gape is about 65 degrees).\nWhy did S. populator have such monstrous canines? We know that this predator stalked\nthe earth at the same time as many species of large herbivorous mammals, but it is very unlikely that S. populator was capable of subduing the adults of the Pleistocene giants: mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, and the like. However, the young of these giants and a host",
+    "\u2022 The closest living relatives of the terror birds are the seriemas of South America. A\nbird similar to the living seriemas probably gave rise to the 17 species of terror bird\nthat are known today from fossilized remains. These fossils cover a long period of geologic time, from about 60 million years ago to 1.8 million years ago, which goes to show\nhow successful these birds were.\n\u2022 For many millions of years, large, carnivorous, placental mammals were absent from\nSouth America, and in the absence of these predators, the ancestors of the terror birds\nevolved to \ufb01ll this niche.\n\u2022 The largest species of terror bird was the gargantuan Brontornis burmeisteri, identi\ufb01ed\nfrom remains discovered in Argentina. This heavily built bird, with its massive head,\nrivals the elephant bird of Madagascar for the title of the biggest bird that has ever\nlived. Remains of this monster are very rare, but it has been estimated that it weighed",
+    "as the ice sheets extended south.\n\u2022 The aurochs died before photography was invented, so we have no photographs, and\nconsidering that this was once a very common animal, there are not many complete\nskeletons in the world\u2019s museums. The image of the aurochs lives on in cave paintings, and the La Mairie cave (Dordogne, France) pictures, which date back to around\n15,000 years ago, show a bull aurochs with two females.\n\u2022 In the 1920s, two German zoologist brothers speculated that the aurochs could be effectively brought back from the dead by selectively breeding modern cattle for aurochs\ntraits. Their experiments quickly produced cattle with some strong similarities to the\naurochs. These animals, known as Heck cattle, do have some of the characteristics of\nthe aurochs, but they can only ever be an approximation of the extinct animal and an\ninteresting experiment in selective breeding.\n\u2022 Some animal breeders and zoologists have suggested that the \ufb01ghting bulls of Spain",
+    "67; extinction of, 33, 43, 153, 167, 171, 175;\nfossils, 18\nDiprotodon, 142\u2013 45\nDire wolf, 111\u201313, 126\nDisease, 93, 105, 115, 127, 129; bird extinction,\n18, 44, 54, 67; bone infections, 115, 127;\nNewcastle disease, 18; osteoarthritis, 93, 105,\n115; tuberculosis, 99, 127; thylacine extinction,\n12; syphilis, 127\nDisplays: communication, 27, horns and antlers,\n78, 133. See also Antlers\nDNA, 13, 34 \u201335, 57, 64, 76; mitochondrial, 133\nDodo, 34, 48\u201350, 60\u2013 62, 64, 65\nDogs, 11, 13, 178; Great American Interchange,\n42. See also, Dire wolf; Introduced\nspecies; Warrah\nDomestication; cattle, 50; horse, 32\nDouglas, Charles, 58\nDu, 65\u2013 68\nDubois, Eug\u00e8ne, 134\nDugong, 46, 167\nDwar\ufb01ng. See Island rule",
+    "some idea of what the living elephant bird may have been like.\nFurther Reading: Cooper, A., C. Lalueza-Fox, S. Anderson, A. Rambaut, and J. Austin. \u201cComplete\nMitochondrial Genome Sequences of Two Extinct Moas Clarify Ratite Evolution.\u201d Nature 409\n(2001): 704\u20137; Goodman, S. M., and J. P. Benstead, eds. The Natural History of Madagascar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.",
+    "155\n\n\f\n\n156\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nGIANT ECHIDNA\n\nGiant Echidna\u2014About the same size as a sheep, the giant echidna would dwarf its living relatives.\n(Phil Miller)",
+    "GIANT BISON\n\nGiant Bison\u2014This skeleton measures just over 2 m from the floor to the top of the tallest vertebral spine.\nIn life, the animal would have been closer to 2.5 m tall, with horns at least 2 m across. (Royal Saskatchewan\nMuseum)\n\n131\n\n\f\n\n132\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "163\n165\n168\n171\n\n\f\n\nCONTENTS\n\nTerror Bird\nGiant Hyena\nGiant Ape\nGiant Camel\n\nGlossary\nSelected Bibliography\nSelected Museums in the United States, Canada, and Worldwide\nIndex\n\n174\n176\n179\n181\n\n185\n191\n193\n197\n\nxi\n\n\f\n\nThis page intentionally left blank\n\n\f\n\nPREFACE",
+    "103\n\n\f\n\n104\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\n\u2022 Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming is a bell-shaped sinkhole at an altitude of around\n1,500 m. Through a 4-m-wide hole at the surface, an unlucky animal would fall around\n25 m to the cave \ufb02oor. There is no route out of the cave once at the bottom, so if the\nunfortunate beast was not killed by the fall, it would have slowly starved. Over the millennia, lots of prehistoric and modern animals have stumbled into this hole, and it is\nnow a site of extreme paleontological importance.\nFurther Reading: Adams, D. B. \u201cThe Cheetah: Native American.\u201d Science 205 (1979): 1155\u201358.\n\nAMERICAN LION\n\nAmerican Lion\u2014The American lion was substantially larger than the living lion. Bones from more than\n100 individuals have been recovered from the Rancho La Brea asphalt deposits. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "Like the numerous other \ufb02ightless birds that have become extinct in the last couple of\nmillennia, we can be almost certain that humans caused the extinction of the moa-nalo.\nThe time of arrival of humans in Hawaii is a bone of contention among anthropologists,\nbut Polynesians have been there since at least a.d. 800. Like the dodo, the moa-nalo was\nvery easy to hunt. They had never seen a human and so had no innate fear of our very\ndangerous species. Moa-nalo were large birds (4 to 7 kg) and probably highly prized by\nPolynesian hunters. As the moa-nalo had evolved in the absence of predators, there was\nno need to reproduce quickly to balance out the mortality rate. They were probably very\nlong-lived, slow-growing birds with a low rate of reproduction. The other big problem that\nhumans brought with them to Hawaii was a menagerie of nonnative animals (dogs, cats,\nsheep, goats, pigs, etc.). These competed with the moa-nalo for food, disturbed their nests,",
+    "(also known as el\ufb01n forests) are characterized by cloud, epiphytic plants galore, and small\ntrees, which all in all give them a very primeval feel. In this small area of perpetually moist\nforest, the golden toad could apparently be encountered commonly and in large numbers,\nbut only during the breeding season. The breeding season extended from April to June, when\nthe rainy season is usually at its most intense. These rains would \ufb01ll the hollows around the\nbases of trees and other natural depressions with water\u2014ideal toad breeding pools. The\ntoads would collect around these pools in great numbers with the sole intention of breeding. Mating in any toad species is far from genteel, and golden toad breeding was a free for\nall. The males outnumbered the females by eight to one, and any female in the vicinity of a\nbreeding pool soon found herself beneath a writhing mound of potential suitors. The males\nwould get so excited and desperate that they would try to mate with anything that moved,",
+    "203\n\n\f\n\n204\n\nINDEX\nThermals, 120, 170\nThunderbird, 121. See also Australian thunderbird\nThylacine, 11\u201313; Australian predator,\n141, 144, 157; comparison with pouch-knife,\n172\u201373\nTigris, 78\nTongan Royal Family, 70\nTools: indicators of hominid activity, 130; organic\nmatter, 75, 133, 136, 138, 139; stone, 116,\n129\u201330, 138\nTourism, 10\nTretretretre. See Giant lemur\nTrunk: glyptodont, 91; litoptern, 109; mastodon,\n98. See also Sicilian dwarf elephant\nTuatara, 31\nTundra, 7, 74 \u201375, 107\nTurtle, 68\u201370\nTusk: mammoths and mastodons, 74 \u201376, 98;\npermafrost, 32; protection against predators,\n171; sexual selection, 165\n\nVolcanic: ash, 19; eruption, 40, 130; island, 27,\n54, 65; land creation, 118\nvon Koenigswald, Ralph, 180\nVulture, 121, 169, 170\n\nUkraine, 108\nUnicorn, 165\nUV radiation. See Golden toad\n\nYeti, 180, 181\nYucatan peninsula, 9, 10\nYukon, 100, 105, 126\nYuribei River, 76",
+    "sheep, goats, pigs, etc.). These competed with the moa-nalo for food, disturbed their nests,\nand even ate their eggs. Even though they had lived, unmolested, on the Hawaiian Islands\nfor more than 3 million years, the moa-nalo were probably hammered into extinction in\nas little as 200 years after the \ufb01rst humans reached this volcanic archipelago.\n\u2022 Hawaii is so distant from other landmasses that a huge variety of unique creatures\nevolved there. The birds were especially diverse, and a few ancestral colonists that\nreached these remote islands from distant shores gave rise to a myriad of species, many\nof which are now sadly extinct.\n\u2022 It is thought these original colonists were represented by 15 species, and over a short\nperiod of geological time, they evolved into around 78 species, although this number is\nfar higher if we include those species, such as the moa-nalo, that are known only from\nbones.\n\u2022 Since humans colonized Hawaii, more than 56 species of bird have become extinct,",
+    "a big space in its skull for nasal tissue, and its sense of smell was probably very keen\u2014even\nbetter than that of modern bears, with their very sensitive noses.\nOnce this huge bear caught a whi\ufb00 of some food, it would head for the source. For a\nlong time, it was thought that the favored locomotion of this long-limbed bear was running,\nbut recent research suggests that it moved in the same way as a camel, with what is best\ndescribed as a pace whereby the two left limbs move together, followed by the right limbs.\nThis is a very e\ufb03cient gait, and like a speed walker, the bear was able to cover long distances\nwithout tiring.\nHow do we know that this extinct bear was a scavenger? The levels of two types of nitrogen in the bones of an animal (even long-dead ones) can tell us if they were an omnivore or\na dedicated carnivore. The nitrogen signature of the short-faced bear\u2019s bones suggests that\nit fed solely on meat, but although it was big, it was not really equipped to be a predator. Its",
+    "lunge, snagging the prey with its sharp, curved teeth. In the blink of an eye, Wonambi threw\ncoil after coil of its long body around the struggling victim. The embrace of Wonambi must\nhave been an inescapable one as the reptile tightened its grip, slowly su\ufb00ocating the victim\nwith crushing force. When the prey was dead, Wonambi relaxed its grip and set about swallowing the still warm body. The snakes we know today have a fantastically \ufb02exible skull and\nlower jawbone that makes it possible for them to swallow large animals. Large pythons and\nthe anaconda can inch their head over their prey until the whole body is engulfed. Wonambi\nwas a primitive snake, and it lacked the highly \ufb02exible skull of the modern snakes; therefore\nit was probably limited to smaller prey such as the many species of smaller wallaby that still\ninhabit Australia. The larger marsupials, many of which are now extinct, were probably too",
+    "THE ANCIENT MASS EXTINCTIONS AND EVOLUTION\nFor the organisms that experience them, cataclysmic events bring death and devastation,\nbut mass extinctions have their positive side, too. Indeed, if it wasn\u2019t for mass extinction,\nwe would not be here. Mass extinctions wipe the biological slate clean and leave the door\nopen to organisms that have been kept in the shade. If we travel back in time, the PermianTriassic mass extinction created an opportunity for the dinosaurs to rise to dominance,\nfollowing the demise of the large synapsids, i.e., Edaphosaurus, Dimetrodon, and so on. This\nis known as the Triassic takeover, and as the dinosaurs diversi\ufb01ed and grew larger, the surviving synapsids were forced into the shadows as nocturnal, insectivorous animals, and they\ngradually evolved the characteristics that we know as mammalian. For 160 million years,\nthese animals and their true mammal descendents lived in the shadows of the dinosaurs,",
+    "been found with mastodon remains. A mastodon skeleton has even been found with a spear\npoint embedded in the bone, and even more remarkably, the individual in question managed\nto survive the attack as the wound had healed. Such \ufb01nds tell us that our forebears hunted\nthese animals, but they give us no idea of the intensity of this predation. A third theory is\nthat tuberculosis drove the mastodons over the edge. Again, the tale of the bones shows that\nmastodons did indeed su\ufb00er from this disease, but was it enough to drive them to extinction?\nA plausible explanation for their disappearance is a combination of all these factors. Climate\nchange may have put a lot of pressure on the population of these animals, and disease may\nhave weakened them still further, with hunting bringing the \ufb01nal death knell.\n\u2022 The ancestors of the mastodons evolved in North Africa around 30 to 35 million years",
+    "seal, was last reliably sighted on Seranilla Bank, between Jamaica and Honduras, in 1952.\nOn his Caribbean voyages in 1493, Christopher Columbus referred to the Caribbean monk\nseal as the sea wolf, a term historically used to describe various seal species, perhaps because of their habit of stealing \ufb01sh from the nets and lines of \ufb01shermen. Today, most of our\nknowledge of what this animal looked like is based on a few photographs and observational\nrecords principally from the late 1800s and early 1900s, when at least a few small colonies\nstill existed. Caribbean monk seals were not particularly big by seal standards. Adult males\nreached lengths of around 2.0\u20132.4 m and weighted 170\u2013270 kg, while females were slightly\nsmaller. As seals go, this seal was said to be an attractive animal, with grizzled brown fur\ntinged with gray on its back that faded to yellow on its underside and muzzle. Another",
+    "Gobi Desert, 184\nGolden toad, 1\u20133, 5\nGondwanaland, 41, 55, 68, 71, 145, 158, 171\nGrand Banks, 38, 40\nGrassland (Grass): glaciations, 122, 183; North\nAmerica, 7\u2013 8, 21, 126, 127; South America,\n90, 110, 169, 175; steppe, 107, 133, 162,\n163\u2013 65\nGrazer, 32, 107, 144\nGreat American Interchange, 41\u2013 42, 91, 110,\n111, 173, 175\nGreat auk, 38\u2013 41\nGreat Lakes, 97, 100\nGreat white shark, 166\u2013 68\nGreenland, 38, 67, 123\nGround sloth, 19, 42. See also Giant ground sloth\nGroup living, 179; family group, 46, 51, 75, 96,\n99, 132, 138\nGuadalupe, 26\u201328\nGut fermentation, 108, 118; hind-gut, 64, 164",
+    "the hindfeet. It has curly hair, a short tail, and ears like a man\u2019s. . . . It is a very solitary\nanimal; the people of the country hold it in great fear and \ufb02ee from it, as it does from\nthem.\u201d It is highly likely that these tales relate to the sloth lemurs.\nFurther Reading: Fleagle, J. G. Primate Adaptation and Evolution. New York: Academic Press, 1988.",
+    "of sivathere survived until the cusp of recorded history and actually occupied a place in the\ntraditions and customs of the Sumerian people. When the Sumerian metalworker created\nthe copper sculpture surmounting the rein ring, Sivatherium may have been clinging to\nsurvival in the remote reaches of modern-day Iraq. This fascinating story presents us with\nthe possibility that many other extinct animals survived into far more recent times than\nbones alone suggest.\n\u2022 The rock paintings of Tassili n\u2019Ajjer, in the Algerian Sahara, depict many di\ufb00erent animals, including what appears to be an unusual gira\ufb03d. Is this yet more evidence for the\nsurvival of sivatheres into relatively recent times?\n\u2022 The surviving relatives of Sivatherium are the gira\ufb00e and the okapi, both of which\nare only found in Africa. The okapi is a shy, forest-dwelling animal that only became\nknown to science in 1912.\n\u2022 Five thousand years ago, Kish in Iraq, was a very di\ufb00erent place. It sat at the eastern",
+    "America at this time, and as they hunted the prey of the American lion, this feline and humans were in direct competition. Various \ufb01nds from around Europe show that prehistoric\nhumans hunted lions, but it is doubtful whether direct human hunting could have led to\nthe extinction of this cat. It is highly likely that this animal may have been better suited to\nthe habitats and the colder conditions of the glaciations, rather than to the warm periods,\nand the pressure of climate change on its prey may have been ampli\ufb01ed by human activity.\n\u2022 American lions were drawn to the Rancho La Brea because the sticky asphalt was a\ntrap for all sorts of animals (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 4). The cats were\nattracted to the struggling animals, and they, too, became hopelessly stuck, eventually\nbecoming entombed in the sticky tar. With this said, there are fewer American lions\nin the deposits than other predators such as saber tooth cats and dire wolves. Perhaps",
+    "eastern Australia, and Fiji have been worst hit.\n\u2022 Chytrids, a group of pathogenic fungi, are often blamed for this decline. This disease\nwas \ufb01rst noted on a captive frog in Germany, but its global spread has been linked to\nthe trade in the African clawed frog, an animal that is used in laboratories the world\nover for a plethora of experiments. American bullfrogs have also spread around the\nworld thanks to the pet trade, and these, too, carry the chytrid fungi, although they are\nnot a\ufb00ected by the disease.\n\u2022 Although the chytrids do cause disease and death in amphibians, it is unlikely they are\nwholly responsible for the global decline of these animals. There are probably numerous factors at play, including habitat destruction, climate change, and increasing levels\nof UV radiation. Only intensive research will allow us to solve the puzzle and halt the\ndecline of these interesting animals.\nFurther Reading: Savage, J. M. \u201cAn Extraordinary New Toad from Costa Rica.\u201d Revista de Biolog\u00eda",
+    "MORE THAN 12,500 YEARS AGO\n\nHomo erectus\u2014Homo erectus was a strong athlete and the first of our ancient ancestors to disperse widely\nfrom Africa, reaching at least as far as Indonesia. (Phil Miller)",
+    "elephantlike animals that once roamed the Northern Hemisphere.\n\u2022 The scimitar cats lived throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia. There is also some\nfossil evidence that they reached South America.\n\u2022 The canine teeth of the scimitar cats appear to be adapted for slashing \ufb02esh, rather\nthan for stabbing, which was the tactic of the saber tooth cat. When the scimitar cat\u2019s\nmouth was closed around the throat of an unfortunate victim, the canines formed an\ne\ufb00ective trap along with the incisors. As the cat pulled back from the prey, it probably\nripped out a sizeable chunk of skin, fat, and muscle, causing rapid blood loss.\n\u2022 Apart from the Friesenhahn Cave bones (discovered during the summers of 1949 and\n1951; see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 1), remains of the scimitar cat are relatively\nrare, and other \ufb01nds are generally of a disjointed bone or two. The rarity of specimens\nsuggests that the scimitar cats may have been quite uncommon, albeit widespread,",
+    "(Mammuthus columbi), and the imperial mammoth (Mammuthus imperator) were all\nvery large, and the latter species could have measured 5 m at the shoulder and weighed\nin excess of 13 tonnes. The Songhua River mammoth (Mammuthus sungari) may be\none of the largest terrestrial mammals ever, at 17 tonnes.\n\u2022 A population of dwarf woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic\nOcean north of Siberia for a long time after the rest of the species went extinct\u2014\npossibly as recently as 1700 b.c. Other island populations of dwarf mammoths existed\non Sardinia and the islands o\ufb00 the coast of California.\n\u2022 Woolly mammoths are almost unique among the prehistoric fauna for their incredibly well-preserved remains. Numerous specimens\u2014adults and young\u2014have been\nfound in the permafrost of what is now Siberia. The most recent \ufb01nd was a perfectly",
+    "of these megaherbivores disappeared, and so, too, did their predators, including some of the\nlarge cats. Primarily a scavenger, the giant hyena was dependent on these large predators for\nfood, and as they disappeared, it, too, was doomed.\n\u2022 The general appearance of hyenas suggests a close evolutionary link to the dog family;\nhowever, hyenas are an o\ufb00shoot of the cat branch of the carnivores, and therefore they\nare more closely related to cats than dogs.",
+    "FEWER THAN 100 YEARS AGO\n\nW. Indian Monk Seal.\u201d Marine Mammal Science 16 (2000): 834\u201337; Kenyon, K. \u201cCaribbean\nMonk Seal Extinct.\u201d Journal of Mammalogy 58 (1977): 97\u201398; Mignucci-Giannoni, A., and D.\nOdell. \u201cTropical and Subtropical Records of Hooded Seals Dispel the Myth of Extant Caribbean\nMonk Seal.\u201d Bulletin of Marine Science 68 (2001): 47\u201358.\n\nTHYLACINE\n\nThylacine\u2014Only an expert would be able to tell\nthat this skull belonged to a thylacine and not a\ndog. (Natural History Museum at Tring)\n\nThylacine\u2014A stuffed skin of a thylacine. Note the\nsimilarity of this Australian marsupial to a dog.\n(Natural History Museum at Tring)",
+    "these giant birds lacked the adaptability to deal with the combination of humans and the\ndevastation they bring and climate change. Exactly when the thunderbirds became extinct\nis a cause of dispute among paleontologists, but the last species is widely thought to have\nclung to existence until around 30,000 years ago. Scientists have used ancient egg shells\nof one species of thunderbird (Genyornis newtoni) to assess the impact of human activity\non these birds, and the Australian landscape in general. It seems that before 50,000 years\nago (before the widespread human colonization of Australia), this particular thunderbird\npecked at nutritious grasses. However, only 5,000 years later, the diet of this species had\ncompletely switched to the leaves of bushes and trees. The scientists\u2019 theory is that around\n45,000 years ago, humans began to have a drastic e\ufb00ect on the fragile Australian landscape by starting bush\ufb01res, which may have burned out of control. With their preferred",
+    "Class: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivora\nFamily: Ursidae\nWhen did it become extinct? Although they disappeared from many areas of Eurasia as\nearly as 20,000\u201330,000 years ago, the cave bear \ufb01nally became extinct around 10,000\nyears ago.\nWhere did it live? The remains of the cave bear have been found throughout Europe, to\nRussia in the east, Spain in the south, and France in the northwest. They may even have\nreached Britain.\nOf all the animals that have become extinct during the last 10,000 years or so, the remains\nof the cave bear are among the most numerous. In Dragon\u2019s Cave, near Mixnitz in Austria, the\nremains of around 50,000 cave bears have been found. Indeed, almost every cave in central Europe with an entrance big enough to permit the entry of a large animal will have, at some point,\nplayed host to this extinct bear. Suitable caves were used by generation upon generation of\nthese bears over hundreds of thousands of years, and where the passages are quite narrow, the",
+    "gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in the same concentration as they appear in the air. Over\ntime, in Antarctica, this snow is compacted from \ufb01rn to ice, and the record of atmospheric composition is trapped in the bubbles in the ice. A long core of this compressed snow is a record of the\nearth\u2019s climate that stretches back for 800,000 years. These cores show that during a full glacial,\nthe concentration of carbon dioxide averaged 180 parts per million (ppm); during the interglacials,\nthe concentration of this gas averaged 280 ppm. However, human activities since the industrial\nrevolution have been pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in ever greater quantities, and in\n2008, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth\u2019s atmosphere exceeded 380 ppm. As a result,\nthe earth is now warmer than it would be without human activity.\nThese cores enable us to look back in time and to see how the earth\u2019s climate has changed over",
+    "Scientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Diprotodontia\nFamily: Macropodidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This kangaroo became extinct around 40,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The giant short-faced kangaroo was found only in Australia.\nAn enduring image of the Australian wildlife has to be a kangaroo with a cute joey emerging from its pouch. Kangaroos are the quintessential Australian mammals. Among the most\nfamiliar of all the marsupials, they have adapted to almost all the habitats the Australian\ncontinent has to o\ufb00er, including open plains, forests, rocky outcrops, slopes, and cli\ufb00s. There\nare even tree-dwelling Kangaroos. These marsupials have a distinctive body shape: a stout\nbody, massively enlarged hind limbs, and a long, muscular tail.\nLots of animals hop, but the kangaroos are the largest animals to use hopping as their",
+    "MAGNIFICENT TERATORN\n\nMagnificent Teratorn\u2014The magnificent teratorn was the largest flying bird that has ever lived. At 6 to 8 m,\nits wingspan was about the same as a small airplane. (Renata Cunha)\n\nScientific name: Argentavis magni\ufb01cens\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Ciconiiformes\nFamily: Teratornithidae\n\n\f\n\nMORE THAN 50,000 YEARS AGO",
+    "ate. The tundra where the woolly mammoth lived was devoid of large trees, and these huge\nanimals probably relied on coarse grasses and low-growing shrubs, such as dwarf birch and\nwillow, for sustenance. As tundra vegetation is far from the most nutritious plant matter, it\nis reasonable to assume that the woolly mammoth needed to consume huge quantities of\nthis tough vegetation to sustain its great bulk.\nThe woolly mammoth was around for at least 290,000 years; however, its reign ended at\nthe end of the last glaciation, which in geological terms was quite abrupt, but as the mammoth had survived numerous cycles of climate change, where long glaciations have been\ninterspersed with shorter, warmer intervals, something else must have been happening. It\nhas been observed that the disappearance of many of the world\u2019s large land-living animals at",
+    "South America was once home to a number of glyptodont species, all of which looked\nlike enormous armadillos. These are surely among the most bizarre animals that have become extinct in the last few thousand years, and some of them reached huge sizes. An adult\nGlyptodon, the typical representative of this group, which used to amble around in Argentina, could have been 4 to 5 m in length and weighed in excess of 2,000 kg, making it as big\nas a small car.\nThe short, squat limbs and fused vertebrae of the glyptodonts supported a massive,\ndomelike carapace that must have a\ufb00orded the living animal a formidable level of protection from hopeful predators. This carapace was composed of more than 1,000 bony plates,\neach of which was more than 2 cm thick. The head was also heavily protected with a bony\nplate, as it could not be withdrawn into the carapace like that of a turtle. Not only were the\nglyptodonts heavily armored, but they also had a fearsome weapon in the shape of their tail.",
+    "the animal were tipped with long claws, which may have been used to grab plant food or\neven as weapons.\nWe know from the skeletons of this animal that the bones of the hind feet were arranged\nin a very peculiar way, making it impossible for the living animal to place its feet \ufb02at on the\nground. The animal could certainly rear up onto its hind legs, and perhaps even manage\nto amble around in this posture, using its thick tail as a strong prop, but it had to shuf\ufb02e\naround on the outside of its feet with the long claws pointing inward. The giant ground\nsloth may have been able to make better progress on all fours, possibly reserving its twolegged stance for feeding or defense.\nAs the giant ground sloth is related to the living sloths, it was always assumed that\nthey were gentle plant-eating animals, but some recent, controversial scienti\ufb01c research\nhas shed some light on how this massive beast used its forelimbs. These studies suggest",
+    "remains of the animals were perfectly preserved, but they were fragile, and before any of the bones\nwere removed, they were painted with a special strengthening compound.\nIn total, 69 species of vertebrate were identi\ufb01ed from the caves, many of which survive in Australia\nto this day. Twenty-one of the identi\ufb01ed animals did not survive the Pleistocene and are known only\nfrom bones. Of the 23 species of kangaroo identi\ufb01ed from the remains in the cave, no fewer than 8\nwere new species, which goes to show just how diverse Australia\u2019s large animal fauna once was. One\nof the most interesting of these extinct kangaroos was a small species with bony protrusions above its\neyes, like small horns. Exactly what these were for is a mystery, but paleontologists have speculated\nthat they protected the animal\u2019s eyes from the spines of its food plants. Interestingly, two of the extinct\nkangaroos from the cave were tree-dwelling species, similar to the surviving rainforest kangaroos of",
+    "on this diet rich in proteins and fats, the young grew quickly. They had to, as the summer in\nthese northern climes is very short indeed, and if the young hadn\u2019t grown su\ufb03ciently to take\nto the sea when the harsh conditions of winter descended, they would have perished.\nLife for the great auk was tough, and it got a whole lot tougher when they caught the\nattention of humans. Europeans soon realized the great auk represented a treasure trove of\noil, meat, and feathers. Their awkwardness on land coupled with an obligation to form dense\nbreeding colonies on low-lying islands made them easy pickings for Atlantic mariners. Sailors armed with clubs would land on the breeding islands and run amok through the nesting\nbirds, dispatching them with blows to the head. There are stories of great auks being herded\nup the gangplanks of waiting ships and being driven into crudely constructed stone pens",
+    "The paper used in this book complies with the\nPermanent Paper Standard issued by the National\nInformation Standards Organization (Z39.48\u20131984).\n10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1\n\n\f\n\nWe live in a zoologically impoverished world, from which all the hugest, and \ufb01ercest,\nand strangest forms have recently disappeared.\n\u2014Alfred Russel Wallace (1876)\n\n\f\n\nThis page intentionally left blank\n\n\f\n\nTo my Mum, Gloria\n\n\f\n\nThis page intentionally left blank\n\n\f\n\nCONTENTS\n\nPreface\nAcknowledgments\nIntroduction\n\n1\n\n2\n\n3\n\nxiii\nxv\nxvii\n\nFewer Than 100 Years Ago\n\n1\n\nGolden Toad\nGastric-Brooding Frog\nEskimo Curlew\nCaribbean Monk Seal\nThylacine\nCarolina Parakeet\nPassenger Pigeon\n\n1\n3\n6\n8\n11\n13\n16\n\nFewer Than 200 Years Ago\n\n21\n\nRocky Mountain Locust\nPig-Footed Bandicoot\nQuelili\nStephens Island Wren\nTarpan\nQuagga\nWarrah\nGreat Auk\n\n21\n23\n26\n28\n31\n33\n36\n38\n\nFewer Than 500 Years Ago\n\n43\n\nElephant Bird\nSteller\u2019s Sea Cow\nDodo\nAurochs\n\n43\n45\n48\n50\n\n\f\n\nx\n\nCONTENTS\n\n4\n\n5\n\n6\n\n7\n\nMoa\nHaast\u2019s Eagle\nMarcano\u2019s Solenodon\n\n52\n55\n58",
+    "Great American Interchange\u2014The emergence of a land\nbridge between North and South America allowed animals to migrate between these two landmasses. Several\ntypes of North American mammal moved into South\nAmerica, but relatively few of the South American mammals made it to the north and thrived. (Phil Miller)\n\n41\n\n\f\n\n42\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "in the deposits than other predators such as saber tooth cats and dire wolves. Perhaps\nscavenging was only a last resort for the American lion, or maybe they were more wary\nof the potential dangers of tar pits.\n\u2022 You can see the mummi\ufb01ed remains of Blue Babe in the University of Alaska Museum. It is known as Blue Babe because phosphorus in the bison\u2019s tissues reacted with\niron in the soil to produce a white substance called vivianite. This mineral changes to a\nbrilliant blue when it is exposed to the air.\nFurther Reading: Kurt\u00e9n, B. \u201cThe Pleistocene Lion of Beringia.\u201d Annales Zoologici Fennici 22 (1985):\n117\u201321.",
+    "Vertebrate Fossil Assemblage from Cathedral Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia.\u201d Transactions of the\nRoyal Society of South Australia 124 (2000): 91\u2013104.",
+    "never became extinct and that the locust was actually the swarming phase of a species that\ncan still be found today, a theory that has been shown to be incorrect. The likely explanation for the disappearance of this insect is that outside of its swarming periods, the locust\nretreated to the sheltered valleys of Wyoming and Montana, where the females laid their\neggs in the fertile soil. These very same valleys attracted the attention of settlers, who saw\ntheir potential for agricultural endeavors, and with their horses and their plows, they turned\nthe soil over and grazed their livestock on the nutritious grass. These actions destroyed the\neggs and developing young of the insect, and around three decades after its swarms blotted\nout the sun, the Rocky Mountain locust was gone forever.\n\u2022 The swarming of grasshopper species, such as the Rocky Mountain locust, is thought\nto be a survival mechanism that allows the insects to disperse into new habitats when",
+    "these good supplies of food, the warrah traveled along well-worn paths that must have been\nmade by generations of the animals accessing their feeding grounds via the shortest possible\nroute. Although the southern spring and summer was a time of abundance for the warrah,\nthe autumn and winter were probably very tough, and some accounts from the eighteenth\nand nineteenth centuries report that the living animals looked starved and very thin.\nRegardless of its wintertime depravations, the warrah, in the absence of competition,\nappears to have been a successful species that was quite numerous on the two main islands\nof the Falklands group. This monopoly came to an end with the arrival of humans. Initially,\nvisitors to the Falkland Islands were afraid of the warrah as it would wade into the water\nto meet an approaching boat. This was not an act of aggression, but an act of curiosity. The\nwarrah had probably never seen humans and had therefore never learned to be afraid of",
+    "the carcass to itself, the bear could have proceeded to gorge itself on meat. Its teeth and jaws\nappear to have been su\ufb03ciently strong to break the bones of a carcass to get at the nutritious\nmarrow within\u2014the same technique used by the modern-day spotted hyena.\nSo what became of the giant short-faced bear? How come it can no longer be found lumbering around the northern wilderness, sni\ufb03ng out carcasses? The long-standing belief was\nthat this giant was outcompeted by the brown bear as the latter species migrated into North\nAmerica via the Bering land bridge. As it is now assumed that the giant short-faced bear was\na scavenger, the two species only came into direct competition in certain circumstances, for\nexample, in the event of dwindling resources. The brown bear is an omnivore that gets its\ncalories from a wide variety of sources, of which carrion makes up only a fraction. Competition may have played a part in the demise of this giant; climate change was probably the",
+    "147\n\n\f\n\n148\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\n\u2022 In some Australian Aboriginal rock paintings, there are birds that appear to represent\nthe thunderbirds. The depictions are certainly too large for emus and cassowaries and\nare probably the artist\u2019s attempt at painting one of the larger thunderbird species. Engraved trackways depicting the footprints of large \ufb02ightless birds have also been found\nin Australian rocks, and these, too, are thought to represent the thunderbirds.\n\u2022 Footprints, thought to be made by the thunderbirds themselves, have also been found\nin the Pleistocene Dune Sands of southern Victoria, Australia.\n\u2022 Apart from the e\ufb00ects of deliberate bush\ufb01res, it is very likely that thunderbirds were\nhunted for food by the \ufb01rst Australians.\nFurther Reading: Murray, P., and P. V. Rich. Magnificent Mihirungs: The Colossal Flightless Birds of the\nAustralian Dreamtime. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.\n\nGIANT MONITOR LIZARD",
+    "camel, like its living relatives, could probably tolerate massive ranges in temperature that would\ncause most other mammals to keel over. Their thick fur can insulate them from the cold and\nthe heat of the sun, enabling them to survive in temperatures as low as \u201340 degrees Celsius\nand as high as +40 degrees Celsius. The forested plains of Nebraska 1 to 5 million years ago\nwere much warmer than today, but winter temperatures can be still be very low in the middle\nof a large continent, so the giant camel must have coped with cold winter conditions.\nAlthough camels are champion survivors, they can be quite short-tempered beasts, and it\nseems the giant camel was no exception. Males of this extinct species sported well-developed\ncanine teeth, and it is very likely that they used these to good e\ufb00ect during the breeding season, when disputes with other males over territory and females were commonplace.\nThe youngest remains of the giant camel are about 1 million years old, and we know that",
+    "85, 149, 175; extinction, 162; hominids, 136;\nmarine, 9, 165\u2013 68; migration, 7, 8; non-native\nanimals, 25, 60, 60\u2013 62. See also Convergent\nevolution; Defense; Great American\nInterchange; Introduced animals; Cave,\nRancho La Brea\nPredator adaptations: birds, 84, 147, 175; canids,\n111\u201312; cats, 91\u201397, 101\u2013 4; hyenas, 178;\nmarsupials, 139\u2013 42, 171\u201374\nPredatory strategy: bears, 126; birds, 120\u201321,\n169\u201370, 175; cats, 91\u201397, 101\u2013 4, 105; dogs,\n112\u201313; hyena, 178; marsupials, 12, 139\u2013 42,\n172\u201373; reptiles, 149, 152, 159; sharks, 167\nPrey. See Predation\nPrimate. See Flores human; Giant ape; Giant\nlemur; Homo erectus; Humans, modern;\nNeanderthal\nPronghorn antelope, 86, 87, 102\u20133\nProstaglandin, 5\nPuggle, 157\nQuagga, 33\u201336\nQuelili, 26\u201328\nQuinkan. See Quinkana\nQuinkana, 150\u201353",
+    "and thanks to the huge numbers of fossils that have been found, one of the best known of\nall recently extinct carnivores.\nOn average, the dire wolf was only slightly larger than the biggest gray wolf, at around\n65 kg in weight and 1.5 m in length (Great Danes are around the same weight, but they are\ntaller and more slender). It had a slightly heavier build than the gray wolf and a relatively\nlarger head. Interestingly, its legs were relatively shorter than those of the gray wolf. If you\ncompare the skeleton of a dire wolf to that of a gray wolf, the biggest di\ufb00erences are the skull\nand teeth. The skull of the dire wolf not only looks a lot heavier than the gray wolf \u2019s skull, it\nalso contains more impressive teeth.",
+    "als. In the wild, they subsisted on grass seeds, but in captivity, they ate a range of food,\nincluding lettuce, bulbs, and grasshoppers. It is said that during the hottest part of the day,\nthey would seek refuge from the sun\u2019s rays in a grass nest, only venturing out to seek food\nand mates in the early evening. If the other bandicoots are anything to go by, the pig foot\nmust have had a very short gestation. Baby bandicoots spend only about 12 days in their\nmother\u2019s womb\u2014the shortest time for any mammal\u2014and they are also unique for being\nattached to their mother by a placentalike organ. The pig foot\u2019s short gestation probably\nended in a very short birth\u2014which, for living bandicoots, is around 10 minutes. The tiny\nbabies crept to their mother\u2019s rear-facing pouch, and although there were eight teats in this\nfurry pocket, there were no more than four babies in each litter. After the young had outgrown the pouch, the female left them in a grass nest until they were ready to follow her on",
+    "smaller animal; therefore it heats up and cools down at a slower rate.\nTraps\u2014the steplike landscape that can be found in regions of eroded \ufb02ood basalt.\nTriassic\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 199 to 251 million years\nago.\nTuberculosis\u2014a bacterial infection that a\ufb00ects many tissues in the mammalian body,\nsometimes leaving scars on the body and bones.\nTundra\u2014treeless plains found in the extreme north and south and in mountainous areas,\nwhere plant growth is impeded by low temperatures and a short growing season.\nUltraviolet radiation\u2014part of the spectrum of sunlight that is damaging to living things\nbut that is absorbed by the ozone layer.\nVertebrae\u2014the individual bones in the vertebral column of a vertebrate.\nVertebrate\u2014any animal with a vertebral column.\nZoologist\u2014a scientist who studies animals.",
+    "of an almost complete skeleton in East Africa that has become known as Turkana Boy.\nTurkana Boy gave the world its \ufb01rst glimpse of what an almost entire Homo erectus skeleton\nlooked like, and it became clear that they were the \ufb01rst of our ancient ancestors to have a\ntruly human look, with a very erect posture and long legs. The pelvis of Homo erectus is",
+    "\u2022 The origins of the Flores human are unclear. Tools aged at 840,000 years old, thought to\nbe the work of Homo erectus, have also been found on the island. The skull of the Flores\nhuman has many similarities with the known Homo erectus skulls, and as Homo erectus\nis the only hominid that we know for sure reached the Far East (apart from our own\nspecies), we can be reasonably con\ufb01dent that the Flores human descended from a population of Homo erectus that somehow became marooned on this Indonesian island.\n\u2022 The scientists who discovered the Flores human have speculated that other Indonesian\nislands may also have had their own unique populations of human, the remains of\nwhich are still waiting to be discovered.\n\u2022 Sightings of a short, bipedal hominid covered in short fur have been reported for\nat least 100 years from the island of Sumatra. Known by the islanders as the orang",
+    "were very successful predators on this southern continent. For much of the time, South\nAmerica was isolated, and the only large predators were the marsupials and giant, \ufb02esheating birds. Evolution even shaped members of this marsupial stock into an animal very\nsimilar to the more familiar saber tooth cats. This animal was the pouch-knife, and it is a\nvery enigmatic creature.\nThis animal was \ufb01rst described in 1934 by the paleontologist Elmer Riggs, of the Field\nMuseum in Chicago, from two incomplete skeletons discovered in Argentina. In terms\nof size, the pouch-knife was probably as large as a jaguar, though it had shorter legs. The\npreserved skulls of this extinct marsupial have been slightly distorted by fossilization, but\nthey, with fragments of unearthed skeletons, are still the only decent fossil evidence of the\npouch-knife. It is amazing that the skull of the pouch-knife is so super\ufb01cially similar to",
+    "Fossil Raptors.\u201d The Auk 112 (1995): 890\u2013903; Harris, J. M., and G. T. Jefferson, eds. \u201cRancho La\nBrea: Treasures of the Tar Pits.\u201d Los Angeles City Museum Science Series 36 (1985).",
+    "MOA\nScientific name: Several species\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Struthioniformes\nFamily: Dinornithidae\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 500 YEARS AGO",
+    "these impressive birds. The actual extinction timeline for the elephant birds is sketchy, but\nmany experts suppose that the last of these great birds died out before 1600. The means\nat our disposal for the aging of ancient material are constantly improving, and some recent\nestimates move the disappearance of these birds into the nineteenth century. It is possible\nthat some stragglers managed to survive until recent times, but we can be certain that no\nelephant birds survive today.\n\u2022 The Island of Madagascar was once part of Africa, but over millions of years, the tectonic forces of continental drift rafted it away from the African mainland and into\nthe Indian Ocean. The animal inhabitants of this huge island evolved in isolation to\nproduce animal and plant species that were very di\ufb00erent from those found elsewhere.\nAlthough the elephant birds are all extinct, Madagascar is still home to many other\nunique animals\u2014the most notable of these being the lemurs.",
+    "S34\u2013S36; Wroe, S., and J. Field. \u201cA Review of the Evidence for a Human Role in the Extinction\nof Australian Megafauna and an Alternative Interpretation.\u201d Quaternary Science Reviews 25 (2006):\n2692\u20132703.",
+    "moa-nalo are even equipped with serrations that functioned like teeth, enabling them to take\nbeakfuls of tough vegetation. The contents of plant cells are nutritious, but they are bound in\na tough wall of cellulose that animals cannot digest because they lack the ability to produce\nthe enzyme known as cellulase. To get at the goodness inside plant cells, any plant-feeding\nanimal has to enlist the help of bacteria, and moa-nalo were no exception. Like horses and\nrabbits, the moa-nalo were hind-gut fermenters. The rear portion of their digestive tract was\nwhere the soup of mashed up plant matter and digestive \ufb02uids were brought into contact\nwith the symbiotic, cellulase producing micro-organisms. More evidence for moa-nalo as\nplant eaters is the observation that many types of native Hawaiian plant are well protected\nwith thorns and prickles. Such protection seems an extravagance on an island where there",
+    "Scientific name: Gigantopithecus blacki and G. giganteus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Primates\nFamily: Hominidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The giant apes are thought to have become extinct around\n200,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The remains of G. blacki have been found in southern China and northern Vietnam, while the remains of G. giganteus have been found in northern India.\nA visit to the Himalayas would not be complete without tales of yeti, the hairy, apelike\ncreatures that are supposed to inhabit this immense mountain range. As long ago as the\n1830s, explorers to these majestic mountains have returned with tales of this beast, tales\nthat have captured the public\u2019s imagination. As there is no irrefutable proof of the yeti\u2019s existence, it will never be more than a yarn to scare mountaineers; however, 200,000 years ago,\nthere were at least two species of giant ape that lived in Asia, though apart from their size,",
+    "When did it become extinct? Estimates for the disappearance of the moa vary, but it is\nthought they became extinct in the 1500s.\nWhere did it live? The moa were found only in New Zealand.\nThe elephant birds (see the earlier entry in this chapter) were not the only giant birds\nthat roamed the earth in quite recent times. Thousands of miles to the east of Madagascar,\nthe islands of New Zealand were once home to several species of large bird, the largest of\nwhich was taller than the elephant birds, although much more slender. Collectively, these\nbirds were known as moa (a\nPolynesian word meaning\n\u201cfowl\u201d), and they had lived on\nthe islands of New Zealand\nfor tens of millions of years.\nThe only mammals that had\nmanaged to reach New Zealand were bats, so the islands\nwere free of any large groundbased predators or herbivores,\nabsences which allowed the\nancestors of the moa to evolve\nin unique ways. First, as there\nwere no mammalian predators, \ufb02ight was an unnecessary extravagance, especially",
+    "changes they brought, except the last one. Humans have been implicated in the extinction\nof the North American megafauna as there is thought to be a link between the spread of\nthe prehistoric human population and the disappearance of the American continent\u2019s giant\nbeasts, but there is no direct evidence that humans hunted the giant beaver. With that said,\na 200-kg animal with lots of meat on its bones and a dense pelt that could have been made\ninto warm clothing must have been coveted by prehistoric North Americans.\n\u2022 The \ufb01rst remains of this animal were found near Nashport, Ohio, in a peat bog, and\nthey were described as belonging to a giant beaver in 1838.\n\u2022 The giant beaver lived alongside the modern-day American beaver (Castor canadensis).\nFor two similar species to coexist, there must have been di\ufb00erences in the habitats they\npreferred or possibly in the food on which they depended. Perhaps the giant beaver,",
+    "long. Like in modern elephants, these tusks were probably important to establish a pecking\norder among the males when it came to the breeding season, which may well have been at\nthe end of July and the beginning of August. Tusks are a measure of the owner\u2019s strength,\nand they can be \ufb02aunted to assert dominance without the need for \ufb01ghting and the potential\ninjury it may bring; however, when two evenly matched males came head to head, a \ufb01ght\nwas probably inevitable. The front of the mammoth\u2019s head was quite \ufb02at; therefore males",
+    "\u2022 In the United States and Canada, archeologists have unearthed what appear to be\nkill sites: locations where the \ufb01rst Americans processed the bodies of ancient bison\nfor their meat, skin, bone, and sinew. Some of these sites have yielded the remains of",
+    "of an amphibian and takes root in its skin. The fungus forms cysts within the deeper layers\nof the skin and breaks down keratin, a protein in the cuticle of many vertebrates, including\nadult frogs and toads. The skin of an amphibian infected with this fungus begins to break\ndown, and in severe cases, the disease can eat right into the deeper tissues. In these cases,\ndigits, and even limbs, can be eaten away. This in itself is not fatal, but the ability of the skin\nto transport gases and prevent the entry of other harmful micro-organisms is probably impaired, and the victim dies a slow and probably very painful death.\n\u2022 The species discussed here is actually the southern gastric-brooding frog. In 1984, a very\nsimilar species, the northern gastric-brooding frog (Rheobatrachus vitellinus), was discovered living in the Clarke Mountains near Mackay in central coastal Queensland. A year\nlater, this species also su\ufb00ered a total population crash, and it has not been seen since.",
+    "The spotted hyena is often portrayed as nothing but an idle, scavenging animal that depends on the kills made by lions and other cats for its food. It\u2019s true that the spotted hyena is\ncertainly not above scavenging, but it is also a very accomplished predator, able to use teamwork to bring down antelopes and animals as large as zebras. What can we deduce about\nthe life of the extinct giant hyena from the life of the spotted hyena? With its relatively short\nlegs, the giant hyena was not built for long-distance pursuits like its living relative, but this\nanimal was very much of its age, and some of the herbivores that fell prey to the carnivores\nof the Pleistocene were less \ufb02eet of foot than the ungulates of the African plains of today.\nWe only have to look at the top predators that lived alongside the giant hyena: big scimitar\ncats and other large felines built for strength, not stamina. The giant hyena may have been",
+    "It may come as a surprise, but the domestication of the horse stands out as one of the\nmost signi\ufb01cant moments in human history. This seemingly insigni\ufb01cant event changed the\nway we lived forever. It enabled our ancestors to travel quickly over huge distances, and they\nharnessed the strength and tenacity of these animals to do tasks that previously required\nseveral men. Also, when the useful life of the horse was over, its \ufb02esh provided sustenance\nand its skin, bones, and sinews were turned to a multitude of uses.\nWhat are the origins of these \ufb01rst domestic horses? What were they, where did they\ncome from, and how did they live? It is widely accepted that the ancestor of the majority of\nmodern horses was an animal known as the tarpan. This sturdy horse was only around 1.5 m\nat the shoulder and therefore very small compared to a modern Thoroughbred racehorse.\nHowever, what the tarpan lacked in size it more than made up for in resilience and stamina.",
+    "Order: Perissodactyla\nFamily: Rhinocerotidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This rhinoceros is thought to have survived until around\n10,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? This was probably the most widespread rhinoceros of all time as its\nremains have been found all the way from Scotland to South Korea, and to Spain in the\nsouth of Europe.\nThe world is still in the grip of a cold period, and it has been for the last 40 million years\nor so. Around 3 million years ago, this cold period intensi\ufb01ed, and huge ice sheets spread\nacross much of the Northern Hemisphere. From then until now, the ice sheets have waxed\nand waned in fairly regular cycles played out over 40,000- to 100,000-year cycles. During\nthis intensi\ufb01cation, life had to adapt, move, or go extinct. The rhinoceri, with the thermal inertia a\ufb00orded by their big, heavy bodies, were well placed to take advantage of these icy conditions, and the fossil record shows that they positively embraced the ice age and expanded",
+    "Megafauna\u2014any species of large animals, but often used to refer to the large mammals\nthat have become extinct in relatively recent times.\nMicropaleontologist\u2014a paleontologist who studies microfossils.\nMineralization\u2014the process by which an organic substance is converted into an inorganic\none.\nMiocene\u2014a geological epoch that extended from 5.3 to 23 million years ago.\nNew World\u2014the Western Hemisphere, which includes the Americas.",
+    "ago. Some of these birds are still with us today, while others are only known from their bones.\nOne of most remarkable extinct birds from the deposits is Merriam\u2019s teratorn, a relative of\nthe colossal magni\ufb01cent teratorn of South America (see the entry \u201cMagni\ufb01cent Teratorn\u201d in\nchapter 6) and the living condor species. It is the most well known of all the teratorn species\nas the bones of more than 100 individuals have been recovered from Rancho La Brea.\nMerriam\u2019s teratorn was diminutive compared to the magni\ufb01cent teratorn, but by today\u2019s standards, it was a giant. With a wingspan of around 3.8 m and weighing in at about\n15 kg, the closest comparable living bird is the Andean condor, one of the Merriam\u2019s teratorn\u2019s closest living relatives. The Andean condor is a scavenging bird of prey that uses\nits immense wingspan to soar e\ufb00ortlessly on the thermals that rise into the air around the\n\ufb02anks of mountains as the sun warms the ground. High in the air, the condor can scan the",
+    "SELECTED MUSEUMS IN THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND WORLDWIDE\n\nNatural History Museum at Tring\nThe Walter Rothschild Building\nAkeman Street\nTring, Hertfordshire HP23 6AP\nUK\nhttp://www.nhm.ac.uk/tring\nUniversity Museum of Zoology\nNew Museums Site\nDowning Street\nCambridge, Cambs CB2 3EJ\nUK\nhttp://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/museum\nThe Moravia Museum\nZelny trh 6\n659 37 Brno\nCzech Republic\nhttp://www.mzm.cz\nMuseum National d\u2019Histoire Naturelle\nGaleries de Pal\u00e9ontologie et d\u2019Anatomie compar\u00e9e\nParis 5\u00e8me\nJardin des Plantes 2, rue Buffon\nParis\nFrance\nhttp://www.mnhn.fr\nNaturhistorisches Museum\nBernastrasse 15\nCH-3005 Bern\nSwitzerland\nhttp://www.nmbe.unibe.ch\nAustralian Museum\n6 College Street (opposite Hyde Park)\nSydney, NSW 2010\nAustralia\nhttp://www.austmus.gov.au\nMuseum Victoria\n11 Nicholson Street\nCarlton, Melbourne\nAustralia\nhttp://www.museumvictoria.com.au\nMuseum of Natural History\nul. \u015aw. Sebastiana 9\n31-049 Krak\u00f3w\nPoland\nhttp://www.isez.pan.krakow.pl\n\n195\n\n\f\n\n196",
+    "into the wind.\nUsing what we know about living birds, we can piece together other parts of the magni\ufb01cent teratorn\u2019s life. Such a large bird must have de\ufb01nitely been very long-lived. The living\ncondors can live for at least 50 years, so the extinct giant could have lived to a very old age.\nLong life is associated with slow breeding, and this huge bird may have only reached sexual\nmaturity after its twelfth year. Once it was capable of producing o\ufb00spring, it is highly likely\nthat only one chick was reared every two years. Where they constructed their nest and what\nit looked like is a mystery, but it may have been a simple a\ufb00air of a few twigs surrounding\nthe 1-kg egg on a substantial cli\ufb00 ledge that gave the adults su\ufb03cient space to take o\ufb00 and\nland. Great age, slow development, and a low reproductive rate are good reasons for a bird\nto remain with the same mate for its whole life, and it is an intriguing thought that these",
+    "the world. The bones of Homo erectus are so rare that these tools give us a better picture of\njust how geographically widespread this hominid was.\nIn a short period of geologic time, this hominid dispersed from Africa to Eurasia in the\nnorth and China and Indonesia in the east (and possibly even farther). These movements\nsuggest that Homo erectus was capable of solving complex practical problems as they were\nconfronted by treacherous bodies of water and other seemingly insurmountable barriers.\nWith narrow hips and long legs, Homo erectus was a natural athlete, and this may have been\ncrucially important in allowing them to disperse far and wide from where they \ufb01rst evolved.\nThere is also some tantalizing evidence that Homo erectus harnessed and used \ufb01re, one of\nthe major technological leaps in human evolution. Fire made food safer and more palatable\nand kept predators at bay as well as having a multitude of other uses. Homo erectus stone",
+    "and others hunted them. All these new challenges were played out within the backdrop of\na changing world. Sea levels were falling and the global climate was becoming drier and\ncooler\u2014bad news for trees, the likely favored food of the litopterns. The times following\nthe Great American Interchange must have been very tough for these odd ungulates. Their\nhabitat was disappearing, strange animals from the north competed with them for the food\nthat was left, and a number of cat species, also immigrants from the north, and deadly in\ntooth and claw, were well equipped to hunt the remaining litopterns. Long after the Great\nAmerican Interchange reached its peak, humans spread throughout South America, and\nthey, too, must have hunted the remaining populations of litopterns, which, by that point,\nmust have been reduced to a shadow of their former strength. Squeezed from all sides, these\nunique, plant-eating mammals eventually became extinct around 10,000 years ago.",
+    "the windpipe. Biting this way, a large fold of the prey\u2019s skin was probably taken in to the cat\u2019s\nmouth, some of which may have been torn away as the feline pulled away. In this scenario,\nthe prey died quickly from blood loss and su\ufb00ocation, and the cat could have dug in to its\nmeal quickly. It is very likely that S. populator fed on the same sized animals that lions and\ntigers are capable of dispatching today\u2014it\u2019s just that it killed in a di\ufb00erent way.\nAs with many of the amazing mammals that became extinct at around the end of the last\nglaciation, we can never be certain of what led to the demise of these cats. We do know that\nthe habitats in which these animals evolved went through massive changes as the climate\nwent through cyclical periods of cold and warm, but this alone is not enough to explain the\ndisappearance of these felines. It is interesting to note that the spread of humans around\nthe world appears to coincide with the disappearance of these intriguing cats and many",
+    "The Smilodon species, often called saber\ntooth cats, are among the most famous of all\nprehistoric beasts, and the species described\nhere was the biggest and most powerful of\nSaber Tooth Cat\u2014The skull of Smilodon popula- them all. The Latin name of this cat, Smilotor clearly shows the enormous canines of this for- don populator, can be translated as the \u201cknife\nmidable extinct cat. It used these teeth to inflict tooth that destroys.\u201d Fully grown, S. populafatal wounds on some of the large South Ameritor was the same height and length as a large\ncan herbivorous mammals. (Ross Piper)\nlion, but much heavier. They were around\n1.2 m at the shoulder and may have reached\n400 kg\u2014heavier than any big cat alive today. Unlike modern big cats, S. populator had a very\nstubby tail, and it also had very robust and heavily muscled forequarters\u2014an important adaptation for catching and subduing prey. The bones of S. populator\u2019s forelimbs were relatively",
+    "cellulose. Mammals like the woolly rhinoceros can only digest grass with the help of symbiotic\nbacteria. In rhinoceri and other herbivores, such as horses and rabbits, these bacteria are found\nin the back end of the animal\u2019s gut, and here they digest the tough cellulose cell walls of the\nplants to release the contents. Some of these nutrients are used by the bacteria, and some are\nabsorbed by the herbivore. This is quite an ine\ufb03cient process, so the woolly rhinoceros spent a\nlot of time each day eating to supply its considerable bulk with su\ufb03cient energy.\nThe oldest remains of the woolly rhinoceros are around 350,000 years old and it is possible that even older bones may be lying in the ground awaiting discovery. During its time\non earth, the woolly rhinoceros experienced a number of global cooling and warming events,\nand its populations probably expanded and contracted, re\ufb02ecting the movement of the great",
+    "The white rhino, even with its stubby legs, is a quick, nimble runner able to reach speeds\nof 40 to 50 km per hour, and as the giant rhino had relatively long legs, it may have been\ncapable of quite a turn of speed, with a running gate similar to a horse, characteristics that\nwere very useful on the central Asian steppe. We can be fairly certain that an adult giant\nrhino was invulnerable to all of the predators of the time, even the saber tooth cats with\ntheir huge fangs, but it may have been a di\ufb00erent story for young giant rhinos, who were\nprobably easily overpowered and killed by a carnivorous cat or a pack of wolves.\nWe know from the fossils of the giant rhino that its cheek teeth grew continuously\nthroughout its lifetime, and this gives us insight into what it ate. Like other mammals of\nenormous bulk, the giant rhinoceros was a herbivore, and it would speci\ufb01cally have favored\ngrasses and the short herbs growing on the steppe. The \ufb01brous vegetation that formed its",
+    "a very determined predator to beat the echidna\u2019s defenses.\nLike all the other monotremes, the giant echidna must have laid eggs. Unlike a marsupial, an echidna\u2019s pouch is not well developed. Outside of the breeding season, the pouch is\nnothing more than a groove on the female\u2019s belly, but hormonal changes around the breeding season cause the groove to become more well developed, until there is a shallow pouch\nin the female\u2019s abdomen. After mating, the female echidna everts her cloaca and deposits\na single rubbery egg with a diameter of 13 to 17 mm into the simple pouch. After about\n10 days, the young echidna (puggle) hatches, but there are no teats for it to latch on to;\ninstead, it grips a special patch of milk-producing skin at the front end of the pouch. It laps\nat the pinkish milk and stays in the pouch for 2 to 3 months, until the mother has to turn it\nout because of its growing spines.",
+    "fed on low-growing vegetation, perhaps using its trunk to bring low-growing vegetation\nwithin reach of its mouth. Bushes and low-growing plants, such as grasses, probably featured prominently in the diet of this Mediterranean dwarf. Elephant digestion is very inef\ufb01cient, and around 60 percent of all food leaves the gut of these animals undigested. Even\nthough the dwarf elephant was only a fraction of the size of its ancestor, it may still have\nneeded several kilograms of food every day. If this was the case, such feeding demands on an\nisland that had not previously known any large herbivores must have had a huge e\ufb00ect. The\nfeeding activities of the elephants and the damage they caused as they were trudging around\nthe island may have reshaped the whole ecosystem of Sicily. It is possible that the number\nand diversity of plants on the island probably underwent dramatic changes as the elephant\npopulation grew to its maximum. Some plants may have su\ufb00ered due to disturbance and",
+    "CAVE BEAR\nScientific name: Ursus spelaeus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\n\n113\n\n\f\n\n114\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nCave Bear\u2014The cave bear\u2019s steep forehead\nis clearly visible in this picture. Much of the\nspace inside the forehead is taken up by the\nstructures that supported the nasal tissue. This\nprobably gave the bear an excellent sense of\nsmell. (Ross Piper)\n\nCave Bear\u2014Our ancestors would have frequently\nencountered the cave bear as they sought refuge\nin caves. (Phil Miller)",
+    "30 (2003): 585\u201393; Williams, J.R.S. \u201cA Modern Earth Narrative: What Will Be the Fate of the Biosphere?\u201d\nTechnology in Society 22 (2000): 303\u201339.",
+    "cats and other large felines built for strength, not stamina. The giant hyena may have been\nable to catch its own prey, especially if it hunted in groups like the living spotted hyena, but\nscavenging in groups was probably its mainstay. A kill made by one of the many big cats\nof the day would have quickly attracted the attention of a group of giant hyenas. A cat like\nHomotherium probably defended its kill from one or two giant hyenas, but a bigger group of\nthese scavengers was more of a problem. The bite of a giant hyena was very powerful, and a\nbad wound can be a death sentence for a predator; therefore the owner of the kill may have\nbeen forced to begrudgingly surrender the carcass to the hyena clan.\nWith the owner of a kill driven away, the giant hyena could do what it did best and \ufb01ll its\ncapacious stomach with meat, and use its bolt-cropper jaws to shear the bones of the carcass\nand carry certain choice cuts back to its lair, where cubs were probably waiting for food. In",
+    "GIANT SHORT-FACED KANGAROO\nScientific name: Procoptodon goliath\n\nGiant Short-Faced Kangaroo\u2014The grapple-hook paws and the single hind claws of this enormous kangaroo can clearly be seen in this illustration. (Phil Miller)\n\n153\n\n\f\n\n154\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "captivity.\n\u2022 Parrots, as a group, are among the most threatened of all birds. There are around 350\nspecies of these fascinating animals, and no less than 130 of these are considered to be\nthreatened or endangered. Unless humans can control the systematic and pathological\ndestruction of the world\u2019s most biodiverse areas, the future looks very bleak for these\nbirds as well as countless other species.\n\u2022 Habitat destruction is not the only threat facing these birds. Thousand of parrots are\ncollected from the wild every year to feed the ever-growing pet trade\u2014a multi-million-dollar industry. To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, around 2 million\nbirds are imported into the European Union every year, many illegally, and hundreds\nof thousands of these are parrots.\nFurther Reading: Poole, A., and F. Gill, eds. The Birds of North America 667. Philadelphia: Birds of\nNorth America, 2002.",
+    "Rising to heights of around 300 m, Stephens Island looms o\ufb00 the northernmost tip of\nMarlborough Sound on South Island of New Zealand. The island is tiny (2.6 km2), but it\nis a refuge for many animals that have disappeared from the mainland since the arrival of\nPolynesians.\nOn this prominent lump of rock, there once lived a small bird known as the Stephens\nIsland wren. This bird was unrelated to the familiar wrens of the Northern Hemisphere\nand actually belonged to a small group of perching birds endemic to New Zealand. The\nremains of this small bird have been found at various sites throughout the main islands of\nNew Zealand, and it seems that Stephens Island was the last refuge for this bird following\nthe arrival of humans and the animals they brought with them. One animal in particular,\nthe Polynesian rat, wreaked havoc among the populations of New Zealand\u2019s small endemic birds. Stephens Island served as a refuge for the wren for hundreds of thousands of",
+    "it could see above the water when the rest of its body was submerged. The front incisors of\nthe giant beaver were massive (about 15 cm long), relatively much larger than the incisors\nused by the living American beaver to gnaw through young trees. Unlike modern beavers,\nthe front edge of the giant beaver\u2019s incisors was not smooth; instead, it was heavily ridged,\nand it has been proposed that these structures strengthened the very long teeth, protecting\nthem from breakage when they were being used.\nHow did the giant beaver use these impressive teeth? Some experts believe that the teeth\nwere for gnawing at wood, while others think that gouging was more likely. The giant beaver\nmust have done some tree gnawing because if its modern-day relatives are anything to go by,\nnibbling wood is one way of keeping the ever-growing incisors in check. Like its surviving",
+    "inhabit Australia. The larger marsupials, many of which are now extinct, were probably too\nbig for Wonambi to handle, but any animal visiting a water hole in ancient Australia was\nprobably always wary of being caught in a Wonambi ambush.\nAs the living giant snakes can catch and eat huge prey animals, they can go for many\nmonths between meals. They rest and digest their prey for several days or weeks, and their\nvery e\ufb03cient metabolism enables them to make the very most of all the food they eat.\nAs Wonambi didn\u2019t have the head or jaws for large prey, it may have needed to eat more\nfrequently than the living constrictors.",
+    "grasses and the short herbs growing on the steppe. The \ufb01brous vegetation that formed its\ndiet must have been very tough on the teeth, and long hours every day spent chewing wore\nthem down; fortunately, the continual growth of the teeth got around this problem, ensuring that a good grinding surface was always in place to pulverize the plants. Apart from\nbeing tough and \ufb01brous, grass is also di\ufb03cult to digest, and all rhinos, even long-dead ones,\nemploy the help of bacteria to break down the cellulose that forms the bulk of plant tissue\ninto sugars that can be digested. In rhinos, the bacteria process the cellulose in the rear of\nthe gut, which gives them the name \u201chind-gut fermenters.\u201d This type of fermentation is quite\nine\ufb03cient, but it can deal with lots of food in a short period of time, enabling the hind-gut\nfermenters to reach great size, as the giant rhino did.\nCompared to remains of prehistoric mammals like the mammoths, fossils of the giant",
+    "(see the entry later in this chapter). The pouch-knife was undoubtedly a predator as the\ncanines are suited to killing and the shearlike cheek teeth are like those in the skull of a big\ncat\u2014ideal for slicing \ufb02esh from a carcass. Not only was this extinct marsupial equipped\nwith impressive teeth, but the region of the skull that once housed its hearing organs is\nwell developed, indicating that this sense was probably acute. Along with sabers and a good\nsense of hearing, the pouch-knife\u2019s neck muscles and forelimbs must have been very strong.\nPowerful forelimbs allowed the marsupial to get a \ufb01rm grip on prey, while the muscular\nneck allowed the stabbing canines to be driven through the tough hide of the victim into the\nsoft tissues beneath. The hip joint of this animal is also very \ufb02exible, and some experts think\nit may have been capable of moving on its hind legs over short distances, much like the",
+    "never be sure of the underlying causes that resulted in the loss of around 70 percent of all\nspecies, but numerous theories have been suggested, including a large asteroid impact and\nthe evolution of the plants from small, surface-hugging forms, no larger than 30 cm, to giants 30 m tall. These new plants had well-developed roots that penetrated bedrock and led\nto the eventual formation of thick layers of soil. Rainwater running through this soil carried huge quantities of minerals to the sea, completely changing its chemistry and creating\nalgal blooms, which sucked the oxygen out of the water. Starved of oxygen, marine animals\nperished. This is just a theory, but it is an event that could have conceivably been played\nout over millions of years. The profusion of land plants may have also caused extended\nperiods of glaciation by removing carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas, from the\natmosphere.\nPermian-Triassic",
+    "Fortunately for the pronghorn antelope, the American cheetah died out around 10,000\nyears ago. Its extinction coincides with the disappearance of many North American mammals, but what factors ultimately led to the demise of this feline are more of a mystery.\nClimate change was obviously a factor, and the loss of some of its prey species may also\nhave been important. It is possible that such a specialist cat really felt the squeeze of climate\nchange and the e\ufb00ect it had on its environment. The puma, a generalist predator, is still with\nus today, but the American cheetah was more of a one-trick cat that survived by using speed\nto catch a small selection of prey animals. In today\u2019s big cats, we can see the price of extreme\nspecialization, as the living cheetah is becoming increasingly endangered as its habitat is\nsqueezed ever harder by human activities.\n\u2022 The name \u201cAmerican cheetah\u201d is often used to describe two extinct North American",
+    "accumulated on the tar pits and animals were deceived into wading in to bathe or drink. This was\nthe last mistake the animal made, as the sticky tar snared its legs and made escape impossible. The\ncommotion caused by struggling animals and the smell of dead animals that had already perished\nin the sticky goo attracted the attention of predators and scavengers. Not only are the number and\ndiversity of the fossils from La Brea unprecedented, but it is the only fossil assemblage on earth\nwhere predators outnumber prey. This is because a large animal, like a mastodon, struggling in the\ntar attracted numerous predators and scavengers, all of which were keen to get their teeth and claws\ninto the doomed beast, and in trying to\ndo so, some of them also met their end\nin the tar. It is even possible that prey\nand predators became trapped during\na chase that ended badly for all parties\nconcerned. This might seem unlikely,\nbut a major entrapment like this only\nneeded to happen once every 10 years",
+    "When did it become extinct? The giant hyena is thought to have become extinct around\n500,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The remains of this animal have been found in Africa, Europe, and all\nthe way through Asia to China.\nThe spotted hyena is a beautifully adapted predator and scavenger of the African continent. These animals have a long evolutionary heritage of at least 70 species extending back\nat least 15 million years. The earliest known hyenas were mongoose-sized animals that were\nprobably insectivorous or omnivorous, but over time, they evolved into specialized hunters\nand scavengers, the largest of which was the giant hyena.\nIn general appearance, the giant hyena was similar to the spotted hyena, only much bigger. It was a powerfully built animal, and a specimen in its prime probably weighed the same\nas a big lioness, around 150 kg, or possibly more (for comparison, a really big spotted hyena",
+    "a specimen or an excellent photograph, it is di\ufb03cult to take these stories seriously, but it is\nworth remembering that previously unknown species of mammal are discovered fairly regu-",
+    "Scientific name: Monachus tropicalis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivora\nFamily: Phocidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last reliable record of this species is from 1952.\nWhere did it live? As its name suggests, the Caribbean monk seal was native to the Caribbean region from the southeastern United States to northern South America, including\ntropical waters in the Florida Keys, Bahamas, and Greater and Lesser Antilles, and\nislets o\ufb00 the Yucatan Peninsula and the coast of southern Central American.\nSeals, with their thick blubber, are well adapted to the chilly waters of the earth\u2019s poles\nand temperate regions, but monk seals, the only truly tropical seals, buck this trend and\ninhabit warm equatorial latitudes. Of the three species of monk seal, only the Mediterranean and Hawaiian monk seal are still around. The third species, the Caribbean monk\nseal, was last reliably sighted on Seranilla Bank, between Jamaica and Honduras, in 1952.",
+    "everything, and the numerous unique plants that covered Guadalupe were stripped away by\nthousands of hungry mouths. This in itself was not the nail in the co\ufb03n of the quelili, but\nthe huge herds of goats soon attracted people. Some came to herd the goats and others came\nto hunt them, and herder and hunter alike both considered the quelili to be a meddlesome\nfoe that would kill and eat goat kids whenever the opportunity arose. It is very unlikely that\nthe quelili could have captured and killed a healthy goat kid, but it was probably partial to",
+    "dark-colored band of fur around its middle. Whether this was artistic license on behalf of the\nprehistoric painter or the genuine appearance of the animal is impossible to know, but these\nimages do give us a tantalizing glimpse of the world through the eyes of our ancient ancestors.\nThe realm of this great, furry beast was the tundra and steppe that extended out in front\nof the immense ice sheets that capped the Northern Hemisphere. This was a harsh environment, but lots of animals appeared to have thrived in these cold conditions. Like the rest of its\nkind, the woolly rhinoceros was a herbivore, but was it a browser or grazer? This question has\ndivided paleontologists for years, but it is very likely that this giant was a grazer. The woolly\nrhinoceros\u2019s neck muscles were very powerful, which is just what you would expect for an\nanimal that had to tear mouthfuls of grass from the ground. Also, ancient, buried pollen from",
+    "Sadly, the du is not around today, and we can only guess at what this bizarre bird looked\nlike in life. We have no idea what its closest relatives are, and it is not known if it was actually closely related to the living mound builders. With that said, it is often portrayed as a\nthickset animal, with a large bill and a bony lump above its eyes that was covered in a \ufb02eshy\ncomb. Such a large, heavy bird was undoubtedly too big to take to the wing, and we can be\nquite con\ufb01dent that it was \ufb02ightless like many other giant island birds. Along with what\nwas an unusual outward appearance, the du had a number of skeletal peculiarities that set it\napart from the majority of other birds. In most birds, the two collarbones are fused to form",
+    "The disappearance of the golden toad was\nboth mysterious and rapid. Only 25 years\nseparate the species\u2019 discovery by scientists in 1964 and the last sighting in 1989. Since its\ndisappearance, this 5-cm-long toad has become an icon for the decline of amphibians the\nworld over.\nUnlike the majority of toad species, the male golden toad was brightly colored and shiny\nto the extent that it looked arti\ufb01cial. The species was also unusual as the male and female\nwere very di\ufb00erent in appearance. The male, with his magni\ufb01cent golden orange skin, was in\nstark contrast to the larger female, who was black with scarlet blotches edged in yellow.\nThis toad was only known from a small area (around 10 km2) of high-altitude cloud forest in Costa Rica that today is part of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. These forests\n\n\f\n\n2\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "animal that had to tear mouthfuls of grass from the ground. Also, ancient, buried pollen from\nlong-dead \ufb02owering plants can tell us a lot about the ancient earth, and in the places where\nthe woolly rhinoceros was found, the most common plants were grasses and sedges. On the\nicy steppe and tundra, grass was covered for some of the year by snow, and it seems these big\nplant eaters got at their food by using their long horn to brush away the snow. The woolly\nrhinoceros horns that have been unearthed show abrasive wear on their outside edges, indicating that they were probably swung to and fro along the ground to sweep the snow from the\ngrass. Grasses and sedges may have been abundant on the ice age steppe and tundra, but these\nplants are far from easy to digest. Every cell in a blade of grass is packed with proteins, fats, and\ncarbohydrates, but these nutrients are di\ufb03cult to get at because the cell is encased in a wall of",
+    "its predatory adaptations to hunt animals as large as hutia (Capromys pilorides), stocky\nCaribbean rodents and small capybara (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris), the largest living rodents. Like other ground-dwelling birds, the Cuban giant was probably an accomplished\nrunner, and it very likely ran its quarry down before dispatching it with its powerful\ntalons and beak.",
+    "HOMO ERECTUS\nScientific name: Homo erectus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Primates\nFamily: Hominidae\nWhen did it become extinct? Exactly when Homo erectus died out has divided scientists\nfor years. Some paleontologists believe that isolated populations of this hominid may\nhave survived in Southeast Asia until fewer than 100,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? Fossils of Homo erectus have been found in Africa, the Republic of\nGeorgia, China, and Indonesia.\nEug\u00e8ne Dubois, a Dutch anatomist, set o\ufb00 for the Far East in the 1880s, intent on \ufb01nding fossils of the missing link between apes and humans. He searched fruitlessly in New\nZealand before shifting his attention to Java, one of the large Indonesian islands. Amazingly,\nand to the disbelief of the scienti\ufb01c community, his Javan expedition was a success, as he\nfound the skullcap and femur of one of our ancient ancestors. Whether Dubois\u2019s \ufb01nd was",
+    "of opportunity\u2014one erratic year of weather conditions would have completely scuppered\ntheir chance of a successful breeding season. Species like the golden toad have very speci\ufb01c\nhabitat requirements, occupying very small ranges. This predisposes them to extinction as\none little change in their environment can leave them with nowhere to go. Other scientists\nhave suggested increasing amounts of ultraviolet (UV) radiation penetrating the atmosphere\ncould have harmed the toads, but as they lived in dense forest shrouded in cloud during the",
+    "The dire wolf may have been more heavily built than the gray wolf, but its brain was\nactually smaller in absolute terms. We know the gray wolf is a very sociable animal, living in\ntightly knit packs. Hunting as a team allows the gray wolf to catch and kill prey that would\nbe far too big for a single wolf to bring down. As a rule of thumb, animals with an elaborate\nsocial behavior have a relatively bigger brain than solitary animals. So does the smaller brain\nof the dire wolf mean it was less capable, socially, than its extant relative? We don\u2019t know\nfor sure, but the discovery of huge numbers of dire wolf skeletons in the Rancho La Brea\nasphalt deposits in Los Angeles, together with the fact that all larger surviving canids are\nsocial, suggests that the dire wolf lived in packs.\nHow come the Americas no longer echo to the howls of two wolf species? What happened to the dire wolf? It seems this canine was another casualty of the megafauna collapse",
+    "glyptodonts were vulnerable to predation, as is the case for some of the large mammals that\nwander the savannah of Africa today.\nThe causes for the demise of the glyptodonts can only be guessed, but it is extremely\nlikely that they succumbed to habitat changes brought about by shifts in the earth\u2019s climate.\nThese bizarre animals appear to have disappeared around 10,000 years ago\u2014around the\ntime the last ice age was coming to an end. It is likely that the \ufb01rst humans in South America hunted glyptodonts, but it is doubtful that this was the cause of their extinction. The\nglypotodonts\u2019 numbers probably declined in the face of changing habitats and it is possible\nthat human exploitation hastened their demise.\n\u2022 The glyptodonts \ufb01rst appear in the fossil record in the Miocene, which spanned a period of time from 5 to 23 million years ago. They are thought to have evolved from an\narmadillo-like animal, subsequently diversifying and reaching large sizes.",
+    "Pleistocene Survival of the Saber-Toothed Cat Homotherium in Northwestern Europe.\u201d Journal of\nVertebrate Paleontology 23 (2003): 260\u201362; Mauricio Ant\u00f3n, M., A. Galobart, and A. Turner. \u201cCoexistence of Scimitar-Toothed Cats, Lions and Homininss in the European Pleistocene: Implications of the Post-cranial Anatomy of Homotherium latidens (Owen) for Comparative Palaeoecology.\u201d",
+    "directly beneath the opening in the chamber ceiling, so it seems the fall was not fatal. Badly injured\non the \ufb02oor of the cave, the hapless animals crawled away into the darkness and died a slow death\nfrom their injuries and a lack of food and water. The scientists were \ufb01nding the animals in the same\npositions in which they had died thousands of years previously, but when exactly had these animals\nfallen into the cave? Analysis of the sediments in the cave show that the cavern was \ufb01rst opened to\nthe surface about 790,000 years ago. Over millennia, natural processes had sealed the sinkhole on\nnumerous occasions, only for heavy rain and geological activity to open it again. It seems that the\nopening closed for the last time about 195,000 years ago, so what\u2019s preserved at the bottom of this\ncave is a 600,000-year record of the animals that once lived in this part of Australia.",
+    "resort to scavenging. The English-speaking inhabitants of Guadalupe called the quelili the\n\u201ceagle,\u201d but like the other caracaras, the quelili was no formidable aerial hunter. It apparently\nfed on small birds, mice, shell\ufb01sh, worms, insects, and carrion when the opportunity arose.\nThere are a few accounts of how the living quelili behaved. Its broad wings were suited to\nloping \ufb02ight quite close to the ground, and like the other caracara species, it may have been\nequally at home on the ground, stalking among the low vegetation on its long legs. Small\n\ufb02ocks of these birds were often seen in \ufb02ight, but it is unclear if there was an ordered social\nstructure. Living caracaras are normally solitary, but they will tolerate each other around a\ncarcass, albeit with bouts of noisy quarreling. Perhaps the quelili was a little friendlier to\nothers of its kind. They were known to communicate with complex displays, one of which",
+    "Like the living solenodons, Marcano\u2019s solenodon must have been a burrowing animal\nthat only ventured from its daytime retreat to hunt and look for mates when night fell. This\nunusual animal was undoubtedly a carnivore, and the staple of its diet must have been insects and other invertebrates, including earthworms, centipedes, and millipedes, all of which\nwere found by rooting through the leaf litter and the soil and by tearing up rotten logs on\nthe forest \ufb02oor. Marcano\u2019s solenodon was large enough to kill and eat vertebrates, such as\nsmall reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, when the opportunity arose. One of the\nmost fascinating things about the solenodon is its ability to secrete and use venom. Like\nalmost all vertebrate venoms, solenodon venom is actually modi\ufb01ed saliva. It is a mixture of\nvarious proteins produced by the salivary glands, and it is introduced into the body of the\nprey when the solenodon bites. The solenodons even have modi\ufb01ed teeth for delivering this",
+    "vast swarms could ever become extinct.\nFurther Reading: Chapco, W., and G. Litzenberger. \u201cA DNA Investigation into the Mysterious Disappearance of the Rocky Mountain Grasshopper, Mega-Pest of the 1800s.\u201d Molecular Phylogenetics\nand Evolution 30 (2004): 810\u201314; Samways, M. J., and J. A. Lockwood. \u201cOrthoptera Conservation:\nPests and Paradoxes.\u201d Journal of Insect Conservation 2 (1998): 143\u201349; Lockwood, J. A., and L. D.\nDeBrey. \u201cA Solution for the Sudden and Unexplained Extinction of the Rocky Mountain Grasshopper (Orthoptera: Acrididae).\u201d Environmental Entomology 19 (1990): 1194\u20131205; Lockwood,\nJ. A. \u201cVoices from the Past: What We Can Learn from the Rocky Mountain Locust.\u201d American Entomologist 47 (2001): 208\u201315; Lockwood, J. A. Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier. New York: Basic Books, 2004.",
+    "25\n\n\f\n\n26\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nkept these animals for some time and recorded his observations, but when he realized\nhis supplies were running a bit low, he ate them both. This is not the only time that\nscience has lost out to the appetite of some famished pioneer.\nFurther Reading: Burbidge, A., K. Johnson, P. J. Fuller, and R. I. Southgate. \u201cAboriginal Knowledge\nof the Mammals of the Central Deserts of Australia.\u201d Australian Wildlife Research 15 (1988): 9\u201339.\n\nQUELILI\n\nQuelili\u2014Collectors were remorseless in their pursuit of the quelili, and the last examples of this Guadalupe\ncaracara were seen in 1901. (Renata Cunha)\n\nScientific name: Caracara lutosa\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Falconiformes\nFamily: Falconidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last reliable sighting of this bird was in 1901.\nWhere did it live? This bird of prey was found only on the island of Guadalupe.\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 200 YEARS AGO",
+    "ceased hanging on to her pendulous teats, it follows her around and licks at her mouth when\nshe is feeding to learn the food preferences that will help it survive as a solitary adult.\nAs interesting as these insectivorous mammals are, they are completely defenseless\nagainst humans, and Marcano\u2019s solenodon has already been lost forever. The remains of this\nsolenodon have been found with the bones of brown rats; therefore the species was still\naround when Europeans \ufb01rst reached Hispaniola as rats only reached the Greater Antilles\naboard the ships of Columbus and later explorers. Amerindians reached Hispaniola thousands of years before Columbus arrived, and they appear to have had little e\ufb00ect on the populations of the Solenodon. As these animals are small and nocturnal, the \ufb01rst humans to settle\nCuba probably only saw them rarely. The disaster for the solenodons, especially Marcano\u2019s",
+    "that swept through the Americas between 16,000 and 8,000 years ago. The earth\u2019s climate\nwas going through some huge changes as the last ice age was coming to an end, and humans were spreading into the New World along dispersal routes that took them across the\nBering land bridge and farther south and east by land and sea. The herbivorous mammal\nmegafauna of these continents appears to have dwindled and vanished in the face of these\nchanges, but we shall never know the degree to which human hunting caused these declines.\nChanging habitats and disappearing prey, especially loss of large herbivores due to ecosystem change as well as hunting by humans, eventually impacted the number of predators.\nThe heavily built dire wolf, with its probable preference for large prey, felt the changes more\nthan its relative, the gray wolf, and eventually died out.",
+    "mm long. These incredible cheek teeth must have worked like a pair of bolt cutters\u2014slicing\nthrough the \ufb02esh of prey\u2014powered by the big jaw muscles. The marsupial lion\u2019s other intriguing weapon was the clawed thumb on each of its forepaws. Although this digit wasn\u2019t\na true opposable thumb like ours, it could still be used to exert a very powerful grip, driving\nthe sharp, retractable claw into whatever unfortunate victim the marsupial lion had captured.\nThe presence of this thumb is another reason for the belief that the marsupial lion was a treedwelling creature as it would have enabled a good grip on branches and tree trunks; however,\nit is now widely believed that the thumb was primarily for grabbing and subduing prey. Once\nthe prey was immobilized, the fearsome teeth could be brought into action to deliver the killer\nbite. The pointy incisors were probably used to break the neck and sever the spinal cord, before",
+    "Further Reading: Fisher, D. C. \u201cMastodon Butchery by North American Paleo-Indians.\u201d Nature 308\n(1984): 271\u201372; Dreimanis, A. \u201cExtinction of Mastodons in Eastern North America: Testing a New\nClimatic-Environmental Hypothesis.\u201d Ohio Journal of Science 68 (1968): 337\u201352.",
+    "on there being huge numbers of individuals. Habitat destruction and hunting led to\nthe collapse of the populations past this threshold. With their \ufb02ocks in tatters and\ncontinual nesting disruption, it was not long before the population fell below recoverable levels. Scientists have also suggested that the dwindling populations of passenger",
+    "GASTRIC-BROODING FROG\nScientific name: Rheobatrachus silus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Amphibia\nOrder: Anura\nFamily: Myobatrachidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This frog was last seen alive in 1981.\nWhere did it live? The gastric-brooding frog was known only from the Canondale and\nBlackall mountain ranges in southeast Queensland, Australia.\nAnother victim of the amphibian disaster was a fascinating little frog from Australia that\nwas only discovered in 1973, yet by 1981, it had vanished without a trace.\nThe gastric-brooding frog was a small species; females were around 5 cm long, while\nmales were smaller, at approximately 4 cm. It lived in forest streams and rocky pools, and for\nmuch of the time, it would hide beneath rocks on the bed of these water bodies, but when\n\n3\n\n\f\n\n4\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nGastric-Brooding Frog\u2014The first and only picture of a gastric-brooding frog \u201cgiving birth.\u201d (Mike Tyler)",
+    "this enables the camel\u2019s blood to keep \ufb02owing even when the animal is dehydrated. When\ncamels do \ufb01nd water, they really make up for their hardships, and they quench their thirst\nby drinking around 100 liters in one go, some of which is stored in special cavities in the\nlining of their large stomach.\nIt is unlikely that the giant camel was similarly equipped for survival. The America in which\nit lived, 1 to 5 million years ago, was a very di\ufb00erent place to the continent we know today, and\nmuch of the land was forested, albeit sparsely in places. The giant camel probably never had to\ngo without water for days at a time, but it needed the means of making the best use of the vegetation the open American forests provided. Its digestive system was undoubtedly very similar\nto that of the living camels, employing symbiotic bacteria to digest tough plant food. The giant\ncamel, like its living relatives, could probably tolerate massive ranges in temperature that would",
+    "Agenbroad, L. D., and J. I. Mead. The Hot Springs Mammoth Site: A Decade of Field and Laboratory\nResearch in Paleontology, Geology, and Paleoecology. Hot Springs, SD: The Mammoth Site of Hot\nSprings, South Dakota, 1994.\nAgust\u00ed, J., and M. Ant\u00f3n. Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids: 65 Million Years of Mammalian\nEvolution in Europe. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.\nAnderson, A. Prodigious Birds: Moas and Moa-Hunting in New Zealand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.\nArcher, M., S. J. Hand, and H. Godthelp. Australia\u2019s Lost World: Prehistoric Animals of Riversleigh.\nBloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.\nBarton, M., I. Gray, A. White, N. Bean, and S. Dunleavy. Prehistoric America: A Journey through the Ice\nAge and Beyond. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.\nBenton, M. J. Vertebrate Palaeontology. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004.\nCracraft, J., and F. T. Grifo. The Living Planet in Crisis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.",
+    "the \ufb02esh of a goat carcass. Goatherders may have seen a group of quelili tearing at the carcass of a dead goat kid and presumed the birds were responsible for its death.\nBy the nineteenth century, the quelili was goat enemy number one and it was hunted\nmercilessly. By the 1860s, ri\ufb02es and poison had pushed it to the brink of extinction. As if\nangry goatherders were not bad enough, the quelili soon found itself pitted against an even\nmore relentless foe: the ornithological collector. The age of discovery gripped the educated\nworld, and the race to collect and catalogue the world\u2019s treasures was well and truly on.\nRarities are coveted by collectors, and institutions and wealthy individuals soon got wind of\nthe disappearing Guadalupe bird fauna, including the quelili. Back in the nineteenth century, the word conservation didn\u2019t really exist, and the collectors systematically exterminated\nthe quelili; the skins were sold to the highest bidder.",
+    "breeding season, this is unlikely to be the cause of their demise. The last theory concerns the\nspread of chytrid fungi, which appear to make short work of amphibian populations wherever they become established. Drier conditions could have forced the toads into fewer and\nfewer ponds, increasing the transmission of this disease. With this said, it is possible that the\ngolden toad still clings to existence in some remote corner of Central America.\n\u2022 The cloud forests of Monteverde have lost 40 percent of their frog and toad species,\nand it is not only here that amphibians are in trouble. In the past three decades, scientists all over the world have reported massive declines in amphibian populations, with\nsome 120 species thought to have become extinct since the 1980s. The declines and\nthe extinctions are global, but the United States, Central America, South America,\neastern Australia, and Fiji have been worst hit.",
+    "have revered these animals. High up in the Swiss Alps, Drachenloch Cave was reported to\ncontain what appeared to be the oldest stone structure of religious signi\ufb01cance anywhere in\nthe world. Attributed to Neanderthals who lived 70,000 years ago, this case was the basis\nfor the so-called Cave Bear Cult. One cave bear skull was even found with a cave bear femur\ntwisted behind the cheekbone and was considered to be the work of human hands. The",
+    "them today. If this theory is correct, then modern humans, especially those of us with roots\nin northern and western Europe, still carry Neanderthal genes. It has even been suggested\nthat ginger hair is a Neanderthal trait that has survived into the modern day, although this\ntrait probably evolved independently in modern humans and Neanderthals.\nThese theories aside, we know that the Neanderthal world went through some major\nshifts as the ice sheets advanced and then retreated and the \ufb02ora and fauna of the Neanderthal lands were massively in\ufb02uenced by these changes. Perhaps the Neanderthals succumbed\nto the combination of the relentless spread of our ancestors and a changing landscape and\nclimate, but maybe, just maybe, the Neanderthals live on in us.\n\u2022 Neanderthals evolved in Europe, and it is thought that their ancestors, an earlier form\nof Homo erectus, left Africa and dispersed over much of what we know as the Old\nWorld today.",
+    "though their skeleton has the same bones as any other vertebrate, they are put together in\na very di\ufb00erent way. Their body is protected by a bony shell, which is, essentially, a hugely\nmodi\ufb01ed rib cage. The strength of this external carapace depends on the species, but it\nranges from the leathery dome of the soft-shelled turtles to the almost impregnable shell\nof the giant tortoises. Also unique is the position of the hip and shoulder girdles, as they\nare found inside the rib cage. These animals are most familiar for being able to withdraw\ntheir heads and legs into the safe con\ufb01nes of their shells. The way they withdraw their\nhead allows scientists to identify two groups of turtle: the cryptodires and the pleurodires.\nThe latter are often called side-necked turtles because they bend their long necks into an\nS shape to keep their heads out of harm\u2019s way. The turtles that people often keep as pets",
+    "MORE THAN 50,000 YEARS AGO\n\n\u2022 As the bones of these giant birds only survive as fragments, it is just a matter of time\nbefore more are found and described, giving us a more accurate picture of how these\nextinct animals looked and behaved.\nFurther Reading: Paul Palmqvist, P., and S. F. Vizca\u00edno. \u201cEcological and Reproductive Constraints\nof Body Size in the Gigantic Argentavis magnificens (Aves, Theratornithidae) from the Miocene of\nArgentina.\u201d Ameghiniana 40 (2003): 379\u201385; Hertel, F. \u201cEcomorphological Indicators of Feeding\nBehavior in Recent and Fossil Raptors.\u201d The Auk 112 (1995): 890\u2013903.\n\nPOUCH-KNIFE\n\nPouch-Knife\u2014A pair of pouch-knife marsupials\nprepare to go hunting after a long rest. This unusual\npredator probably used ambush tactics and strength\nto catch and subdue its prey. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "\u2022 The remains of this bear have been found in caves. The bones discovered in Potter\nCreek Cave, California, are all from females, indicating that this species may have made\ndens in such places to give birth and to raise their young, until they were big enough to\nface the rigors of the outside world.\n\u2022 The bones of this bear even provide a window into some of the diseases from which\nthey su\ufb00ered. There is evidence of osteomyelitis, tuberculosis-like diseases, and syphilislike infections.\n\u2022 Humans de\ufb01nitely hunted the large animals on which the giant short-faced bear was\ndependent, and this may have been another factor contributing to the bear\u2019s extinction.\nFurther Reading: Matheus, P. E. \u201cDiet and Co-ecology of Pleistocene Short-Faced and Brown Bears\nin Eastern Beringia.\u201d Quaternary Research 44 (1995): 447\u201353; Voorhies, M. R., and R. G. Corner. \u201cIce\nAge Superpredators.\u201d University of Nebraska State Museum, Museum Notes 70 (1982): 1\u20134.",
+    "is also very indiscriminate when it\u2019s tearing at the dead body of its victim and everything is\neaten. All the indigestible parts, that is, hair, teeth, horns, and so on, are regurgitated after\ndigestion as a pellet smothered in foul-smelling mucus. It is possible that the giant monitor\nalso regurgitated a stinking pellet, but on a much larger scale.\nThe giant monitor lizard was probably the top Australian predator, but the position of\ntop predator in a food chain is a very precarious one as any big changes in the environment",
+    "be \ufb01xed in the jaw with a bulbous anchor like those of the saber tooth cats. Instead, they\ngrew from long roots that extended to a position well behind and above the pouch-knife\u2019s\neyes. Also, when the mouth was closed, these massive canines were protected by scabbardlike outgrowths of the pouch-knife\u2019s chin. These scabbards were equipped with tough pads\nthat may have sharpened the teeth as the jaws were opened and closed.\nAs the fossil record for the pouch-knife is so scant, we only have a very limited idea\nof how it lived. It seems that this pouched predator lived in a savannahlike environment,\nsharing this open habitat with the other strange denizens of South America, including the\nnumerous types of large, native ungulate; the extinct relatives of the sloths and armadillos; numerous types of rodent (some of them huge); and the giant, predatory terror birds\n(see the entry later in this chapter). The pouch-knife was undoubtedly a predator as the",
+    "in weight. This is the giant monitor lizard, and its great size alone must have been more\nthan enough to strike fear into the hearts of the \ufb01rst human inhabitants of Australia.\nAll living monitor lizards are carnivorous animals, and there is no reason to think that\nthe giant monitor was any di\ufb00erent. Sections of the animal\u2019s jaw have been found, and these\nprove that this reptile was a meat eater as they are studded with numerous curved teeth. If\nthe size estimates of the giant monitor lizard are true, a fully grown specimen was Australia\u2019s largest land-dwelling predator by quite some margin, and there must have been few, if\nany, animals that it was not capable of tackling.\nPerhaps the best way of reconstructing the behavior of the giant monitor is by using the\nKomodo dragon as a model. This famous monitor lizard has been closely studied for years,",
+    "FEWER THAN 10,000 YEARS AGO\n\nFurther Reading: Lister, A. M. \u201cThe Evolution of the Giant Deer, Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach).\u201d Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 112 (1994): 65\u2013100; Moen, R. A., J. Pastor, and Y.\nCohen. \u201cAntler Growth and Extinction of Irish Elk.\u201d Evolutionary Ecology Research 1 (1999): 235\u201349.\n\nGIANT GROUND SLOTH\n\nGiant Ground Sloth\u2014The human silhouette in\nthis picture gives an idea of how huge these extinct\nsloths were. They could even rear up on their hind\nlegs to reach lofty food. (Natural History Museum\nat Tring)\n\nGiant Ground Sloth\u2014The ground sloths were\nperhaps the most impressive of all the extinct\nSouth American mammals. The largest species\n(Megatherium americanum), the one depicted here,\nwas about the same size as a fully grown elephant.\n(Renata Cunha)",
+    "In 1970, a caver exploring Tea Tree Cave in north Queensland, Australia, discovered\npart of the skull of a reptile lying upside down on the cave \ufb02oor about 60 m from the\nentrance. Realizing that the skull was something special, she reported her \ufb01nd, and paleontologists returned to the cave to take a look at the skull. The caver had stumbled across\nthe remains of a long-dead, land-dwelling crocodile that was later described and given the\nname Quinkana.\nThese reptiles, known as mekosuchine crocodiles, are known only from Australia and\nthe South Paci\ufb01c, and all of them are extinct. The crocodilians with which we are familiar\nare all amphibious animals that spend nearly all their time in or near water. They are excellent swimmers and remain submerged for long periods of time; however, on land, they can\nbe quite lumbering. The legs of a crocodile splay out to the sides of the large body, and as\na result, they are not very e\ufb00ective at supporting the reptile\u2019s weight. Also, legs that sprout",
+    "\u2022 As with the tarpan and the aurochs, animal breeders are attempting to resurrect the\nquagga by selectively breeding from living zebras that have quagga characteristics.\nSuch an exercise is quite pointless, and the resources needed for such programs would\nbe much better spent protecting the surviving zebras.\n\u2022 According to analysis of quagga DNA, this subspecies became isolated from the plains\nzebra sometime between 120,000 and 290,000 years ago. If correct, this is a remarkably short amount of time for the di\ufb00erences seen in the outward appearance of the\nquagga to evolve. Perhaps a population of the plains zebra was completely isolated in\nSouth Africa and started to evolve along a unique course. This is the very beginnings\nof speciation, the process where one species becomes two over thousands or millions\nof years. After less than 300,000 years, the quagga had almost lost the distinctive coat",
+    "preferred or possibly in the food on which they depended. Perhaps the giant beaver,\nwith its capacious mouth, was able to use larger trees for food and building, while its\nsmall relative could nibble away at smaller saplings.\n\u2022 Even though North America still has its fair share of wilderness, it\u2019s hard to imagine what it must have looked like thousands of years ago, long before the advent of\nintensive agricultural and urban development. For millions of years, it was one vast\nwilderness completely untouched by humans, where the forests, plains, lakes, rivers,\nand swamps echoed to the calls of huge, long-dead animals. Indeed, the continents of\nNorth and South America were the last to be populated by humans and were the last\nto lose their diverse megafauna.\nFurther Reading: Harington, C. R. \u201cAnimal Life in the Ice Age.\u201d Canadian Geographical Journal 88\n(1974): 38\u201343.",
+    "at the pole star, Polaris, but 13,000 years from now, the pole star will be Vega because of precession.\nDepending on how these cycles overlap, less solar energy ends up reaching the Northern Hemisphere\u2014the suggested trigger of the cold glacials. More snow falls during these cold spells, less\nthaws, and the ice sheets start to grow. As they grow, more and more solar energy is re\ufb02ected back\ninto space by the white snow and ice, and the cooling e\ufb00ect is exacerbated.\nGeologically, the current epoch is known as the Holocene. The Holocene is actually a warm\ninterglacial, and it has lasted, so far, for 10,000 years. It\u2019s a sobering thought that all recorded human\nhistory, at the very beginning of which agricultural civilizations began to replace hunter-gathering as\na way of life, has been played out in a relatively warm interglacial. All the known civilizations, all the\nwars, all the technological advances have come to pass in a narrow, warm window. It would be very",
+    "eggs and nestlings of this amazing owl. The youngest remains of the giant owl are around\n8,000 years old, and it is very unlikely that a large, cursorial bird could have persisted for\nanything more than a couple of centuries after humans reached Cuba.\n\u2022 In appearance, the giant owl is thought to have resembled a large burrowing owl\n(Athene cunicularia), but its remains show that it was actually more closely related to\nthe wood owl (Strix sp.).\n\u2022 A very unusual and extremely rare animal called the \u201cCuban solenodon\u201d (Solenodon\ncubanus) still manages to cling to survival on these Caribbean islands, but since its\ndiscovery in 1861, only 37 specimens have been caught. This odd, nocturnal, burrowing creature, one of the few venomous mammals, is a reminder of the days when Cuba\nwas populated by odd animals, creatures which evolved in isolation on these tropical\nCaribbean islands (see the entry for Marcano\u2019s solenodon in chapter 3).",
+    "preserved body of a 10,000-year-old female mammoth calf, found near the Yuribei\nRiver in Russia. To date, 39 preserved woolly mammoths have been found, but only\nfour of these are complete. A trade still exists today in the ivory tusks from these longdead animals.\n\u2022 Scientists have speculated that it would be possible to bring the mammoth back to\nlife using the technology of cloning and the tissue from the mammoths that have been\nfrozen in permafrost. This is an interesting notion, but the \ufb02esh of the frozen specimens, even when newly discovered, is badly decayed, and the DNA is unsuitable for\ncloning.\nFurther Reading: Guthrie, R. D. \u201cReconstructions of Woolly Mammoth Life History .\u201d In The\nWorld of Elephants\u2014International Congress, Rome, 276\u201379. 2001; Gee, H. \u201cEvolution: Memories of\nMammoths.\u201d Nature 9 (2006): 439; Solow, A. R., D. L. Roberts, and K. M. Robbirt. \u201cOn the Pleistocene Extinctions of Alaskan Mammoths and Horses.\u201d Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences",
+    "ago, South America had its own large plant-eating mammals, and they were unique\u2014quite\ndi\ufb00erent from the odd-toed and even-toed ungulates.\nOne group of these unique, South American herbivores was the litopterns. The last of\nthe litopterns to become extinct looked like a stocky, humpless camel with thick legs. With\na shoulder height of 1.5 m and a body length of 3 m, this litoptern was one of the larger\nSouth American mammals. The nasal openings on the skull of this animal are very near\nthe top of the head, which has led paleontologists to believe that they probably had a short\ntrunk. We can\u2019t be sure what a stubby trunk was for, but it may have been used to grasp low\nbranches and to pull them within reach of its mouth, in the same way that a gira\ufb00e uses its",
+    "The remains of the elephant bird that have been found to date allow us to build up a\npicture of how this extinct animal lived. The most intriguing remains are the bird\u2019s eggs.\nSome have been found intact, and they are gigantic\u2014the largest single cells that have ever\nexisted. They are about three times bigger than the largest dinosaur eggs, with a circumference of about 1 m and a length of more than 30 cm. One of these eggs contained about the\nsame amount of yolk and white as 200 chicken\u2019s eggs. These huge shelled reminders of the\nelephant bird are occasionally unearthed in the \ufb01elds of Madagascan farmers, and one is\neven known to contain a fossilized embryo.\nThe number of elephant bird species that once inhabited Madagascar is a bone of contention among experts, but it is possible that Madagascar supported several species of these",
+    "to lightning strikes from cover, which is still a very e\ufb00ective technique. When the victim\nwas a large marsupial, the giant monitor probably lunged for the neck or the soft underside,\nwhich is what the Komodo dragon does when attacking a goat or a water bu\ufb00alo.\nDuring a predatory attack, the Komodo dragon delivers a bite with its mouthful of teeth\nand makes no e\ufb00ort to cling on to its terri\ufb01ed prey. This is because the lizard has potent\nweapons: venom and saliva swarming with bacteria. A bite from a Komodo dragon usually\ncauses a fatal infection, and the victim dies after a few days. With its powerful sense of smell,\nthe lizard follows the scent of death to the \ufb01nal resting place of its prey. Recent research\nsuggests that many types of monitor lizard are slightly venomous, and the giant monitor\nlizard may have been no di\ufb00erent. In actual fact, Australia is home to a bewildering diversity\nof very venomous animals, and perhaps the giant monitor\u2019s saliva was poisonous as well as",
+    "animals for food. Many of the animal bones found along with the Flores human skeleton\nbelong to an animal called a stegodon, a small-bodied distant relative of modern elephants,\nwhich had also gone through a shrinking process, until it was a dwarf compared to its close\nrelatives on the mainland. Some of the stegodon bones bear the marks of butchery and\nburning. Is this one of the animals these diminutive humans hunted? A fully grown stegodon is small by modern elephant standards, but it still weighed in the region of 1,000 kg,\nand a lone, 25-kg human could never have brought down one of these animals; therefore the\nFlores humans must have hunted in teams, coordinating their e\ufb00orts to subdue their large\nquarry.\nIf the Flores humans were able to hunt cooperatively, use \ufb01re, and make and use tools,\nthey must have been intelligent, yet they had a tiny brain, about one-third the size of ours.\nBefore the discovery of the Flores human, the accepted theory was that brain size and",
+    "animal that probably preyed on the giant lemur.\nApart from the giant fossa, the giant lemur had nothing to fear, that is, until the arrival\nof humans. The story of the colonization of Madagascar by humans is an interesting one.\nSometime between a.d. 200 and 500 (about the same time as England was being colonized\nby the Saxons), seafarers from Borneo set o\ufb00 across the great expanse of the Indian Ocean\nwithout any knowledge of what was before them. After traveling counterclockwise around\nthe Indian Ocean, a distance of almost 6,000 km, without compasses or charts, they reached\nMadagascar. This was a massive achievement for them but a disaster for the amazing wildlife\nof this island. These \ufb01rst human inhabitants brought animals and agriculture, and the landscape and wildlife of Madagascar was changed, irrevocably, for the worse. A 50-kg animal\nlike the giant lemur must have been prized as food, and as the forests were cleared to make",
+    "the animals the humans brought with them\u2014pigs, dogs, rats, and so on\u2014made short work\nof the elephant bird\u2019s eggs. Other introduced animals, such as chickens, may have harbored\ndiseases to which these giant birds had never been exposed. With no natural immunity\nto these pathogens, epidemics may have ravaged the populations of elephant birds, which\nwere already under pressure from hunting and egg predation. Changes in climate may have\nled to the drying out of Madagascar, and this, too, could have a\ufb00ected the populations of",
+    "AMERICAN CHEETAH\nScientific name: Miracinonyx trumani\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivora\nFamily: Felidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The American cheetah is thought to have become extinct\naround 10,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? This cat was native to North America.\n\n101\n\n\f\n\n102\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nAmerican Cheetah\u2014Larger than the living cheetah, this North American predatory cat probably used\nspeed to catch animals such as pronghorn. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "long prehensile tongue to grab vegetation on high branches. The largest of the litopterns\nhad a three-toed, \ufb02at-footed stance, but some of the more lightly built species had slim\nlegs that ended in a single toe. At the center of these slim legs were strong bones and \ufb02exible joints\u2014the hallmarks of \ufb02eet-footed animals that evade their enemies with speed and\nmaneuverability.\nThese odd plant eaters needed some way of evading danger as prehistoric South America\nwas home to lots of fearsome meat eaters. There were fearsome felines, killer marsupials,\nand terrifying birds, so the litopterns must have always been on the lookout for danger as\nany one of these predators was quite an adversary. Even an adult of the biggest of these\nbizarre herbivores was no match for the most powerful saber tooth cat that has ever lived",
+    "Following the extinction of the dinosaurs, many niches in earth\u2019s ecosystems were left\nwide open for the vertebrate survivors\u2014the mammals, birds, and remaining reptiles\u2014to\nevolve into, and for a while, apparently, the terror birds had a power struggle with the mammals for the dominance of the terrestrial ecosystems in South America. Many of them were\nbig and powerful enough to have been the top predators at the time, and many mammals\nwere de\ufb01nitely their prey.\nAll but one of the terror birds paleontologists know of today have been unearthed in\nSouth America. One species (Titanis walleri) managed to reach North America, and it appears to have been quite a success, surviving for more than 3 million years, until it disappeared around 1.8 million years ago\u2014the last of its kind to become extinct. Even though",
+    "perhaps in a family group or even a tribe, because a solitary Neanderthal with a broken leg\nwould not have survived long enough for the broken bones to heal. We can assume that\nNeanderthals cared for their sick, and perhaps even their elderly, as some bones are from\nindividuals more than 50 years old, which was a grand old age many thousands of years ago.\nWhat other characteristics did they share with us? Did they have language? It is thought\nby some experts that Neanderthals could speak, as a hyoid bone\u2014a small bone that is part\nof the speech apparatus\u2014was found with a Neanderthal skeleton in Kebara Cave, Israel, in\nthe 1980s, and what is preserved is similar to ours. However, this bone only gives us an idea\nof what sounds the Neanderthal could make as the bone works with the soft tissues of the\nlarynx to produce the sounds we know as words. Without these soft tissues, it is impossible",
+    "could have butted heads and locked tusks. Using all of their strength, the male mammoths\nwrestled with the intent of digging the tusks into the \ufb02anks of their opponent.\nAs the woolly mammoth is no longer alive, we can only make assumptions about the way\nit lived, but it is highly likely that it formed family groups like those formed by the African\nand Indian elephants\u2014close-knit groups that are led by a female and comprise adult females and young. Like elephants, mature male woolly mammoths probably banded together\nin loose groups until the breeding season arrived, when they searched out the female-led\ngroups. As in elephants, pregnancy in mammoths probably lasted around 22 months, with\na single infant being born at the end of that time.\nThe remains of the woolly mammoth that have been found even tell us what this animal\nate. The tundra where the woolly mammoth lived was devoid of large trees, and these huge",
+    "monk seal are sharks. In the water, the agility and keen senses of the adult seals would have\nmade them di\ufb03cult prey for sharks, although young seals unfamiliar with sharks were probably more vulnerable.\nLike other seals, Caribbean monk seals spent a good proportion of their time in the\nwater. The main times for spending extended periods out of the water were the molting\nseason (when seals haul out to dry land and shed their old fur) and the breeding season.\nWith little seasonal change in the tropics, the breeding season probably extended over several months and was therefore longer than the breeding seasons of most seals. Very little\nis known about the young of the Caribbean monk seal, although several pregnant females",
+    "on the lookout for danger. Almost all predators rely heavily on the element of surprise, and\nwithout this, they stand little chance of making a successful kill. The litopterns used their\nkeen senses of sight, smell, and hearing to alert the herd to danger. When a predator did\nlaunch an attack against a herd of these animals, it is likely that they singled out the young,\nold, and sick animals as a healthy adult litoptern must have been very di\ufb03cult to catch.\nWith numerous predators all wanting to get their teeth, claws, and beaks into the succulent \ufb02esh of litopterns, life on the grasslands of South America must have been very di\ufb03cult\nfor these herbivores, and about 2.5 million years ago, something happened that made things\neven more di\ufb03cult. The Great American Interchange saw all sorts of wildlife stream into\nSouth America from the north. Some of these creatures competed with litopterns for food,\nand others hunted them. All these new challenges were played out within the backdrop of",
+    "its wings, and its likeness is often seen surmounting totem poles. Perhaps the teratorn\nobtained immortality in the oral traditions and stories of the Amerindians as a folk\nmemory.\n\u2022 A large, dead mammal can supply a large variety of scavenging animals with a huge\namount of food, but there is always a pecking order at a carcass. Like the living lappetfaced vulture (Torgos tracheliotus), Merriam\u2019s teratorn may have been the only scavenging\nbird capable of tearing through the thick skin and tough muscle of a large, fresh carcass.\nJust like today, the lesser scavengers may have had to wait until the teratorn ate its \ufb01ll.\nFurther Reading: Campbell, K. E., Jr., and E. P. Tonni. \u201cSize and Locomotion in Teratorns.\u201d The Auk\n100 (1983): 390\u2013403; Hertel, F. \u201cEcomorphological Indicators of Feeding Behavior in Recent and\nFossil Raptors.\u201d The Auk 112 (1995): 890\u2013903; Harris, J. M., and G. T. Jefferson, eds. \u201cRancho La",
+    "others think that the \ufb01rst human inhabitants of Australia annihilated the native fauna\nthrough hunting and habitat destruction. It\u2019s very likely a combination of these factors that\nled to the disappearance of these creatures.\n\u2022 The giant echidna was described from an incomplete skeleton found in Mammoth\nCave, Western Australia. A second species of huge echidna has been described from a\n65-cm-long skull, so it is likely that the prehistoric Australia was home to at least two\nspecies of very large monotreme.\n\u2022 Echidnas have very large salivary glands, and these secrete a thick, sticky saliva that\nlubricates the tongue as it\u2019s protruded in and out of the mouth. The saliva also traps the\nechidna\u2019s prey.\n\u2022 The monotremes are a very ancient group of mammals. The oldest known monotreme\nfossil is an opalized lower jaw fragment from the Lightning Ridge opal \ufb01elds of New\nSouth Wales, which is around 100 million years old. A fossilized platypus tooth has",
+    "in the Paci\ufb01c Ocean.\nPuggle\u2014the name given to the young of echidnas.\nRadiocarbon dating\u2014a method for measuring the age of items containing carbon that is\nbased on the steady decay of the radioactive carbon isotope, carbon-14.\nRainforest\u2014forests characterized by high rainfall, typically 1,750 to 2,000 mm per year.\nSebaceous gland\u2014small glands in the hair follicles of mammalian skin that secrete an oily\nsubstance known as sebum, which lubricates and protects the skin and hair.\nSelective breeding\u2014part of the domestication process by which animals and plants with\nuseful traits are used for breeding to produce distinct breeds or cultivars.",
+    "and many stocks of commercial species have collapsed completely because of this relentless\nand senseless hunting. Millions of liters of toxic e\ufb04uents, dangerous wastes, and agricultural run-o\ufb00 make their way into the ocean every year, and in some places, these have already killed o\ufb00 much of the marine life.\nWe have no idea how many species of organism live in the world\u2019s most biodiverse places,\nand with every passing year, species become extinct before we even knew they existed. Until\nwe understand that we are one species among many and that our continued survival depends\non living in harmony with the natural world, the future looks very bleak for the human race\nand the other species with which we share this planet.",
+    "The bison we know today is one of the last vestiges of the American megafauna, and\nthese lands were actually home to several di\ufb00erent kinds of bison, all of which originated\nfrom animals that migrated into North America from Asia via the Bering land bridge.\nIt is still not clear if these fossils represent distinct species or geographical and temporal\nvariants of a single, highly variable bison species. The ancestors of the bison evolved in\nEurasia around 2 to 3 million years ago, and from there they spread, eventually reaching\nNorth America around 300,000 years ago. The North American continent was a land of\nopportunity, and these ancestral bison diversi\ufb01ed into a range of forms, the most impressive of which was the giant bison. The modern plains bison is a big animal, with males\nreaching 2 m at the shoulder and 900 kg in weight; however, they would be dwarfed by a\ngiant bison. This extinct species was around 2.5 m at the shoulder and could have weighed",
+    "Extinction Insight: A Hole in the Desert\u2014The Nullarbor\nPlain Caves\nImmediately north of the Great Australian Bight, the large open bay on the south coast of Australia,\nlies the Nullarbor Plain, the largest single outcrop of limestone in the world, with an area of around\n200,000 km2. The limestone of this plain was laid down millions of years ago in a shallow sea, but\ngeological activity forced the huge slab into its present position. This \ufb02at and treeless semiarid plain\nis far from inviting, but beneath its surface are treasures.\n\n\f\n\nMORE THAN 12,500 YEARS AGO",
+    "Reveal Extended Juvenile Development in New Zealand Moa.\u201d Nature 435 (2005): 940\u201343; Bunce,\nM., T. H. Worthy, T. Ford, W. Hoppitt, E. Willerslev, A. Drummond, and A. Cooper. \u201cExtreme Reversed Sexual Size Dimorphism in the Extinct New Zealand Moa Dinornis.\u201d Nature 425 (2003):\n172\u201375; Holdaway, R. N., and C. Jacomb. \u201cRapid Extinction of the Moas (Aves: Dinornithiformes):\nModel, Test, and Implications.\u201d Science 287 (2000): 2250\u201354.",
+    "beneath ice, weather systems the world over were a\ufb00ected. Rains failed, and Australia dried\nout. Humans may have also modi\ufb01ed the habitats of Australia by starting bush\ufb01res to clear\nundergrowth. In combination, climate change and human activity caused the Australian\nvegetation to die back, and the herbivores began to disappear as their food dwindled. With\nprey becoming scarcer and scarcer, predators like Quinkana were also hit hard, and they, too,\neventually became extinct.\n\u2022 There were once several species of mekosuchine crocodile living in Australia and the\nSouth Paci\ufb01c. The remains of these animals have been found on numerous islands in\nthe South Paci\ufb01c, but they probably didn\u2019t get to these islands by swimming as it is\nthought that they had no tolerance to saltwater. Perhaps, like smaller reptiles, they were\ncarried between the islands on rafts of vegetation that were broken away by storms and\n\ufb02oods. It is thought that Vanuatu and New Caledonia were probably the last refuges of",
+    "with well-developed fetuses were killed in the Triangle Keys o\ufb00 the north coast of the\nYucatan Peninsula, indicating that they gave birth to their young between early December\nand late June. Newborn pups were around 1 m long and 18 kg in weight and were covered\nin dark fur.\nWhat became of this Caribbean seal? The only con\ufb01rmed sightings of this animal in the\nUnited States in the 1900s were sightings of a few individuals in the Dry Tortugas between\n1903 and 1906 and the killing of lone individuals by \ufb01shermen in Key West in 1906 and\n1922. The only other accounts of seals from the 1900s were o\ufb00 the Yucatan Peninsula,\none of which involved the killing of 200 seals in the Triangle Keys. Evidently the species\nhad already declined to very low numbers by the early part of the twentieth century due\nto relentless hunting. The Caribbean and its environs also underwent intense development\ntoward the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century. As",
+    "horns made the head very heavy, and the neck and shoulders of the animal were very strong\nto support the great weight. The powerful forequarters of Sivatherium were taller than the\nhindquarters, giving the animal a sloped back. Modern gira\ufb00es have horns, too, but they are\nrelatively short and covered in skin, and the males of these long-necked animals use these\nhorns during the breeding season to assert their dominance over their rivals by standing side\nby side and swinging their heads into the \ufb02anks of their opponents. Sivatherium must have\nalso used its horns during the breeding season, but the large horns may have simply been for\ndisplay. When two evenly matched males came face-to-face, they probably butted heads and\nwrestled with their ossicones locked together.\nSivatheres appear to have evolved in Asia around 12 million years ago (mid-Miocene).\nMiocene sivathere fossils are also known from Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Spain. The",
+    "The Rocky Mountain locust was small by typical locust standards, with an adult body\nlength of 20 to 35 mm, long wings that extended past the end of the abdomen, and the enlarged back legs common to most grasshoppers. What this insect lacked in individual size\nit more than made up for in the size of its aggregations. Locusts, for much of the time, live\ntheir lives in the same way as most other grasshoppers\u2014going about their business without\nbeing much of a nuisance to anyone\u2014but occasionally, their populations may become very\ndense, and this triggers a dramatic change. The locusts change color, their wings grow, and\nthey start to amass in swarms.\nThe swarms formed by the Rocky Mountain locust were incredible and probably represent some of the biggest aggregations of any land animal that has ever existed. A swarm\nobserved in Nebraska during the summer of 1874 was of staggering proportions. Dr. A. L.\nChild of the U.S. Signal Corps was charged with assessing just how big this swarm was,",
+    "with thorns and prickles. Such protection seems an extravagance on an island where there\nare no large native herbivores, but these defenses are probably reminders of the time when\nthese plants were at the mercy of these plant-nibbling birds that roamed all over Hawaii.\nFollowing the discovery of moa-nola remains, it was a mystery exactly what type of bird\nthey were. In general size and proportion, they were gooselike, but the bones of the moanalo had more in common with ducks. Today, it is possible to extract DNA from long-dead\nbones and compare this to DNA taken from living species to build a family tree and to tell\nus how long a species has been around. Ancient DNA cannot give us 100 percent accurate\nresults, but it can give us plausible estimates and scenarios. The DNA extracted from moanalo bones showed that these birds were indeed more closely related to the ducks and that\ntheir ancestor reached the Hawaiian Islands about 3.6 million years ago. What was their",
+    "183; convergent, 13, 40, 103, 142, 146, 170,\n172; evolutionary arms race, 103; horse, 33;\nhuman, 136, 137; hyena, 177, 178, 179; island\ndwar\ufb01ng, 118; sexual selection, 80; snakes, 158,\n160; speciation, 56, 123, 133, 142\nFalkland Islands, 36\u201338\nFalkland Island Fox. See Warrah\nFeathers, 15, 17, 40, 53, 84, 175\nFertile Crescent, 78\nFetus, 10, 13\nFiji, 3\nFire: bush\ufb01res, 25, 142, 147, 150, 152; human\nevolution,130, 136\nde Flacourt, Etienne, 73\nFleay, David, 12\nFloods, 40, 49\nFlores human, 118, 127\u201331, 137\nFlorida, 18; archeological sites, 41; fossils, 91;\ngeographic range, 9, 15, 100, 104, 119, 174\nFolklore and folk memory: Amerindians, 82,\n83, 91, 121; Australia, 145, 153, 160; Central\nAsia, 165; Himalayas, 181; Indonesia, 130;\nMadagascar, 45, 73; New Caledonia, 67\nFood chain, 27, 149, 167\nForest, 19, 38, 48, 57, 84, 145; bamboo, 180;\nBia\u0142owie\u017ca, 52; boreal, 127; cloud, 1\u20133;\ncypress, 28; deforestation, 14, 17, 51, 72,",
+    "Niche\u2014the way in which an organism makes a living in a habitat.\nNymph\u2014the immature stage of an insect that does not go through metamorphosis.\nOld World\u2014Europe, Africa, and Asia.\nOrdovician\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 443 to 488 million\nyears ago.\nOsteoarthritis\u2014a degenerative disease of the joints.\nOsteomyelitis\u2014a bacterial infection of the bone or bone marrow.\nOzone layer\u2014the layer of ozone gas high in the atmosphere that absorbs some of the potentially damaging ultraviolet radiation in sunlight.\nPaleoanthropologist\u2014a scientist who studies ancient humans.\nPaleontologist\u2014a scientist who studies prehistoric life forms on earth through the examination of fossils.\nPangaea\u2014the supercontinent comprising all the earth\u2019s landmasses that existed about\n250 million years ago.\nPelage\u2014the coat of a mammal, consisting of hair, fur, wool, or other soft covering, as distinct from bare skin.",
+    "e\ufb00ortless gliding on the thermal updrafts that rise up from the pampas. However, there\nis the one problem of how such a huge bird got airborne if it was on the ground. Massive\nwings cannot be \ufb02apped e\ufb00ectively when you are grounded, and it has been estimated that\nto get airborne, the teratorn needed to reach a ground speed of 40 km per hour. This is\nquite fast and beyond the capabilities of the teratorn\u2019s feet, which seem to be built for sedate\nstalking. The solution to this problem could have been the strong, incessant winds that\nblew across the South American pampas and Patagonia. The magni\ufb01cent teratorn may just\nhave needed to turn its outstretched wings into the wind, and the speed of the moving air\nprobably lifted it into the sky. It may have also become airborne by running down a slope\nor dropping from a high perch. The wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans), which has the\ngreatest wingspan of any living bird, takes to the air by stretching its wings and running\ninto the wind.",
+    "Since the 1960s, more skeletal remains have come to light, largely from cave deposits,\nand the marsupial lion has secured its place as one of the most remarkable mammals that\nhas ever lived. In terms of size, the marsupial lion was about the same size as a modern lioness. They were around 75 cm at the shoulder and 150 cm long, and it has been estimated\nthat the heaviest individuals were around 160 kg. Scientists can tell a great deal about where\nan animal spent its time by looking at its bones, and although it has been suggested that\nthis marsupial was an animal capable of climbing trees, it is now believed that the marsupial\nlion skulked around on the ground, where it ambushed its prey and perhaps dragged it into\ncaves or up into trees, as leopards do. Not only can we tell where an extinct animal lived, but\nwe can also get a good idea of how it moved by looking at the proportions of the limbs, and",
+    "an individual marsupial lion or thylacine could have overpowered and killed the largest,\nfully grown diprotodons, these extinct predators may have hunted in groups to bring down\nprey much larger than themselves. In Tasmania, the hind limb bones of one of the smaller\ndiprotodons were found with partially healed teeth marks, thought to be work of the marsupial lion. Saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) can still be seen in Australia today,\nand these giant reptiles must have been more than a match for an adult diprotodon. Thousands of years ago, crocodiles were not the only murderous reptiles capable of preying on\ndiprotodons: the giant monitor lizard, Megalania, also stalked the land (see the entry \u201cGiant\nMonitor Lizard\u201d later in this chapter).\nThese great, pouched plant munchers are, unfortunately, no longer with us. They disappeared, along with most of the Australian megafauna, around 30,000 to 40,000 years",
+    "species are pretty unfussy when it comes to food, and they go for just about any creature that\nwill \ufb01t inside their capacious mouth. There is no reason to believe the golden toad was any\ndi\ufb00erent, but its small size restricted it to small animals like insects and other invertebrates.\nLike much of the golden toad\u2019s biology, we also have a poor understanding of why it disappeared. We know that when it was \ufb01rst discovered by Western scientists in 1964, it was found\nin large numbers, but in a very small area. In 1987, 1,500 adults were seen, but then in both\n1988 and 1989, only one adult was seen. What happened to cause such a massive population\ncrash? We don\u2019t know for sure, but there are three main theories. It has been suggested that\nas the toad had such special breeding requirements\u2014short-lived pools and a narrow window\nof opportunity\u2014one erratic year of weather conditions would have completely scuppered",
+    "provided, not only in terms of fresh plant matter, but also in terms of the smaller animals\nthat were forced out of hiding by the smoke and \ufb02ames. With the arrival of Europeans, all\nthis changed, as the Aborigines themselves were pushed toward extinction. The way the\nAborigines managed the land ended, and any native animals that had previously bene\ufb01ted\nwere faced with some tough times. As the Europeans swept aside the old Aboriginal ways,\nthey replaced them with their own methods of taming the harsh land. They brought modern agriculture and a menagerie of domestic animals, including dogs, cats, foxes, sheep,\ngoats, and cattle. To a seasoned predator, such as a cat or fox, the pig-footed bandicoot\nmust have been a delightful morsel; however, hunting by introduced species was probably\nonly a minor factor in their extinction. Agriculture probably had the greatest e\ufb00ect on this\nspecies. Herds of sheep, goats, and cattle grazed the delicate plains of inland Australia,",
+    "pig-footed bandicoot, but it lacked a tail, and so after several false starts, where they\nbrought him other bandicoot species, he was delighted to see a pair of pig foots. He",
+    "and Environments: Biogeographic Relationships.\u201d Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology\n179 (2002): 189\u2013210; Tonni, E. P., A. L. Cione, and A. J. Figini. \u201cPredominance of Arid Climates\nIndicated by Mammals in the Pampas of Argentina during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.\u201d Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 147 (1999): 257\u201381.",
+    "Compared to remains of prehistoric mammals like the mammoths, fossils of the giant\nrhino are very rare, and our knowledge of this amazing, long-dead beast is based on only",
+    "173\n\n\f\n\n174\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nFurther Reading: Argot, C. \u201cEvolution of South American Mammalian Predators (Borhyaenoidea):\nAnatomical and Palaeobiological Implications.\u201d Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 140 (2004):\n487\u2013521.\n\nTERROR BIRD\n\nTerror Bird\u2014This terror bird (Titanis sp.) skull is\nalmost 50 cm long, and it clearly shows the massive bill, with its hooked tip, that was used to kill\nand dismember the unfortunate mammals of ancient South America. (Natural History Museum\nat Tring)\n\nTerror Bird\u2014This progressive reconstruction of a\nterror bird (Paraphysornis brasiliensis) demonstrates\nthe powerful legs and robust skeleton of these remarkable birds. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "the feet, and portions of the skull. Even though we only have fragments, it is possible to\npiece together a realistic reconstruction of the entire skeleton, and from there, we can build\nup a picture of how the living animal may have looked and how it may have lived.\nThe teratorns are related to the New World vultures, for example, the condors. Like the\nother teratorns, the magni\ufb01cent teratorn had a hooked bill, so it must have been a meat\neater, but how did it go about \ufb01nding its food? Three plausible ways of life have been proposed for this extinct bird. Some experts have suggested that this bird was an active hunter\nthat swooped down and caught animals as big as hares while on the wing, whereas others\nbelieve that it behaved in the same way as the modern-day condor, alighting near a carcass\nand feasting on the \ufb02esh. Another possibility is that this giant spent a lot of time stalking\nthe pampas on foot searching for tasty morsels. After carefully inspecting the skull bones",
+    "he killed seven of them. Reduced from an enormous \ufb02ock covering an area equivalent\nto around 38 football \ufb01elds, this sorry collection of birds was the last to be seen in\nNebraska. Since 1900, 20 Eskimo curlews have been collected by ornithologists, and\nin 1964, the last con\ufb01rmed individual of this species was shot in Barbados. Lonely individuals may still plow the old migration routes, but it is very likely this species is gone\nfor good.\n\u2022 Hunting undoubtedly had a huge e\ufb00ect on the Eskimo curlew, but it is also thought\nthat agriculture played a role in its demise. Much of the fertile prairie, the curlew\u2019s\nrefueling ground, was turned over to agriculture, and many of the insects on which\nthe birds fed dwindled in numbers. One example is the Rocky Mountain locust, which\nonce lived in swarms of staggering dimensions.\n\u2022 Birds that live in \ufb02ocks depend on strength in numbers for protection. A lone curlew would stand little or no chance of evading predators during its arduous migratory",
+    "Two hundred and forty miles o\ufb00 the northwest coast of Mexico lies the island of Guadalupe, a small volcanic island, 35 km long and about 9 km at its widest point. Even though it\nis barely a speck in the vastness of the Paci\ufb01c Ocean, Guadalupe was once home to a number of animals that were found nowhere else. One of the most famous Guadalupe residents\nwas the quelili. This bird of prey was very closely related to the caracaras of Central and\nSouth America, and perhaps the ancestors of the quelili found themselves on the remote,\nrocky outpost of Guadalupe after being blown from the mainland during a storm.\nThe caracaras are all meat eaters, but they don\u2019t have the hunting prowess of eagles or\nfalcons. They are quite feeble \ufb02yers and are unable to swoop on their prey from a great height.\nInstead, they prefer to catch and eat small prey that can be easily overpowered, and they often\nresort to scavenging. The English-speaking inhabitants of Guadalupe called the quelili the",
+    "niche of a large, diurnal, ground-dwelling predator. The prehistoric Cuba must have been\na paradise, but once again, humans arrived, bringing with them devastation and extinction.\nThe \ufb01rst humans to reach Cuba arrived from South America, Central America, and North\nAmerica in a complex series of migrations as long as 8,000 years ago. These people, known\nto anthropologists as the Ta\u00edno and Ciboney, took up residence and practiced hunter-gathering and agriculture. Ground-dwelling birds that have evolved on isolated islands have\nabsolutely no defense against humans. The giant owl, at around 9 kg, was a considerable\nsource of animal protein and one that was easy to catch. Although the islands of Cuba\nhave quite a large land area, the giant owl, as top predator, could never have existed in huge\nnumbers. Human hunting as well as habitat destruction must have decimated the populations of this bird, and the animals the humans brought with them made short work of the",
+    "bite. The pointy incisors were probably used to break the neck and sever the spinal cord, before\nthe heavy-duty premolars were used to bite chunks of \ufb02esh from the dead body of the prey.\nBones can provide us with a sketch of how an animal lived, but for the \ufb01ne detail, we\nmust resort to deduction. For example, we can never know for sure what animals the marsupial lion preyed on or how it hunted them, but its size and teeth lead us to the conclusion\nthat it must have killed and eaten fairly large animals. In the same cave deposits that have\nyielded the remains of the marsupial lion, paleontologists have found the hind leg bones of\nkangaroos and wombats bearing large, opposing, V-shaped cuts that perfectly match the\ncheek teeth of the marsupial lion, suggesting that they were the victims of this predator. We\ncan be fairly certain that the marsupial lion was a specialist predator because it possessed so",
+    "set foot on Stephens Island, and the animals on this forested outcrop were woefully ill",
+    "WOOLLY MAMMOTH\n\nWoolly Mammoth\u2014A herd of woolly mammoth wondering across the steppe must have been an imposing sight. (Phil Miller)\n\n73\n\n\f\n\n74\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "For hundreds of thousands of years, this immense bird graced the skies of North America, and it was undoubtedly known to Amerindians, who apparently hunted it. Although\nMerriam\u2019s teratorn may have had a similar lifestyle to the living bald eagle, it must have been\nheavily dependent on carrion, particularly the carcasses of large mammals, as its demise\ncoincides with the disappearance of the large North American animals. With suitable carcasses becoming scarcer and scarcer and humans hunting them for food, the long-lived but\nslow-breeding Merriam\u2019s teratorn was doomed, and sadly, it died out.\n\u2022 Merriam\u2019s teratorn was the largest \ufb02ying bird ever seen alive by humans, and it is very\npossible that this extinct giant could be the inspiration for the mythological thunderbird. In Amerindian stories, this enormous bird is said to cause thunder by \ufb02apping\nits wings, and its likeness is often seen surmounting totem poles. Perhaps the teratorn",
+    "capable of making and using weapons (see the entry \u201cHomo erectus\u201d in chapter 6), but was\nthis hominid capable of fending o\ufb00 a group of 150-kg bone breakers? Five hundred thousand years ago, our ancestors were on the menu for lots of di\ufb00erent predators, and even if\ngiant hyenas never hunted Homo erectus directly, the carcass of one of these hominids, killed\nby one of the big cats, was certainly big enough to arouse the interest of these scavengers.\nThe most recent known remains of the giant hyena are around 500,000 years old, but\nwe have no \ufb01rm date for when this species became extinct. We do know that the youngest\nfossils of the giant hyena correspond to a time when the earth was entering another of the\nglaciations that have punctuated the last 2 million years. The climate became drier and the\nverdant habitats available to the big herbivores dwindled. As their food disappeared, many\nof these megaherbivores disappeared, and so, too, did their predators, including some of the",
+    "The discoveries include 59 species of mammal and 135 species of bird. Some of the animals recovered from the pits are extinct\u2014for example, the saber tooth cat Smilodon fatalis, ground sloths,\nmastodons, and mammoths\u2014while others are still around today, for example, pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), elk (Cervus Canadensis), coyote (Canis latrans), and bobcat (Lynx rufus). The\nasphalt deposits have yielded the remains of more than 1,600 dire wolves and around 1,200 saber\ntooth cats. Apart from being stained brown after several millennia entombed in tar, the asphalt deposit bones are brilliantly preserved, and in some cases, tar has seeped into the cranial cavity of the\nskull to produce an endocast of the brain.\nThe bones of the large extinct animals discovered in the asphalt deposits have always attracted\nthe most attention, especially the perfectly preserved skulls of the saber tooth cat, but relatively",
+    "unique, plant-eating mammals eventually became extinct around 10,000 years ago.\n\u2022 Darwin\u2019s discovery of the \ufb01rst litoptern fossils was made during his voyage on HMS\nBeagle. The ship stopped for some time in Patagonia, allowing Darwin to explore these\nlands, and it was then that he discovered and excavated the bones of several extinct\nSouth American mammals.",
+    "Lange, I., and D. S. Norton. Ice Age Mammals of North America. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press,\n2002.\nLister, A., and P. Bahn. Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.",
+    "suggests that the scimitar cats may have been quite uncommon, albeit widespread,\npredators that stalked the Northern Hemisphere up until the end of the ice age.\n\u2022 As with the last saber tooth cats, we cannot be certain what caused the demise of the\nscimitar cats, but we cannot rule out the e\ufb00ect of humans hunting the prey of these\nanimals, eventually depriving them of food.\n\u2022 The Pleistocene abounded with a variety of big cats, but today, there are only eight species of big feline. The Americas have lost all of their big cats, except the cougar (Puma\nconcolor) and jaguar (Panthera onca).\nFurther Reading: Reumer, J.W.F., L. Rook, K. Van Der Borg, K. Post, D. Mol, and J. De Vos. \u201cLate\nPleistocene Survival of the Saber-Toothed Cat Homotherium in Northwestern Europe.\u201d Journal of",
+    "Chytrid fungi\u2014a type of fungi that infects the soft skin of amphibians, leaving them open\nto other opportunistic infections.\nCloaca\u2014the common opening for the genital, urinary, and digestive tract that is found in\nall \ufb01sh, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and monotreme mammals.\nCloning\u2014the technique of producing an exact copy of an animal from the DNA inside one\nof its cells.\nCloud forest\u2014forest growing in mountainous areas that is often shrouded in cloud.\nCoccoliths\u2014individual calcium carbonate plates from the shell that surround certain kinds\nof single-celled algae.\nComb\u2014the \ufb02eshy protuberances on the head of certain birds.\nContinental drift\u2014the process by which the continental plates move around on the lava\nthat forms the earth\u2019s mantle.\nConvergent evolution\u2014in evolutionary biology, the process whereby organisms not closely\nrelated independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.",
+    "teats in its con\ufb01nes. As its appearance suggests, the thylacine was a predator in the same vein\nas other large, terrestrial, mammalian carnivores, but it had some unique features. Its jaws,\noperated by powerful muscles, could open very wide indeed, and its muscular, relatively\nrigid tail, similar to a kangaroo\u2019s, acted like a prop so the thylacine could balance quite easily\non its back legs, and even hop when it needed to. We can only make educated guesses as to\nthe animals it preyed on, but on the Australian mainland, it may have favored kangaroos\nand wallabies, whereas its diet on Tasmania probably consisted of just about any animal\nsmaller than itself as well as carrion. How did the thylacine catch its prey? Again, we have\nto rely on accounts from the nineteenth and early twentieth century, but these vary, with\nsome suggesting the thylacine would pursue its prey over long distances, while others report",
+    "ecosystem.\nAs with other top predators, Haast\u2019s eagle was probably never very common, and because of this, the remains of this fearsome predator are scarce. Three complete skeletons are\nknown (the latest of which was discovered in 1990) as well as numerous fragmentary remains. The bones show just how big this eagle was. It has been estimated that a fully grown\nfemale weighed 10 to 15 kg and was 1.1 m tall, with a wingspan of around 2.6 m. This is\napproaching the limit of how heavy a bird dependent on \ufb02apping \ufb02ight and maneuverability\ncan be. For comparison, the heaviest living eagle, the harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja), weighs\naround 8 kg. The skull of Haast\u2019s eagle was around 15 cm long, but the bill was not as bulky\nas those of large, living eagles. Its claws are thought to have been tremendously powerful,\nand they were tipped with enormous, 7-cm-long talons.",
+    "MORE THAN 12,500 YEARS AGO\n\nWonambi\u2014The remains of a Wonambi lie on the floor of the Naracoorte Caves in South Australia.\n(Rod Wells)",
+    "According to historic accounts, aurochs lived in family groups that were made up of\nfemales, calves, and young bulls. As the bulls grew older, they formed groups of their own,\nand the large, mature bulls were solitary, only mixing with others of their kind during the\nbreeding season. Like other types of cattle, the aurochs were completely herbivorous and\nlived on a diet of grasses, leaves, fruits such as acorns, and even the bark of trees and bushes\nduring the harsh winter months.\nThe aurochs, particularly the bulls, were said to be very aggressive, and they were apparently very di\ufb03cult to domesticate, but about 9,000 years ago, in the Middle East, early\nhumans did exactly that, giving us many of the cattle breeds we have today. A large animal\nwith an aggressive nature would not have been easy to look after, so our ancestors selectively\nbred these animals to make them more docile. Selective breeding was also used to produce",
+    "Countless books have been written about the dinosaurs, the reptiles that ruled the earth\nfor about 160 million years, yet remarkably few books have been written about the many\nstrange, \ufb01erce, and enormous beasts that have disappeared in the time humans and our\nrecent ancestors have been around. The earth is certainly a poorer place for their passing,\nbut it\u2019s fascinating to think that our forebears knew these animals\u2014even worshipped them\nand hunted them. Extinct Animals is an exploration of these creatures, from the giant, \ufb02esheating birds and saber-toothed marsupials of South America to the golden toad of Costa\nRica, which became extinct as recently as 1989.\nA book on extinct animals would not be complete without a little about the process\nof extinction itself, and so in the introduction, you \ufb01nd out about how the earth has been\nrocked by numerous mass extinction events. The last of these, the seventh extinction, is",
+    "mainland Australia and the Indonesian portion of New Guinea. Until a live specimen of the\nthylacine is presented or other irrefutable evidence is declared, we have to conclude that this\nenigmatic species is sadly extinct.\n\u2022 The demise of the thylacine on the Australian mainland is attributed to the arrival and\ndispersal of Aborigines and the animals they brought with them, notably the dingo.\nThis may only be part of the picture as the striped coat of the thylacine suggests this\nanimal was adapted to forest. A drying of the global climate thousands of years ago\nmay have caused Australian forest habitats to contract, and the thylacine may have\nbeen forced into areas to which it was not well adapted. This loss of habitat was compounded by the large-scale changes that followed in the wake of the \ufb01rst human invasion of Australia.\n\u2022 The thylacine, when compared to the wolf, is one of the best examples of convergent",
+    "kiwis\u2014and all of them had very robust legs ending in powerful, clawed feet. Much of the\nhead, throat, and lower legs were featherless. The wings of the moa had become so useless\nthat they had shrunk away to almost nothing and only remained as small vestigial \ufb02aps beneath the hairlike plumage.\nThe moa were all herbivores, and as they diversi\ufb01ed into a range of species, they probably\nfed on di\ufb00erent plants in di\ufb00erent habitats. Some of the species may have grazed the plants\nin the lowlands, while other species nibbled low-growing herbs in the uplands. Although\nNew Zealand was once free of mammalian predators, the moa did have an enemy in the\nshape of Haast\u2019s eagle (see the later entry in this chapter), an impressive aerial predator that\nprobably assaulted the moa from the air and killed them with its powerful crushing talons.\nThe only real defense the moa had against this predator were their powerful legs, which\nbestowed them with a good turn of speed when the need arose.",
+    "marsupials, big \ufb02ightless birds, and monster reptiles. Today, these are all gone, and the\nlargest living marsupial is the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus). A fully grown male stands\naround 1.8 m tall and weighs in at about 90 kg. Thousands of years ago, the red kangaroo\nwas even larger than it is today, but it was still dwarfed by the largest of the diprotodons,\nwhich were up to 1.8 m at the shoulder, 4 m in length, and 3 tonnes in weight\u2014the only\nland animals alive today that are larger are the elephant, hippopotamus, and two species of\nrhinoceros. These giant marsupials looked a lot like big wombats, and the living wombats\nand koalas are actually the closest living relatives of these extinct beasts. There were several\nspecies of diprotodons\u2014experts disagree on the exact number\u2014but they ranged in size\nfrom 500-kg, bear-sized creatures to the aforementioned giants.\nFor hundreds of thousands of years, these giant marsupials were very widespread, as",
+    "slaughter and collection continued, and by the 1880s, it was very clear that the Carolina\nparakeet was very rare. In 1913, the last Carolina parakeet in the wild, a female, was collected near Orlando in Florida, and only four years later, the last captive individual, a male\nby the name of Inca, died in Cincinnati Zoo only six months after the death of his lifelong\npartner, Lady Jane. They had lived together in captivity for 32 years. The sad and needless extinction of this interesting bird mirrors the demise of the passenger pigeon, and\nironically, both species met their end in a small cage in the same zoo, poignant reminders\nof human ignorance, greed, and disregard for the other species with which we share this\nplanet.\n\u2022 Sightings of the Carolina parakeet were reported in the 1920s and 1930s, but it is\nvery likely that these were misidenti\ufb01cations of other species that had escaped from\ncaptivity.\n\u2022 Parrots, as a group, are among the most threatened of all birds. There are around 350",
+    "bestowed them with a good turn of speed when the need arose.\nThe bones and bits of mummi\ufb01ed moa tissue that have been found tell us where the\nanimal lived and what the animal looked like, but it can only partially illuminate the life of\nthese long-dead animals. Like other birds, the moa laid eggs\u2014big eggs (the biggest moa\negg has the same capacity as about 100 chicken eggs)\u2014and as building a nest up a tree was\ncompletely out of the question, these must have been deposited on the ground, probably in\na simple scrape or on a mound of gathered vegetation. Unusually, the female moa was much\nlarger that the male, and this suggests that they must have had some interesting breeding\nsystem the likes of which we can only guess, but it is reasonable to assume that the female\nprotected a territory and attracted her suitors\u2014a reversal of what is seen in many bird species, where the male has to attract mates.\nWhat happened to these feathered giants? The simple answer is humans. Polynesians",
+    "of very venomous animals, and perhaps the giant monitor\u2019s saliva was poisonous as well as\nteeming with dangerous bacteria. We have no way of knowing for sure if this is how this lizard dispatched its prey, but the image of a 7-m-long lizard tasting the air with its big forked\ntongue, searching for the scent of the doomed animal it has just bitten, is a tantalizing one.\nAs the giant monitor lizard was so large, it could probably survive on very little food,\nperhaps only needing to feed once every month, or even less. However, when hunger started\nto bite and an attack ended in a kill, the giant monitor could have eaten a huge amount of\nfood in one go. In a single meal, the Komodo dragon can gorge 80 percent of its own body\nweight in food, which is made possible by its very stretchy stomach. The Komodo dragon\nis also very indiscriminate when it\u2019s tearing at the dead body of its victim and everything is",
+    "predators, 90, 110, 169. See also Rancho\nLa Brea\nSaltbush, 144, 162\nSardinia, 75\nSasquatch, 181\nScavenger: Australia, 162; bird, 27, 147; bird\nbehavior, 57; hominids, 136; marsupial, 140.\nSee also Giant short-faced bear; Giant hyena;\nMagni\ufb01cent teratorn; Merriam\u2019s teratorn;\nRancho La Brea\nScientists: anthropologists, 137\u201338;\nbiomechanics, 90, 95, 112, 169; climatologists,\n121\u201323; evolutionary biologists, 102;\ngeologists, 20; herpetologists, 1\u20133; molecular\nbiologists, 13, 34, 57, 76; paleoecologists, 52,\n87, 147, 155; paleontologists, 129\u201330, 141,\n161\u2013 62; population biologists, 17; selective\nbreeding, 33; specimen collecting, 61, 156;\ntaxonomists, 53, 69, 105, 160\nScimitar cat, 94 \u201397, 178; injuries on frozen\ncarcasses, 105; predators of the megafauna,\n126; remains, 19\nSea birds. See Warrah",
+    "capable of short sprints, but it\u2019s very unlikely that they were capable of long-distance pursuits. Like almost all other cats, the scimitar cats were probably ambush predators, using\nstealth to get within striking distance before launching a lightning attack. Interestingly, the\nstructure of the scimitar cat\u2019s rear suggests that they were not very good at leaping. The large\nnasal cavity probably also served to warm incoming air before it went into the lungs.\nAs the teeth of the scimitar cats are very di\ufb00erent from those of the saber tooth cats, it\nhas been argued that the former had a distinct killing technique to that used by its bulky\nrelative. With this said, we can never be sure how the scimitar cats caught their prey, but\nthe amazing haul of bones discovered in Friesenhahn Cave, Texas, includes a huge number\nof bones from what could have been prey animals. This unprecedented haul includes lots\nof milk teeth from more than 70 young mammoths. Could the scimitar cat have been a",
+    "this scenario, a plume of hot magma from the deep mantle rose up and ruptured the crust,\nappearing as a series of eruptions over a huge area. Eruptions of this type do not end after\na few days, and it appears that the basalt of the Siberian Traps was spewed out over a million years. Imagine all the dust and gases ejected into the atmosphere by an outpouring of\n3 million km3 of lava (for comparison, the largest eruption in very recent history occurred in\nIceland, and it produced 12 km3). Mount Pinatubo ejected only a tiny fraction of the gases\nand dust produced by the Siberian Traps eruptions, yet this was enough to lower global\ntemperatures by 0.5 degrees Celsius, which is not an inconsiderable drop for living things.",
+    "\ufb01nd their way into the ground, the by natural processes. They lay undisturbed for thousands\nacids produced by decomposing plant of years until paleontologists discovered them during exmatter rapidly dissolve them away to cavations. (Texas Natural Science Center)\nnothing.\nIn the rare event of a bone surviving, or even more remotely, an entire skeleton surviving the rigors of scavengers, the elements, and bacteria, something rather unique must happen. The remains\nmust be buried quickly after an animal dies, perhaps by a freak landslide or a fall of volcanic ash, in\nsticky asphalt, or in a bog. With the remains well buried and protected, the process of fossilization\ncan begin. Water percolating through the sediment or soil in which the bone lies carries silica and\nother materials into the pores in the bones, strengthening them and giving them the appearance of\nstone. Many of the animals in this book did not die long enough ago for their bones to have become",
+    "occur at regular intervals. It has been proposed that these marks are scars, evidence of the\ndamage caused by \ufb01ghts between males during the breeding season. Male mastodons must\nhave locked tusks with the intention of driving the tip of their weapons into the heads or\n\ufb02anks of their opponents, incapacitating or even killing them. These violent struggles forced\nthe underside of the tusk against its socket, damaging a point on the adornment that was\nrevealed as it grew. Annual \ufb01ghting led to a series of scars on the tusk. This is only a theory,\nbut it o\ufb00ers a tantalizing insight into the behavior of these long-extinct giants.\nWhat became of the mastodon? How come North America is no longer home to these\ngreat beasts? The honest answer is that we simply don\u2019t know; however, numerous theories attempt to explain their disappearance. Climate change has been cited as a culprit, even",
+    "Cave, Zhoukoudian\nChytrid fungi, 3, 5\u2013 6\nCincinnati Zoo, 15, 16\nClimate, 80, 182; cold, 74\nClimate change: Africa, 44; American big cats\n103, 106; Australia, 13, 142, 144, 147, 150,\n152, 155; bears, 116, 127; bison, 133; causes\nof 121\u201323; cyclical, 75, 93, 98, 101, 108, 165,\n178; decline of amphibians, 3; formation of oil\ndeposits, 86; giant camel, 183; hominids, 139;\nmastodon, 98\u201399; recent glaciation, 82, 87, 90,\n113; South America, 110, 170, 175. See also\nCave, Nullarbor Plain\nCloaca, 156, 157\nCloning, 13, 76\nClovis Culture, 133\nColbert, Edwin, 76, 78\nColorado, 13, 21, 22\nColumbus, Christopher, 9\nCompetition: absence of, 37, 72, 98, 118;\ndomesticated animals, 51; humans, 9, 10, 106,\n115, 136, 142; other species, 78, 127, 167, 173.\nSee also Introduced species\nCondor, 119, 120, 169, 170\nContinental drift, 45\nConvergent evolution. See Evolution\nCook, Captain James, 70",
+    "Apart from its propensity for forming huge \ufb02ocks, the passenger pigeon was quite similar\nin appearance to a domestic pigeon, although it was considerably more graceful, with a slender body and long tail. Most pigeons are built for speed, but the passenger pigeon was a real\nracer. Its tapering wings, powerful breast muscles, and slender body gave it a real turn of\nspeed. There is anecdotal evidence that these birds could reach speeds of 160 km per hour,\nalthough they usually \ufb02ew at 100 km per hour. The aerial abilities of the passenger pigeon\ncame in very handy as it was a migratory species. As the summer arrived in the northern latitudes, the birds would leave their wintering grounds in southern North America and head\nfor the lush forests of the United States and Canada, although their aggregations appeared\nto be particularly dense on the eastern seaboard. They came to these immense forests (only",
+    "they only reached full size at about the age of 10, with several more years passing before they\nreached sexual maturity. Therefore any factors that had an e\ufb00ect on the number of adults in\nthe population, such as hunting and habitat loss, had a drastic e\ufb00ect on the population as a\nwhole. It has recently been speculated that moa populations were on the decline before the\narrival of humans, possibly due to disease transported by migrating birds gone astray or even\ndue to explosive volcanic activity. Regardless of the possibility of a dwindling population, the\nmoas were wiped out around 160 years following the arrival of humans\u2014a startlingly short\nperiod of time and yet another demonstration of how destructive our species can be.\n\u2022 It was once thought that the closet living relatives of the moa are the kiwis, but the\ncurrent view is that they were more closely related to the emu of Australia and the cassowary of Australia and New Guinea.",
+    "THE SEVENTH EXTINCTION\nAs strange as it may sound, we could actually be living in the middle of a mass extinction\nright now. In recent times, there have been no colossal outpourings of lava, nor have there\nbeen any huge asteroid impacts, so what\u2019s the cause of this, the seventh, mass extinction?\nWe are. Humans almost certainly contributed to the demise of some of the Pleistocene\nanimals, some of which appear in this book. More recently, around 780 species have become\nextinct since 1500, but as the vast majority of species disappear without us knowing anything about it, the real number is far higher. Scientists estimate that during the last century,\nsomewhere in the region of 20,000 to 2 million species became extinct, and in the next 100\nyears, humanity\u2019s wholesale destruction of habitats around the globe could result in the\nextinction of 50 percent of all species.\nThe problem is that the human population is growing out of control. In around",
+    "edge, reduced to a shadow of its former glory\u2014perhaps a few species clinging on to life in\nwhat had become a very harsh world indeed. We may only be able to guess at the causes of\nthese extinctions, but the fossil record gives us a glimpse of these times. To those who can\ndecipher it, the fossil record from around these periods shows an unprecedented die-o\ufb00 of\nspecies, with many disappearing completely. The fossil record is a story in stone, shell, and",
+    "133\n\n\f\n\n134\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nhundreds of bison, which goes to show how important these animals were to the survival of prehistoric humans in North America.\n\u2022 A species of bison also survives in Europe. The European bison, or wisent (Bison\nbonasus), is a forest-dwelling animal that once ranged over much of Eurasia. Hunting depleted its numbers, until the last wild specimen was killed in 1927. Fortunately,\nseveral wisent were kept in zoos and private collections, and these were used to start\na reintroduction program. Today, thanks to reintroduction and protection, the largest\nEuropean land animal can be found in several eastern European countries.\nFurther Reading: Guthrie, R. D. \u201cBison and Man in North America.\u201d Canadian Journal of Anthropology 1 (1980): 55\u201373; McDonald, J. N. North American Bison, Their Classification and Evolution.\nBerkeley: University of California Press, 1981.",
+    "\u2022 The line of mammals that gave rise to the living rhinoceri we know today\u2014the white\nrhino, the black rhino (Diceros bicornis), the Indian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), the\nJavan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) and the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)\u2014has, over immense stretches of time, been represented by some bizarre and\namazing animals, including the largest land mammal ever to have lived: the truly immense Indricotherium, which was about 5 m at the shoulder, 8 m long, and 20 tonnes in\nweight.\n\u2022 The horn of the giant rhino re\ufb02ects the exaggeration in reproductive adornments that\ncan be seen in many types of prehistoric mammal\u2014from the giant tusks of the mammoths to the remarkable antlers of the giant deer. The giant rhino\u2019s horn was crucial\nin winning a mate during the breeding season as males could have sized each other up\nbased on the size of their adornment. When \ufb01ghts between males did erupt, the horn",
+    "jaw. The damage had healed, leaving large swellings on the mandible. We know that living\nlions are kicked in the face by struggling prey, and it seems that the American lion was also\nmet with a hoof in the face when it was tackling the large herbivores of prehistoric North\nAmerica. Not only did these cats get injured by their prey, but they also su\ufb00ered from various diseases. One specimen from the Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming, has the telltale signs\nof osteoarthritis around the knee joint. This painful condition undoubtedly a\ufb00ected the\nability of this individual to hunt e\ufb00ectively. Fast pursuits may have been impossible for it, so\ninstead, it may have relied on scavenging, and perhaps it was the smell of decaying \ufb02esh that\ndrew it to its death in the huge pitfall trap that is Natural Trap Cave.\nLike all the other American megafauna, we will never know the exact cause of the demise of this cat. As a species, the American lion survived for many thousands of years,",
+    "Scientific name: Bison latifrons\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Artiodactyla\nFamily: Bovidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The giant bison became extinct sometime between 21,000\nand 30,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? This bison ranged widely across what are now the United States and\nsouthern Canada.\nThe modern American bison (Bison bison) is the quintessential American mammal. It is\nthought that 60 to 100 million bison roamed North America before the arrival of Europeans.\nAs the settlers moved westward, they ravaged the bison herds until the species teetered on\nthe brink of extinction. Fortunately, the bison received protection, and today, there are strong\npopulations of this animal in several national parks in the United States and Canada as well\nas those living on private ranches.\nThe bison we know today is one of the last vestiges of the American megafauna, and",
+    "this American species was not the biggest terror bird, it must have still been a terrifying animal. Its vital statistics are impressive: 1.4 to 2.5 m tall and 150 kg in weight. It also had an\nimmense, hooked bill, and with such an impressive beak, it could have probably swallowed\na lamb-sized animal in one gulp.\nAlthough we can piece together the skeletons of the terror birds, it\u2019s impossible to know\nwhat their plumage was like. However, we can look at living birds for clues, and if the other\n\ufb02ightless birds are anything to go by, the terror bird\u2019s feathers may have been rather hairlike.\nLike the vast majority of \ufb02ightless birds, terror birds had stubby little wings, but what they\nlacked in the wing department they more than made up for with their long, powerful legs,\nwhich ended in large feet and fearsome claws. These legs gave these animals a good turn\nof speed, and it has been estimated that some species of terror bird could reach speeds of",
+    "Before the discovery of the Flores human, the accepted theory was that brain size and\nintelligence in hominids went hand in hand (the bigger the brain, the more intelligent\nthe hominid). The bones unearthed in Liang Bua cave have challenged this long-held\nbelief. Perhaps brain size is not the last word when it comes to intelligence; perhaps the\nmost crucial factor is the way in which all the cells in the brain are linked together. This is\nbut one of the many contentions surrounding the discovery and study of this fascinating\nskeleton.\nThe scientists who made this initial discovery plan to return to the site to make more excavations. If they \ufb01nd more miniature skeletons, or even just skulls, it will prove beyond any\nreasonable doubt that Flores was once home to a species of tiny human. If this is correct,\nthen what happened to these diminutive humans? Around 12,000 years ago, an immense",
+    "climate is often cited as the cause of the extinction of the megafauna this huge island once supported. The Nullarbor caves suggest otherwise. The animals and plants of Western Australia were\nwell suited to arid conditions, and the disappearance of the bizarre beasts from this arid plain may be\ndue to wild\ufb01res (natural or caused by humans) that wiped out many of the plant species, leaving the\nimpoverished landscape we see today. With their food dwindling, the herbivores of the Nullarbor\ndied out, closely followed by the predators and scavengers.\nFurther Reading: Prideaux, G. J., J. A. Long, L. K. Ayli\ufb00e, J. C. Hellstrom, B. Pillans, W. E. Boles, M. N.\nHutchinson, R. G. Roberts, M. L. Cupper, L. J. Arnolds, P. D. Devine, and N. M. Warburton. \u201cAn Arid-Adapted\nMiddle Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna from South-Central Australia.\u201d Nature 445 (2007): 422\u201325.",
+    "until its food was within range and simply lunged at it with an open mouth. With its prey\npartially trapped, the frog would shove the rest of the victim\u2019s body into its mouth using\nits forelimbs. Even though this frog was a capable predator, it was very small, and it was a\ntasty morsel for a range of predators. Herons and eels were partial to this amphibian, but it\ndid have a useful defense if it was grabbed by one of these animals: mucus. All amphibians\nhave skin glands that produce mucus to keep their skin moist as well as for protection. The\ngastric brooder could produce lots of very slippery mucus, which made it very hard for a\npredator to get a good grip.\nIn most respects, the gastric-brooding frog was like most other frogs, but what set it\napart was the way it reproduced. Mating was never observed in this species, but it is known\nthat the female laid between 26 and 40 eggs and that these were then fertilized by the male.",
+    "eagle (Aquila morphnoides), were perhaps caught in a storm and blown o\ufb00 course, eventually \ufb01nding themselves in the strange land of New Zealand, where their bird relatives quite\nliterally ran the roost. This land was full of opportunity. Many of the native New Zealand\nbirds were \ufb02ightless herbivores and omnivores. There was a vacancy in New Zealand for\nan aerial predator that could tackle the numerous ground-dwelling birds, and the little lost\neagle evolved rapidly to \ufb01ll this niche. For much of the time, evolution moves at quite a slow\npace, but if there\u2019s a space in an ecosystem, a species can evolve very rapidly to \ufb01ll it. This\nis what happened with the ancestors of Haast\u2019s eagle, as a small bird of prey evolved into\nthe largest eagle that has ever lived and the only eagle that has been the top predator in its\necosystem.",
+    "vertebrae of its back do bear long spines, just like those of the modern camels, but this may\nhave been for the attachment of the nuchal ligament that holds the head up. Camels also\nhave a battery of adaptations that enable them to survive without water for several days at\na time. They can lose up to 25 percent of their body weight in moisture before they get into\ndi\ufb03culties. In contrast, most other mammals die if they lose only 3 to 4 percent. The camel\nlimits the moisture it loses in its breath and produces viscous urine, both of which cut down\non water loss. Dehydration in other mammals results in the blood getting progressively\nthicker, straining the heart until it can no longer beat e\ufb00ectively, but the camels get around\nthis problem with red blood cells that are oval, rather than round, and it is thought that\nthis enables the camel\u2019s blood to keep \ufb02owing even when the animal is dehydrated. When",
+    "chambered stomach that allows plant food to be broken down by the micro-organisms.\nKangaroos have a similar system, and most of their micro-organisms are to be found in the\n\ufb01rst chamber of their complex stomach.\nAlthough the giant kangaroo was undoubtedly a herbivore, it is di\ufb03cult to explain why\nit had forward-facing eyes. Living kangaroos\u2019 eyes are on the sides of their heads, giving\nthem a 300 degree \ufb01eld of view, excellent for spotting predators. Perhaps the giant kangaroo was simply too big for the Australian predators to tackle and therefore had no need\nfor a wide \ufb01eld of view. There were once numerous large predators in Australia, and only\nadult giant kangaroos may have had some protection from these animals because of their\nsize. Forward-facing eyes gave the giant kangaroo a good degree of binocular vision and a\nbetter perception of distance than kangaroos with a wide \ufb01eld of view. This could be very",
+    "we still see today.\nThe living beavers are unique for their building abilities. They construct lodges of saplings, branches, and twigs to live in and dams that curb the \ufb02ow of rivers and streams.",
+    "are no minerals, for example, apatite, that can be replaced by other minerals to form fossils.\nDue to this quirk of anatomy, all that remains to testify to the existence of this fantastic\n\ufb01sh are its immense teeth and disc-shaped parts of the vertebrae known as centra. Many\nteeth have been found, some of which have been recovered in dredges of sediment from the\nseabed, while others have been found in quarries in various locations around the globe. The\nappearance of the shark has been extrapolated from these remains. The teeth can be used to\nreconstruct the upper and lower jaw, and a body can be built around what must have been a\ncavernous mouth.\nThe adult size of this shark is a bone of contention among experts. Some recent calculations estimate the body length of this animal to be 16 m, with a weight of approximately\n48 tonnes. By comparison, the largest great white sharks alive today are around 6 m long",
+    "5\n\n\f\n\n6\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\n\u2022 The chytrid fungus is not native to Australia, but it has somehow been transported\nthere either by the pet or laboratory animal trade. The gastric-brooding frog probably\nhad little or no immunity to the chytrid fungi. In a situation like this, a disease-causing\norganism can spread very rapidly indeed.\n\u2022 In Darwin\u2019s frog, the tadpoles develop in the vocal sacs of their father, a strategy that\ndoesn\u2019t involve periodic starvation like gastric brooding.\nFurther Reading: Corben, C. J., M. J. Ingram, and M. J. Tyler. \u201cGastric Brooding: Unique Form\nof Parental Care in an Australian Frog.\u201d Science 186 (1974): 946\u201347; Tyler, M. J., D. J. Shearman,\nR. Franco, P. O\u2019Brien, R. F. Seamark, and R. Kelly. \u201cInhibition of Gastric Acid Secretion in the Gastric Brooding Frog Rheobatrachus silus.\u201d Science 220 (1983): 607\u201310.",
+    "to which these birds belong, the perching birds (passerines), has only a couple of \ufb02ightless\nrepresentatives.\nThe only information we have on the way the Stephens Island wren lived comes from\nthe limited observations made by Lyall. According to the only person who saw this species\nalive, it \u201cran like a mouse\u201d and \u201cdid not \ufb02y at all.\u201d This is about the sum of the information\nwe have on the living bird, but the structure of the bird\u2019s skeleton and plumage allows us\nto investigate if Lyall was correct. The skeleton of this tiny bird bears all the hallmarks of a\nspecies that had given up the power of \ufb02ight, and the plumage does not appear to be up to\nthe job of \ufb02apping \ufb02ight. We can\u2019t rule out the possibility that this tiny bird ran and leapt or\nglided to catch aerial insects, but it would not have been capable of \ufb02apping its wings to any\ngreat e\ufb00ect. The great tragedy is that this tiny bird died out before we could learn anything\nmore about it.",
+    "large birds. On their island, surrounded by abundant food and few animals to fear, especially when fully grown, the elephant birds were a successful group of animals. Then, around\n2000 years ago, their easy existence was overturned as humans from Africa, Indonesia, and\nthe islands around Australia reached this isolated land of unique natural treasures. Humans\nby themselves are one thing, but thousands of years ago, humans did not travel alone\u2014they\ntook their domestic animals with them. The elephant birds, in their 60 million years of\nevolution, never saw a human, and they wouldn\u2019t have recognized them as dangerous. The\nhumans, on the other hand, saw the elephant birds as a bounteous supply of food. Hunting\nhad a disastrous e\ufb00ect on the populations of these giant birds. They had evolved in the absence of predation and, as a result, probably reproduced very slowly. To add insult to injury,\nthe animals the humans brought with them\u2014pigs, dogs, rats, and so on\u2014made short work",
+    "\ufb02anks of mountains as the sun warms the ground. High in the air, the condor can scan the\nground below for its favorite food: carrion. When Merriam\u2019s teratorn was initially described\nin 1909, it was assumed that the living bird was primarily a scavenger due to its similarities with the living condor. Many decades later, paleontologists closely studied the skulls of\nthis extinct bird and came to the conclusion that in life, Merriam\u2019s teratorn was an active\npredator that spent a good deal of time on the ground, prowling areas of short vegetation\nfor small mammals and other delicious morsels. Other experts have compared the skull of\nMerriam\u2019s teratorn to skulls from a number of other predatory birds, including living and\nextinct species. These comparisons indicate that the extinct giant may have been a specialist\n\ufb01sh predator. If this was the case, it may have had trouble plucking prey from the surface of",
+    "Haast\u2019s eagle, 54, 55\u201358\nHabitat destruction, 60\u2013 62; amphibian\nextinctions, 3, 5; bird extinctions, 15; 17,\n26\u201328, 54, 57, 85, 147; mammal extinctions,\n34; 51, 72, 103, 145, 152, 158; reptile\nextinctions, 152\nHabitat requirement, 2, 51, 100, 101, 106,\n167, 172\nHawaii, 10, 63\u2013 65\nHerbivore, 115; birds, 53\u201355; 63\u2013 65, 67, 147;\ndung, 118: extinction of, 113, 150, 152, 162,\n178; introduced, 28; marsupial, 154, 155;\nmega-herbivores, 77, 82, 92, 93, 107, 108, 164,\n171; predators of, 56, 105, 112, 178; reptiles,\n70; South American, 109\u201311, 172\nHimalayas, 180\nHippopotamus, 100, 143, 145\nHispaniola, 58\nHMS Beagle, 110\nHoagland, Paul, 8\nHolocene, 123\nHomo erectus, 61, 129, 130, 134 \u201337\nHonduras, 9\nHorned turtle, 68\u201370\nHorse, 33\u201336, 64, 76, 108, 109; beast of\nburden,7, 22, 35, 61; domestication,\n31\u201333; evolution of, 31, 33; Great American\nInterchange, 42; limbs, 24, 154; running, 164\nHottentot, 34\nHumans, modern, 60\u2013 62. See also Flores human;\nHabitat destruction; Homo erectus; Hunting by",
+    "it is doubtful that the pouch-knife was capable of pursuing its prey over any great distance.\nIt probably opted for an ambush strategy, concealing itself behind pampas vegetation before\nit launched a lightning lunge at its victim. We may only be able to guess at the feeding behavior of this extinct predator, but we know much more about how it reproduced. As it was\na marsupial, it probably had a pouch, and if the thylacine is a good example of a predatory\nmarsupial, the female pouch-knife may have had a pouch that faced backward so that dirt\nand vegetation did not get into the furry pocket that cosseted her developing young. You can\nimagine a young pouch-knife, its sabers still small and developing, slipping from its mother\u2019s\npouch to investigate the outside world.\nThe pouch-knife is a mysterious animal, and the fossil record of the group of animals\nto which it belongs is far from complete, but this is due to the fact that fossilization is very",
+    "grounds.\nDuring the northern summer, in anticipation of their long migration south, the birds\nfed on the swarms of insects that plague the tundra in the \ufb02eeting warmth, and as a result,\nthey grew very fat. Hunters called these well-fed birds \u201cdoughbirds,\u201d and even these were not\nsafe. The hunters would \ufb01nd their roosting grounds and slaughter them under the cover",
+    "with more of a preference for large, slow-moving prey. To supplement hunting, the dire wolf\nprobably scavenged whenever possible. Thousands of years ago, North America was dominated by megafauna\u2014large mammals, including the mammoths, mastodons, giant deer,\nand many other species\u2014almost all of which are now extinct. Instead of running to escape\ntheir enemies, many of these animals depended on their size for protection, and therefore\nspeed and stamina may have given the dire wolf little or no advantage in hunting the herbivores of the megafauna. However, a powerful bite and more robust body made it easier for\nthese wolves to hang on to, and eventually subdue, large prey animals.",
+    "territory and communicate their willingness to mate to members of the opposite sex\u2014such\nis their reliance on their sense of smell. Attracting mates with scent is important for a small,\nscarce mammal with poor eyesight. Exactly when these animals mate is unknown, but the\nfemales are receptive to the advances of males about every 10 days. When they meet, solenodons can be vocal animals, broadcasting their intentions with pu\ufb00s, twitters, chirps, squeaks\nand clicks, but when the act of mating is over, the male and female will quickly part company.\nThe female solenodon only gives birth to one to two young every year, an astonishingly\nlow number for a small mammal. She gives birth to her young in a subterranean nest in the\nburrow system she excavates with her powerful forelimbs. At \ufb01rst, the young are blind and\nnaked, but they grow quickly, and before long, they are able to accompany their mother on\nher nocturnal forages. Amazingly, when baby solenodons accompany their mother, they never",
+    "with the pressure of a changing climate that led to the demise of these interesting mammals.\n\u2022 During the age of discovery, when gentlemen scholars started to probe the prehistory\nof the earth, it was thought that the cave bear fell into two distinct groups: dwarves and\ngiants. In actual fact, the di\ufb00erence in size of the cave bear skeletons was due to sexual\ndimorphism: adult male cave bears could weigh twice as much as females.\n\u2022 In some caves, there are deep scratches in the walls, which were almost certainly left by\nthe claws of a cave bear. Were they marking their bedding areas, or were they trapped\nin a rock fall? It is thought the former is more likely.\n\u2022 A complete \ufb02int weapon tip was found in a cave bear skull discovered near Brno in the\nCzech Republic, indicating that a human hunter was trying to kill the animal at very\nclose quarters. Hunting a cave bear must have been a very dangerous business. They",
+    "especially when two equally matched stags crossed paths. The bone at the top of the skull\nwas also very thick (3 cm), a necessary reinforcement if the head was not to be sheared in\ntwo by the forces exerted during a \ufb01ght. It has been suggested that after some bellowing and\nposturing, a pair of well-matched stags lowered their heads in between their front legs and\nlocked antlers. Using all their body weight, they tried to in\ufb02ict wounds on the \ufb02anks of their\nopponent. A pair of \ufb01ghting giant deer stags straining and kicking up clouds of dust must\nhave been a magni\ufb01cent sight.\nIt is likely that, as with other deer, the antlers of the male giant deer were shed annually.\nGrowing such enormous structures from the top of the head must have placed great stress on\nthe male, who must have had to increase his food consumption considerably to fuel the growth\nof the gigantic structures. The giant deer\u2019s dietary requirements were probably very similar to",
+    "megafauna\u2014a myriad of extinct beasts, some of them huge\u2014once roamed this southern landmass, and many of these animals were fair game for Quinkana. Marsupials like\ndiprotodons\u2014giant, wombatlike animals\u2014fell prey to this crocodile. Although Quinkana\nwas better adapted for a life on land than the crocodilians we know today, it probably still\nspent a good deal of its time near sources of water as these attracted large numbers of herbivorous marsupials and other animals on which this reptile could have preyed, including\ngiant birds. The Quinkana probably used ambush tactics to surprise its prey. Using undergrowth as cover, the crocodile may have stalked to within striking distance of its victim\nusing its excellent sense of smell and then, when its quarry was within range, it burst from\ncover with an explosive turn of speed. Lunging at the prey with its mouth open, the jaws\nsnapped shut on the victim.\nMany of the modern crocodile species can take very large prey; they do this by dragging",
+    "NEANDERTHAL\nScientific name: Homo\nneanderthalensis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Primates\nFamily: Hominidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The\nmost recent remains of\nNeanderthals have been dated at\naround 28,000 years old, and it is\nunlikely that they survived into\nmore recent times.\nWhere did it live? Neanderthals lived\nthroughout Europe, into the\nMiddle East and southern Siberia.\nFor a long time, the word Neanderthal was synonymous with lumbering\ncavemen, and following the \ufb01rst of\ufb01cial discovery of a partial skeleton\nNeanderthal\u2014The Neanderthals were the first Europe- of a human in Germany, Victorian\nans. They had large brains and were powerfully built, yet\nscientists had a \ufb01eld day in portraythey died out. Exactly what happened to them is one of\ning this extinct human as a stooped,\nthe greatest mysteries in human evolution. (Phil Miller)",
+    "population grew to its maximum. Some plants may have su\ufb00ered due to disturbance and\nelephant feeding, whereas others may have bene\ufb01ted from an increase in glades and other\nopen areas and the valuable in\ufb02ux of nutrients that large herbivore dung provides.\nThe dwarf elephants survived on Sicily for hundreds of thousands of years, but like the\nstraight-tusked elephants before them, humans on the mainland were searching for new\nplaces to live. They, too, set o\ufb00 across the Mediterranean, in boats and traversing land\nbridges, hoping to \ufb01nd new lands. They found Sicily and its dwarf elephants around 11,000\nyears ago. Because the dwarf elephants had been isolated for so long, they lacked the innate\nfear of humans possessed by most mammals. Elephants are curious, intelligent creatures,\nand they probably investigated the \ufb01rst humans they saw. A 100-kg animal could feed a\ntribe of hungry humans for many, many days, and the dwarf elephant\u2019s lack of fear made it",
+    "MORE THAN 12,500 YEARS AGO\n\n\u2022 Exactly how Homo erectus crossed from the mainland and reached many of the Indonesian islands is still a mystery. Low sea levels could have revealed land bridges, but\nthere is also the possibility that Homo erectus was the earliest seafarer. This hominid\nspecies may have had su\ufb03cient mental ability to \ufb01gure out a way of crossing open\nstretches of water to reach the island of Flores well over 800,000 years ago.\n\u2022 In modern humans, the average di\ufb00erence in size between males and females is quite\nsmall, but adult Homo erectus males were 20 to 30 percent bigger than adult females\nFurther Reading : Brown, F., J. Harris, R. Leakey, and A. Walker. \u201cEarly Homo Erectus Skeleton\nfrom West Lake Turkana, Kenya.\u201d Nature 316 (1985): 788\u201392; Swisher, C. C. \u201cDating Hominid\nSites in Indonesia.\u201d Science 266 (1994): 1727; Rukang, W., and L. Shenglong. \u201cPeking Man.\u201d Scientific\nAmerican 248 (1983): 86\u201394.",
+    "the bare bones often only give us tantalizing glimpses of the living animal. One such\nmystery is the glyptodont\u2019s reduced nasal passages, which appear to have served as\nanchoring sites for considerable muscles. This observation has led some people to suggest that the glyptodonts were equipped with some manner of trunk, but as with many\npaleontological mysteries, we will never know for sure.\nFurther Reading: Haines, T., and P. Chambers. The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. Richmond\nHill, ON Canada: Firefly Books, 2006; McNeill Alexander, R., R. A. Farin, and S. F. Vizca\u00edno. \u201cTail\nBlow Energy and Carapace Fractures in a Large Glyptodont (Mammalia, Xenarthra).\u201d Zoological\nJournal of the Linnaean Society 126 (1999): 41\u201349.",
+    "these animals and their true mammal descendents lived in the shadows of the dinosaurs,\nscurrying around the feet of the reptilian giants. Then, 65 million years ago, the K-T event\nended the dominance of these reptiles and the door was wide open. For a short while after",
+    "\u2022 There is some debate over the closest living relatives of the solenodons, but they are\nprobably most closely related to the primitive tenrecs, another group of unusual insectivorous mammals found on the island of Madagascar and in parts of western and\ncentral Africa.\n\u2022 Apart from the solenodons, only a handful of other venomous mammals are known:\nthe platypus (Ornithorhyncus anatinus), Eurasian water shrew (Neomys fodiens), shorttailed shrews of the genus Blarina, and slow loris (Nycticebus coucang). Why there\nshould be so few venomous mammals is an interesting quandary, but it is probably\nbecause mammals have evolved a number of ways of catching their prey swiftly and\ne\ufb03ciently. Even the best venom cannot bring about death immediately.\nFurther Reading: Woods, C. \u201cLast Endemic Mammals in Hispaniola.\u201d Oryx 16 (1981): 146\u201352;",
+    "What we can be more sure of is their diet. Large land-dwelling turtles are slow, heavy\nanimals, so fast-moving animal prey is out of the question. We know that the Gal\u00e1pagos\ntortoise and other terrestrial giant turtles are herbivores that eat a wide range of plant matter. The horned turtle was obviously unsuited to climbing trees or rearing up on its back legs\nto reach lofty vegetation, so it must have been dependant on the unique, low-growing plants\nthat grow on New Caledonia and the surrounding islands. All living turtles lay eggs, and\nwe can assume that the horned turtle was no di\ufb00erent, but how it laid them and where will\nnever be known for certain. Perhaps it excavated a pit before laying its eggs and forgetting\nabout them.\nIt is amazing to think that these giant, bizarre turtles roamed some of the isolated islands",
+    "oxygen. Deprived of oxygen, animals would have gone into a steep decline.\nOrdovician-Silurian\nIn scarcely no geological time at all after the Cambrian-Ordovician mass extinction, the fossil record tells us that there was another big die-o\ufb00 of species around 450 million years ago.\nIt is likely that this Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction was also a series of events which\noccurred quite close together\u2014in geological time, at least. This mass extinction is widely\nconsidered to be the second largest the world has ever seen, and it resulted in the loss of\naround 50 percent of the animal types that were around at that time.",
+    "FEWER THAN 10,000 YEARS AGO\n\nGIANT LEMUR\n\nGiant Lemur\u2014A giant lemur skull, bottom, is compared with a gorilla skull, top, giving an idea of how\nlarge this extinct Madagascan primate was. (Elwyn\nL. Simons)\n\nGiant Lemur\u2014Madagascar was once home to a\nnumber of very large lemurs. The skulls of some\nof these are shown in this photograph alongside\ntwo living species. Above left to right: Megaladapis\n(giant lemur), Archaeoindris, Paleopropithecus (sloth\nlemur), and Archaeolemur (all extinct). Below left to\nright: Hadropithecus (extinct) and the living smallest and largest lemurs, Microcebus and indri, respectively. (Alison Jolly)",
+    "10,000\u201312,500 YEARS AGO\n\nSicilian Dwarf Elephant\u2014The Sicilian dwarf elephant, only about 1 m at the shoulder when fully grown,\nonce roamed around the island of Sicily. (Phil Miller)",
+    "fractured rocks for 38,000 years. When the oil reaches the surface, the more volatile chemicals\nevaporate, leaving a heavy, thick tar (asphalt).\nFor millennia, Amerindians used the tar from the asphalt pools for waterproo\ufb01ng shelters and\ncanoes as well as for glue. It was even considered valuable enough to be traded. A Franciscan friar,\nJuan Crespi, makes the \ufb01rst written mention of the asphalt deposits during his expedition with Gaspar de Portola (the \ufb01rst Spanish governor of the Californias) in 1769\u20131770. Later, the site was part\nof an 1,800-hectare Mexican land grant given to Antonio Jose Rocha in 1828. It then found its way\ninto the hands of the Hancock family, and Captain George Allen Hancock donated the 23 acres of\nHancock Park to Los Angeles County in 1924.\nThe oil beneath the asphalt deposits is itself a fossil, the oily, organic remnants of the tiny organisms that make up marine plankton. Between 5 and 25 million years ago, this part of California was",
+    "The owls we know today usually build their nests in lofty places that a\ufb00ord the eggs and\nyoung some protection from predators. Tree holes and other cavities are favored nesting sites,\nbut these must have been out of the question for the giant owl. Even if it could have reached a\ntree hole, there were probably few of a su\ufb03cient size to accommodate its large body. The only\noption was a nest on the ground or in a burrow, and fortunately, there were few, if any, Cuban\nanimals to prey on the eggs and young of the giant owl. The presence of two giant birds guarding the nest must have been more than enough to discourage even a hungry opportunist.\nExactly when the ancestors of the giant owl colonized Cuba is a mystery, but the descendents of these nocturnal hunters evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to \ufb01ll the\nniche of a large, diurnal, ground-dwelling predator. The prehistoric Cuba must have been",
+    "more than 660 species of plant and that has pooled on the asphalt. It becomes trapped in\nanimal have been found in the asphalt the sticky asphalt and dies. Its bones sink into the asdeposits, all of which got trapped in the phalt, and after thousands of years, humans find and\ntar between 8,000 and 38,000 years ago. excavate them. (Phil Miller)",
+    "\ufb01sh predator. If this was the case, it may have had trouble plucking prey from the surface of\nthe water with its feet as they don\u2019t seem to be up to the job of grasping a slippery \ufb01sh. Some\nbirds (e.g., frigate birds, Fregata sp., and some terns) pluck \ufb01sh from the water with their\nbeaks, and perhaps this is what Merriam\u2019s teratorn did as it was gliding just above the surface of the water. If Merriam\u2019s teratorn specialized in taking \ufb01sh on the wing from inshore\nwaters, then its abilities in the air must have been staggering. With a wingspan approaching\n4 m, any wrong move just above the water\u2019s surface must have ended in a very wet teratorn,\nand one that probably could not take o\ufb00 again.\nIf this giant bird was able to pluck \ufb01sh from the surface of calm, inshore waters, why have\nso many specimens been found in the asphalt deposits of Rancho La Brea? Birds of prey were\ndrawn to Rancho La Brea for one thing: carrion. Animals of every description met a slow and",
+    "Amphibian\u2014an animal that spends its time in the water and on land.\nAmplexus\u2014the name given to the reproductive embrace of frogs and toads.\nApatite\u2014the mineral that forms the enamel of teeth and reinforces bone.\nArchipelago\u2014a group of islands.\nArticulate\u2014the way in which bones are arranged in an animal\u2019s skeleton.\nArtiodactyls\u2014the group of herbivorous animals that includes deer, sheep, and cattle characterized by their cloven hooves.\nAsphalt\u2014the dark, sticky substance that remains of crude oil after the light, volatile fractions have evaporated.\nAsteroid\u2014a lump of orbiting rock left over from the formation of the star systems, some of\nwhich can be several kilometers across.\nBasalt\u2014a type of \ufb01ne-grained igneous rock.\nBering land bridge\u2014a large tract of land that connected Asia to North America. Rising sea\nlevels at the end of the last glaciation \ufb02ooded this land bridge.\nCambrian\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 490 to 543 million\nyears ago.",
+    "the pampas on foot searching for tasty morsels. After carefully inspecting the skull bones\nof this bird and its relatives, scientists have proposed that a magni\ufb01cent teratorn\u2019s skull was\nnot really up to the task of tearing the hide and \ufb02esh of dead animals. It may have relied on\nother animals to tear the hide, such as the saber tooth predators, which lived at the same\ntime. These powerful mammals were undoubtedly able to bring down prey much larger\nthan themselves, so there was de\ufb01nitely a source of big, dead animals for a giant scavenger.\nPerhaps these birds used their immense size to intimidate predators and chase them away\nfrom their kill?\nUsing the information we have on living scavenging birds, it is possible to estimate the\nsize of the territory this giant bird needed to \ufb01nd su\ufb03cient food for itself, and it is something on the order of 500 km2. To survey such a huge territory, the magni\ufb01cent teratorn",
+    "Vertebra of a Wild Ass (Equus africanus): Hafting, Projectiles and Mousterian Hunting Weapons.\u201d\nAntiquity 73 (1999): 394\u2013402.",
+    "FEWER THAN 200 YEARS AGO\n\n\u2022 Today, Stephens Island is once more a safe haven for a range of endemic New Zealand\nanimals, including the ancient tuatara and lots of weta, the giant insects that \ufb01ll the\necological niche comparable to that occupied by mice and other rodents elsewhere in\nthe world.\nFurther Reading: Millener, P. R. \u201cThe Only Flightless Passerine: The Stephens Island Wren (Traversia lyalli: Acanthisittidae).\u201d Notornis 36 (1989): 280\u201384.\n\nTARPAN\n\nTarpan\u2014A pair of tarpan stallions fight during the breeding season. This hardy animal is widely considered\nto be the ancestor of most modern horses. (Renata Cunha)\n\nScientific name: Equus ferus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Perissodactyla\nFamily: Equidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last known pure-bred tarpan died in 1887.\nWhere did it live? The tarpan was native to the steppes of central Asia.\n\n31\n\n\f\n\n32\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "DIRE WOLF\nScientific name: Canis dirus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivora\nFamily: Canidae\nWhen did it become extinct? It is thought that the dire wolf became extinct sometime\nbetween 8,000 and 16,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? Dire wolf fossils have been found in North, Central, and South\nAmerica.\nIf you are alone in the woods, the howl of the wolf must be one of the most unnerving\nsounds you can hear. Our fear of this sound is an old one that extends all the way back to\nprehistory, when the human race was more closely tied to the natural world. Thousands of\nyears ago, the woods and wide open spaces of North America echoed to not one species of\nwolf, but two. One of these, the gray wolf (Canis lupus), is still with us, although its range is\nonly a fraction of what it used to be. The second species, the dire wolf, became extinct thousands of years ago. The dire wolf is the largest, non-domesticated canine that has ever lived,",
+    "important source of energy for life on earth is the sun. Its heat, reaching out over millions\nof miles of space, ensures that the earth has a balmy climate\u2014well, some of the time. The\nproblem is that our planet does not travel around its star in a perfect orbit. There are rhythmic variations, not only in how the earth goes around the sun, but also in the way the earth\nspins on its axis (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 5 for more information). All of these\nanomalies have a huge e\ufb00ect on the earth\u2019s climate. For example, small wobbles in the earth\u2019s\nspin can reduce the amount of solar radiation that strikes the Northern Hemisphere, and\ntemperatures can drop\u2014not by a massive amount, but enough to result in the formation of\nhuge glaciers that can lock up much of the planet\u2019s water. These ice ages, as they are known,\nhave a huge e\ufb00ect on the earth\u2019s inhabitants, which is not surprising as life generally fairs",
+    "Germany, which are thought to resemble the tarpan super\ufb01cially.\nThe story of the tarpan is an interesting one because it\u2019s not a simple case of a species\nbeing extinguished. Through our desire to produce an animal that was of use to us, we took\nthe tarpan and molded it to our own needs, in the process producing something quite distinct. The tarpan our ancestors knew is no longer with us in a form they would recognize,\nbut its genes are there in the cell of almost every horse.\n\u2022 For a long time, scientists have been piecing together the story of horse evolution, and\nnow they have several important parts of the puzzle. The \ufb01rst clear ancestor of the\nhorse, Hyracotherium, evolved around 10 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs in North America. About the size of a fox, this animal had four of its \ufb01ve digits\nin contact with the ground, and adaptations for running were already apparent, for\nexample, long, thin legs. Over millennia, these primitive horses gradually assumed the",
+    "Remains of this sprinting cat are exceedingly rare, which is what you would expect for a\nlight, slender-boned animal that was probably uncommon. With that said, the discoveries\nwe have allow us to reconstruct what this animal may have looked like and how it may have\nlived. The bones of this animal were found in Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming\u2014a big hole\nin the ground, where lots of prehistoric beasts met an unfortunate end\u2014and Crypt Cave,\nNevada. Up until the late 1970s, these bones were considered to be the remains of pumalike\ncats, but when some experts had a really close look at the bones, it was obvious that the cat\nin question was no puma. Like the modern-day cheetah, its skull had a very short muzzle,\nwhich gave it a rounded appearance, and the nasal cavities were very large. In the cheetah,\nthese enlarged nasal cavities allow the animal to suck in big lungfuls of air during and after\nhigh-speed chases. The similarities also extend to the dentition as the modern cheetah has",
+    "As well adapted as they are, the kangaroos have not escaped the devastation that has seen\nthe extinction of numerous Australian marsupials. Of the 53 species of kangaroo and their\nclose relatives that existed when Europeans \ufb01rst reached Australia, six have become extinct.\nIf we go even further back, into the late Pleistocene, there were many more species, all of\nwhich have since died out. The largest living kangaroo by quite some margin is the male red\nkangaroo, which can stand around 1.8 m tall and weigh in the region of 90 kg. We have seen\nhow the mammals from thousands of years ago were far larger than their extant relatives,\nand the kangaroos are no di\ufb00erent.\nThe giant short-faced kangaroo was a big marsupial. In life, it probably weighed in the\nregion of 200 kg and reached a height of 2 m. Unlike the largest living kangaroos, this extinct giant had a large, koalalike head with eyes that were more forward facing than those of",
+    "high-speed chases. The similarities also extend to the dentition as the modern cheetah has\nan interesting arrangement of cheek teeth, allowing the upper and lower sets to act like a single set of meat shears. As the skull of the extinct American cat had the same characteristics,\nwe can assume that it had the same predatory lifestyle as the cheetah\u2014a hunting strategy\ndependent on high-speed pursuit of fast-moving prey. Thanks to its big cheek shears, the\nAfrican cheetah is one of the only cats that routinely eats bones, normally parts of ribs and\nvertebrae, and as the American cheetah\u2019s teeth are so similar, it may have done the same.\nIt is true to say that the skeletons of the long-dead American cheetah and the African\ncheetah are very similar, but there are some key di\ufb00erences, and one of the most obvious",
+    "and South America for the \ufb01rst time. Land and freshwater animals freely traversed this\nbridge, and the mammals of South America were exposed to an in\ufb02ux of North American\nanimals. At the time of this event, the predatory marsupials were already on the decline,\nand we know from recent extinctions in Australia that when predatory marsupials come\ninto direct competition with placental mammals, they often lose. The dwindling pouchknife may have never been very abundant, and in their last few thousand years, these marsupials may have been pitted against the much larger saber tooth cats, which migrated into\nSouth America from the north. These felines may have been more e\ufb03cient at dispatching\ntheir thick-skinned prey, contributing to the extinction of the pouch-knife.\n\u2022 As the skull of the pouch-knife has been distorted by fossilization, the big canines are\nactually splayed, and it was once thought that this is how the living animal must have",
+    "(Renata Cunha)\nimitation of the sound they made on the\nwing and on the ground.\nThe Eskimo curlew may have been a small bird, but it was one of the most accomplished\nglobetrotters that has ever graced the skies. Like many other species of wading bird, this\ncurlew spent its time between northern breeding grounds and southern wintering grounds.\nTraveling between the two was no mean feat, and the small birds had to embark on one of",
+    "SIVATHERE\nScientific name: Sivatherium sp.\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Artiodactyla\nFamily: Gira\ufb03dae\nWhen did it become extinct? Estimations for the disappearance of these animals vary,\nbut there is a slight possibility that a species of Sivatherium may have survived until as\nrecently as 5,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The bones of sivatheres have been found throughout Asia, Europe, and\nAfrica.\nIn the 1930s, a joint expedition of the Field Museum in Chicago and Oxford University\ncarried out some excavations of an early Sumerian site in Kish, Iraq. One of their \ufb01nds was\na copper rein ring, designed to \ufb01t on the tongue of a chariot. Decorating the top of this\nring is an unusual, horned ungulate. Sumerians normally decorated such pieces with sculptures of horses, but the animal depicted in the Kish rein ring is unlike any living animal.\nArcheologists, without any knowledge of long-dead beasts, described the mystery animal",
+    "Caribbean islands (see the entry for Marcano\u2019s solenodon in chapter 3).\nFurther Reading: Brodkorb, P. \u201cRecently Described Birds and Mammals from Cuban Caves.\u201d Journal of Paleontology 35 (1961): 633\u201335.",
+    "course for extinction. The island of Geirfuglasker, o\ufb00 the coast of Iceland, was the last real\nrefuge for this bird as it was inaccessible; however, the island was inundated with water\nduring a volcanic eruption and an earthquake. The birds that survived \ufb02ed to the island of\nEldey, near the tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, and it was here that the last breeding pair was killed on July 3, 1844, by two Icelanders. This last pair of great auks was killed\nwhile brooding an egg, and this, the last egg laid by the great auk, was smashed. Lonely\nindividuals of the great auk may have scoured the North Atlantic looking for others of their\nkind as one was apparently spotted around the Grand Banks in 1852, but their searches\nwere in vain, and they, too, eventually went the same way as the rest of their species.\n\u2022 The great auk was just one species of a number of giant, \ufb02ightless auks that inhabited the",
+    "period sandwiched between much colder, glacial periods. The earth actually \ufb01rst entered this cold\nphase about 40 million years ago, when the Antarctic ice sheet began to form, but it is only in the\nlast 1.6 million years that the earth\u2019s climate has oscillated between long, cold periods (glacials) and\nshort, warmer periods (interglacials).\nScientists have worked out that over the last 1.6 million years, there have been at least seven\nof these glacial-interglacial cycles, and possibly many more. How can scientists know what the\nclimate was like hundreds of thousands of years ago, when it is still impossible to forecast, with\n100 percent accuracy, the weather tomorrow? Every single day, an enduring record of the earth\u2019s\nclimate is stored away on the sea\ufb02oor or in ice sheets. The record deposited on the sea\ufb02oor is\nnot in words or numbers, but is codi\ufb01ed in the remains of microscopic, planktonic organisms",
+    "is size. On average, a fully grown African cheetah is around 67 kg. Using the skeleton of\nthe American cheetah as a guide, this extinct animal may have been more like 80 kg. Also,\nthe claws of the modern cheetah are completely nonretractable, a feature that gives the cat\na good grip when it is pursuing prey (think of a human athlete wearing running spikes).\nThe claws of the American cheetah could be fully retracted, which has led to the suggestion\nthat this cat may not have been as specialized as the fast-running African feline we know\ntoday. The forelimbs of the American cheetah are also sturdier than today\u2019s cheetah, and\nthey were sheathed in bigger muscles. Greater strength in the upper body, an interesting\narrangement of the bones in the lower hind limbs, and retractile claws suggest that this\nanimal may have been able to climb trees, something that today\u2019s cheetah de\ufb01nitely cannot\ndo. However, these di\ufb00erences aside, so much of the American cheetah\u2019s skeleton is similar",
+    "disappeared altogether, while other animals, more suited to open habitats, thrived. These circumstances opened up new habitats every few thousand years, ideal for the evolution of new species\nthat adapted to \ufb01ll the new niches. Several of the animals in this book\u2014great beasts like the\nwoolly mammoth, mastodon, and woolly rhinoceros\u2014were cold-adapted species that evolved to\ntake advantage of the habitats created by the glacial-interglacial cycles.\nSo scientists have worked out that for the last 1.6 million years, earth and its organisms have\nendured cycles of numbing cold interspersed with warmer periods, but what causes these cycles?\nAfter lots of experiments and number crunching over many, many years, scientists now have a good\nidea of what causes these cycles. Beginning in 1930, Milutin Milankovitch, a Serbian geophysicist\nand astronomer, spent many long hours, days, and years working out a theory of climate change. He",
+    "when we discovered these birds, they didn\u2019t last very long.\nWe don\u2019t know exactly what the dodo looked like as no complete skin specimen exists,\nbut we do know it was a large bird, about the same size as a large turkey, with a stout build,\nsturdy legs, thick neck, and large head. Fully grown specimens were probably around 25 kg\nin weight and as tall as 1 m. The dodo\u2019s most characteristic feature was its very large beak\n(up to 23 cm long), complete with bulbous, hooked tip. The wings were stubby and e\ufb00ectively useless as the dodo evolved on an island where there were no predators, and therefore\n\ufb02ight was an expensive waste of energy; instead, it ambled about on the forest \ufb02oor of its\nMauritian home. The only information we have on what the dodo ate is from the accounts\nof seafaring people who stopped o\ufb00 on the island of Mauritius and saw the bird going about\nits everyday business. The favored food of the dodo was probably the seeds of the various",
+    "have disappeared since humans \ufb01rst arrived.\n\u2022 The giant lemur was not the only large lemur to once live in the forests of Madagascar.\nAnother extinct species, Archaeoindris fontoynonti, may have been the size of a gorilla,\nwhile other species, such as Palaeopropithecus sp., slightly smaller than the giant lemur,\nlived a more sedentary lifestyle and are known as sloth lemurs.\n\u2022 In Malagasy folklore, there are tales of the animal known as the tretretretre. In 1661, the\nFrench explorer Etienne de Flacourt made many observations on the natural history of\nMadagascar, including this account of the tretretretre from his 1661 tome, L'Histoire de\nle Grand \u00cele de Madagascar: \u201cThe tretretretre is a large animal, like a calf of two years,\nwith a round head and the face of a man. The forefeet are like those of an ape, as are\nthe hindfeet. It has curly hair, a short tail, and ears like a man\u2019s. . . . It is a very solitary",
+    "PIG-FOOTED BANDICOOT\nScientific name: Chaeropus ecaudatus\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Peramelemorphia\nFamily: Chaeropodidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last veri\ufb01able specimen was collected in 1901, but it\nprobably survived in remote areas for far longer, possibly until the 1950s.\nWhere did it live? This marsupial was known only from the plains of inland Australia.\n\n23\n\n\f\n\n24\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nPig-Footed Bandicoot\u2014The pig-footed bandicoot was a small, fleet-footed marsupial from the plains of\nAustralia. (Phil Miller)",
+    "Up until 30,000 years ago, Australia supported even more types of giant \ufb02ightless bird,\nwhich were very distinct from the ratites. Collectively, these feathered brutes are known as the\ndromornithids, or thunderbirds, and they appear to have been diverse, common animals of\nprehistoric Australia. Seven species of Australian thunderbird have been identi\ufb01ed from remains found throughout the continent, and they range in size from animals the size of the\ncassowary to Stirton\u2019s thunderbird (Dromornis stirtoni), a 3-m-tall, 400-kg whopper that may\nchallenge the elephant bird, Aepyornis maxiumus, for the mantle of the largest bird ever.\nThe Australian thunderbirds share certain characteristics with the ratites, such as an absent keel bone (the anchor for the attachment of large \ufb02ight muscles); tiny wings, useless for\n\ufb02ying; long legs; and powerful feet. Outward similarities in nature can be misleading, and",
+    "hunting, the Wonambi and the other primitive snakes eventually disappeared.\n\u2022 For a long time, it was assumed that the snakes descended from a burrowing ancestor\nthat took to a life underground and lost its limbs. This may be partially true as the eyes\nof snakes are unique among the vertebrates, with many features that are not seen in\nany \ufb01sh, amphibian, reptile, bird, or mammal. Some scientists have argued that this is\nbecause the ancestors of snakes were subterranean animals that completely lost their\neyes as well as their limbs. As they moved back onto the surface to \ufb01ll vacant niches,\ntheir eyes reevolved into the unique structure we see today.\n\u2022 Snake fossils can be numerous, especially the very durable vertebrae. There are even\nseveral skeletons of extinct snakes that are more or less complete. Some of the primitive extinct snakes even had hind legs.\n\u2022 The vestiges of these hind legs can be seen in the most primitive of the living snakes:",
+    "167\n\n\f\n\n168\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nFor this reason, shark teeth are very common in the fossil record and have been known\nfor centuries\u2014often known by the name of \u201cglossopetrae\u201d (Greek glosso translates as\n\u201ctongue\u201d and petrae translates as \u201cstone\u201d). Even Pliny the Elder, the Roman naturalist,\nwrote about them, believing them to fall from the sky during lunar eclipses. They were\nlater assumed to be serpent\u2019s tongues that St. Paul had turned to stone.\n\u2022 It has been suggested that the megatooth shark may still survive, but continued survival implies a viable population. In reality, there is no chance that such a huge, surfacedwelling predator could escape detection in the modern age.\nFurther Reading: Klimley, A. P., and D. G. Ainley, eds. Great White Sharks: The Biology of Carchardon carcharias. San Diego: Academic Press, 1996; Tschernezky, W. \u201cAge of Carcharodon megalodon?\u201d\nNature 184 (1959): 1331\u201332.\n\nMAGNIFICENT TERATORN",
+    "blotting paper. The material around the bones was aged using modern techniques, and it\nturned out that they were around 18,000 years old. Before this discovery, it was thought\nthat the Neanderthals, the last species of human other than our own species, died out\naround 28,000 years ago. If the Flores discovery is a genuinely new species, modern humans\nhad shared the earth with another species of human, albeit a miniature one, up until at least\n18,000 years ago, which, in geological terms, is the blink of an eye.\nWhy was this human so tiny? The diminutive size of the Flores human could be due to a\nphenomenon known as the island rule. This phenomenon can be seen on islands all over the\nworld. It seems, that in some cases, any animal larger than a rabbit that \ufb01nds itself marooned\non an island shrinks, but for some animals smaller than a rabbit, the reverse is true, and they",
+    "lion (Eumetopias jubatus), Steller\u2019s eider duck (Polysticta stelleri), and the spectacled cormorant (Phalacrocorax perspicillatus). All except the last species can still be seen today,\nbut the populations of them all su\ufb00ered terribly at the hands of hunters, who streamed\ninto the area after Bering\u2019s ill-fated voyage. The spectacled cormorant, a large marine\nbird with a distinct unwillingness to take to the wing, was last seen around 1850.\n\u2022 Along with the species that now bear his name, Steller also recorded other animals that\nhave never been veri\ufb01ed. One of these was described by him as the \u201csea ape,\u201d a marine\nanimal with an unusual collection of features. It is impossible to know if the sea ape\nand others are animals we know today, but Steller\u2019s documented observational abilities\nleave us with the tantalizing possibility of other, as yet unknown animals swimming in\nthe cold but productive waters of the Bering Sea.",
+    "rocked by numerous mass extinction events. The last of these, the seventh extinction, is\nhappening right now as a result of the unchecked growth of the human population and\nthe habitat destruction that follows in the wake of what we call progress. Following the\nintroduction are 65 vignettes, each of which present a di\ufb00erent extinct animal. You will not\n\ufb01nd an exhaustive account of all the animals that have disappeared from our planet in the\nlast couple of million years because such a book would be immense, and all that we know of\nmany extinct animals is based on fragmentary fossils. The focus of this book is those extinct\nbeasts for which there are historical accounts of the living animal, a detailed fossil record, or\nscant remnants that indicate a truly incredible creature.\nThe audience for Extinct Animals is anyone with an interest in zoology, earth\u2019s remarkable\nrecent past, or the far-reaching consequences of an expanding human population. The main",
+    "Most of the cattle breeds we know today are\ndescended from the huge prehistoric cattle known as aurochs. These large animals roamed\nthe woods and glades of Europe and Asia for thousands of years, until the last of the species,\na female, died in Poland in 1627.\nAs the aurochs only disappeared in quite recent times, there are lots of accounts of what\nit looked like and how it behaved. The males were very large animals\u20141.8 m at the shoulder and 900 kg\u2014signi\ufb01cantly larger than most of the cattle breeds we have today. Both the\nmales and females had impressive horns that curved forward and slightly inward, and the\nmale in particular looked like a typical but very powerfully built bull. Unlike modern breeds\nof cattle, the male and female aurochs were a di\ufb00erent color. A bull was said to be black with\na pale stripe along his spine, while the female was more reddish brown.\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 500 YEARS AGO",
+    "their ancestor reached the Hawaiian Islands about 3.6 million years ago. What was their\nancestor? It is di\ufb03cult to know for sure, but some experts believe that the very widespread\nPaci\ufb01c black duck (Anas superciliosa) or a now extinct similar species are likely candidates.\nThe Hawaiian Islands, 3.6 million years ago, were a lush paradise without any large browsing animals, so the ancestors of the moa-nalo spread between the islands and evolved to \ufb01ll\nthis gap.",
+    "toward the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century. As\nthere are no land predators in the Caribbean, or at least none big enough to tackle a fully\ngrown monk seal, this animal had no innate fear of humans. Apparently it was a curious\nand nonaggressive beast, a fact that made it easy pickings for hunters, who killed them for\ntheir meat and blubber, which was rendered down into oil. The seals may also have had\nto compete with humans for their food as the burgeoning tourist trade placed greater and\ngreater pressure on the Caribbean\u2019s marine resources. As the human population increased\nin the Caribbean and demands for ocean products outstripped local supplies, \ufb01shermen\nturned to increasingly remote areas, where seals had been forced to retreat. As the seals were\nseen as a traditional resource and unwelcome competitors for their \ufb01sh, the \ufb01shermen likely\npersecuted the last remaining seals for their blubber and meat or in self-serving attempts",
+    "and astronomer, spent many long hours, days, and years working out a theory of climate change. He\ndetermined that the earth\u2019s orbit around the sun is not the simple, consistent, circular route it was\nalways assumed to be. The orbit of the earth around the sun varies from an almost circular path to\na very elliptical one (eccentricity) over a roughly 100,000-year cycle. Also, the earth is slightly tilted\non its axis of spin, a planetary phenomenon that results in the seasons. This tilt varies between\n20.4 degrees and 26.2 degrees over a 41,000-year cycle. One more peculiarity in the way that earth\nmoves through space is that it wobbles on its axis (precession), in the same way as a spinning top\nset in motion on a \ufb02at surface will wobble. One complete cycle takes about 21,000 years, and it also\nchanges the way that observers on the ground see the night sky. Today, the earth\u2019s north pole points",
+    "The rarity of fossilization is not surprising when you consider the fate of an animal after it has\ndied. If an animal dies in the wild, its carcass is rapidly dismembered; some bones may be cracked\nopen, and what remains will be at the mercy of the elements. On the surface, they\u2019ll be subjected",
+    "creatures. To adapt to life on their new island, something strange happened to the straighttusked elephants: they began to shrink. Generation after generation, the elephants diminished in size to adapt to the limited food resources on Sicily. This phenomenon is known as\nthe island rule, and it can be seen all over the world, wherever animals take up residence on",
+    "Cartilage, 166\nCassowary, 44, 54, 55, 145, 146\nCats, 136, 175, 178. See also American\ncheetah; American lion; Great American\nInterchange; Introduced species; Saber\ntooth cat; Scimitar cat\nCattle, 25, 50\u201352, 86, 109, 154\nCave, 19, 83, 180; Crypt, 102; Cueva de Pio\nDomingo, 84; Freisenhahn, Texas, 19, 95\u201396;\nKebara, Israel, 138; Liang Bua, Indonesia,\n129\u201330; Mammoth, Australia, 158;\nNaracoorte, Australia, 140, 159; Natural Trap,\nWyoming, 102, 104, 105; Nullarbor Plain,\nAustralia, 142, 160\u2013 62; paintings/art, 32, 50,\n52, 100, 107; Potter Creek, California, 127;\nTea Tree, Australia, 151; Wellington, Australia,\n146; Zhoukoudian, China, 178. See also Cave\nbear; Marsupial lion\nCave bear, 100, 114 \u201316\nCave lion, 105\nCellulase, 64\nCellulose, 64, 108, 164\nCentra, 166\nCentral America, 3, 9, 41\u2013 42, 85\nCheetah. See American cheetah\nChemical analysis, 147\nChina, 134, 136, 180; Gobi Desert, 184. See also\nCave, Zhoukoudian\nChytrid fungi, 3, 5\u2013 6\nCincinnati Zoo, 15, 16\nClimate, 80, 182; cold, 74",
+    "EXTINCT ANIMALS\n\n\f\n\nThis page intentionally left blank\n\n\f\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\nAn Encyclopedia of Species That Have\nDisappeared during Human History\n\nRoss Piper\nIllustrations by Renata Cunha and Phil Miller\n\nGREENWOOD PRESS\nWestport, Connecticut \u2022 London",
+    "cave is a 600,000-year record of the animals that once lived in this part of Australia.\nThese caves show not only how diverse the Australian megafauna was, but also what the landscape and climate were like. Today, the Nullarbor Plain is a relatively lifeless landscape, and the\n\ufb02ora of the area is dominated by saltbush (Atriplex sp.) and bluebush (Maireana aphylla) scrub.\nThousands of years ago, this was not the case, as trees and other plants, many of which have since\ndisappeared, were common. Instead of the arid steppe we \ufb01nd today, the Nullarbor Plain was probably a mosaic of woodland and scrub, with plants that bore palatable leaves and \ufb02eshy fruits. The fact\nthat arboreal kangaroos have been recovered from the caves is proof that these plains supported large\ntrees thousands of years ago. Interestingly, the climate of the ancient Nullarbor Plain was no di\ufb00erent to what we see today, with average annual rainfall of around 180 mm. The drying of Australia\u2019s",
+    "of this animal came to light, and in 1966, the \ufb01rst almost complete but heavily calcium carbonate\u2013encrusted skeleton was discovered. This reawakened the debate about the feeding\nhabits of this strange animal. The specimen proved di\ufb03cult to prepare, but then, in 1969,\nbetter preserved specimens were discovered in the Naracoorte Caves, which proved beyond\nany reasonable doubt that Owen\u2019s long-extinct marsupial must have been a meat eater, not\nsimply a scavenger either, but, very probably a well-adapted predator.",
+    "have originated deep in the earth\u2019s mantle and been ejected by intense volcanic activity. Also,\nthey argued, how could there have been an asteroid impact with no crater? Then, in 1990,\ngeologists formally identi\ufb01ed the crater from observations made many years before. The site\nis known as Chicxulub, and it is on the very edge of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The\ncrater is half on the land and half under the sea, but after 65 million years, the portion on\nland has been eroded and the submarine half is buried under hundreds of meters of sediment. With that said, it is possible to get an idea of its size, and it is truly immense, with\na diameter as large as 300 km. The space rock that formed this crater was at least 10 km\nacross and was traveling at around 15 to 20 km per second. Such an enormous thing hitting the earth at such a high speed generated a huge amount of energy\u2014at least 2 million\ntimes more energy than the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated. Huge waves ravaged the",
+    "the large pockmarks of bone-eating bacterial infections. Although cave bears were robust\nanimals, they broke their bones in falls and \ufb01ghts, and in many cases, the bones were misaligned when they knitted back together, leaving the poor animal crippled, but apparently\nstill able to survive. Some individuals also su\ufb00ered from rickets, a disease caused by a lack\nof vitamin D and which results in bone deformities such as bowed limbs. Bears, like humans, synthesize vitamin D in their skin in the presence of sunlight, and as cave bears were\nforced to see out the harsh winter by hibernating in rocky refuges, they often didn\u2019t produce\nenough vitamin D. Rickets was particularly common in bears living at high altitudes due to\nthe short ice age summer season in the high mountains. These high mountain bears were\nforced to spend more time in their caves than bears living at lower elevations. Perhaps the\nmost bizarre a\ufb04iction is the injury sustained by some unfortunate male bears. All male",
+    "World of Elephants\u2014International Congress, Rome, 126\u201328. Rome: 2001; Markova, A. K. \u201cPleistocene\nMammal Faunas of Eastern Europe.\u201d Quaternary International 160 (2007): 100\u201311.",
+    "MEGATOOTH SHARK\nScientific name: Carcharocles megalodon\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Chondrichthyes\nOrder: Lamniformes\nFamily: Lamnidae\n\n165\n\n\f\n\n166\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nMegatooth Shark\u2014A tooth of the fearsome great\nwhite shark, right, looks very small indeed next\nto the tooth of the megatooth shark, left. (Ross\nPiper)\n\nMegatooth Shark\u2014The megatooth shark, top and\ncenter, was at least 20 times heavier than the living\ngreat white shark, bottom left and bottom right, making it the largest predatory fish that has ever lived.\n(Renata Cunha)",
+    "the cold but productive waters of the Bering Sea.\n\u2022 In December 1741, the St. Peter was forced to seek refuge from the atrocious conditions in the Bering Sea on what became known as Bering Island. Vitus Bering died\nof scurvy on this island, along with 28 of his crew. The survivors, with Steller among\nthem, saw out the winter; they constructed a new vessel from the remains of the\nSt. Peter and returned to Kamchatka. Back on the mainland, Steller spent the next\ntwo years exploring the vast peninsula of Kamchatka, documenting its animals, plants,\nand geology. He was eventually requested to return to St. Petersburg but died of an\nunknown fever on his way back.\nFurther Reading: Anderson, P. \u201cCompetition, Predation, and the Evolution and Extinction of Steller\u2019s Sea Cow Hydrodamalis gigas.\u201d Marine Mammal Science 11 (1995): 391\u201394; Scheffer, V. B. \u201cThe\nWeight of the Steller Sea Cow.\u201d Journal of Mammalogy 53 (1972): 912\u201314.",
+    "world, the thylacine was restricted to the island of Tasmania, and it was already quite rare.\nThe reason for its disappearance from the mainland is a bone of contention, but Aboriginal\nhunting is thought to be a factor and, much later, competition with the dingoes that \ufb01rst\nfound their way to Australia via Aboriginal trading with Southeast Asian people around\n4,000 years ago.\nFrom the black-and-white \ufb01lm and numerous photos and accounts of the thylacine, we\nknow exactly what it looked like and some of its behavior. In appearance, it was quite doglike, but it was a marsupial, and like all marsupials, it had a pouch; however, unlike some\nother \ufb02esh-eating marsupials, the thylacine\u2019s pouch opened to the rear, and it was to this\ncozy pocket that the young crawled after being born, \ufb01xing themselves onto one of the four\nteats in its con\ufb01nes. As its appearance suggests, the thylacine was a predator in the same vein",
+    "some representatives of the group of mammals that includes raccoons and coatis managed to reach\nSouth America from North America using stepping stones of islands that were appearing between\nthe two landmasses. These islands were the highest reaches of modern-day Central America, which\nwas being uplifted from below the waves.\nThe isolation of South America and the uniqueness of its fauna was upset completely about 3 million years ago when the gradual geological upheaval forced the Isthmus of Panama out of the ocean\ncompletely, directly connecting the two landmasses. This was the beginning of the Great American\nInterchange and over the next few thousand years, animals and plants used the corridor of dry land\nto move between North America and South America. Many species of mammal we associate with\nSouth America actually originated in North America, for example, the llamas and tapirs. Other",
+    "\u2022 Sharks have the amazing ability to continually replace their teeth. As a tooth breaks\no\ufb00 or is shed, the \ufb01rst in a line of growing replacements moves forward to \ufb01ll the gap.",
+    "egg predation, the dodo was doomed. It has been suggested that \ufb02ash \ufb02ooding could have\ntipped the dodo population, already ravaged by hunting, nest disturbance, and egg predation, over the edge into extinction. Regardless of the causes, the enigmatic dodo was wiped\nout in a little over 100 years after it was \ufb01rst discovered by Europeans.\n\u2022 The dodo is in the same group of birds that includes the doves and pigeons. Its ancestor was probably a pigeonlike bird that alighted on the island of Mauritius, evolving\nover time into a big, \ufb02ightless species.\n\u2022 The last record of the dodo is commonly said to be that of an English sailor, Benjamin\nHarry, who visited the island in 1681. This and other late records of the dodo are\nthought to refer to another extinct Mauritian bird\u2014a type of \ufb02ightless rail called the\n\u201cred hen.\u201d Historically, it was common for the name of an extinct animal to be transferred to another species living in the same location.",
+    "bounded around the plains.\nPerhaps the oddest thing about this marsupial was the four spindly legs that supported\nits plump little body. It is from the animal\u2019s feet that we get its common name. On its forefeet, there were only two functional toes with hoo\ufb02ike nails, remarkably similar to the feet\nof a pig, but in miniature. The hind limbs were also highly modi\ufb01ed as the second and third\ntoe were fused together, and only the fourth toe, which ended in a nail like a tiny horse\u2019s\nhoof, was used in locomotion. With such highly modi\ufb01ed limbs, the pig-footed bandicoot\nwas undoubtedly a running animal, and the gait it used depended on how fast it was moving. When it was skulking around looking for food, the pig foot moved in a series of bunny\nhops\u2014taking its weight on its forelimbs and pulling its back legs along. When it chose to",
+    "the thylacine, marsupial lion, and giant monitor lizard were all large enough to tackle an\nechidna, albeit a giant one. It is therefore likely that the giant echidna was protected with\nspines in the same way as the living species. The echidna\u2019s spines are actually individual\nhairs, and they are rooted in a layer of thick muscle, which covers the whole body\u2014the panniculus carnosus. When a short-beaked echidna feels threatened, it pulls its legs and head\nunder its body and erects its spines. The potential predator is met with a bristling ball of\nspines, and after a few minutes of getting spiked in the face and paws, it often gives up and\nleaves the echidna alone. On soft ground, the short-beaked echidna can enhance its defense\nstill further by burrowing into the ground until only a crown of spines can be seen. It takes\na very determined predator to beat the echidna\u2019s defenses.",
+    "for roosting and nesting places, but also for food. Initially, the loss of habitat did not a\ufb00ect\nthe parakeet too badly as it adapted to feed on the seeds of the European\u2019s crops, including apple, peach, mulberry, pecan, grape, dogwood, and various grains. This adaptability\nbrought the parakeet into con\ufb02ict with farmers, who saw the colorful bird as no more than\na troublesome pest. The slaughter of the Carolina parakeet began, and from that point on,\nit was doomed. Farmers would seek out the small \ufb02ocks and kill one or two birds to trigger\nan interesting behavior that was to seal the parakeet\u2019s fate: Hearing the gunshots, the birds\nwould take to the wing but would quickly return to their fallen \ufb02ock mates, hovering and\nswooping over the lifeless bodies. The signi\ufb01cance of this behavior is unknown, but it was\nprobably a way of intimidating and confusing predators in the hope that the downed bird",
+    "the bone that every meat eater knows: the wishbone. In birds, the wishbone strengthens\nthe chest skeleton for the muscular forces that are generated during \ufb02apping \ufb02ight. The du\u2019s\ncollarbones were not fused. It has also been said that the rib cage and the pelvis have many\nsimilarities with those of dinosaurs.\nWith only fragmentary evidence available to us, we can only speculate on the way the du\nlived its life. The bird\u2019s skeleton does not carry any of the hallmarks of a formidable predator, so we can assume that it was probably a herbivore that may have extended its diet to\ninclude invertebrates. It may have used its powerful legs to scrape at the soil for nutritious\nroots and tubers, but we\u2019ll never know what food it ate and how it found it. Apart from the\ngiant mounds on \u00cele des Pins, the possible incubator mounds of the du, we have precious\nlittle information on the rest of its breeding behavior. Did several birds work collectively",
+    "found the skullcap and femur of one of our ancient ancestors. Whether Dubois\u2019s \ufb01nd was\ndue to excellent judgment and insight or plain luck is a source of some academic debate.\nGiven that the bones of our very ancient ancestors are extremely rare, this \ufb01nd is actually\nmore remarkable than \ufb01nding a needle in a haystack (at least with a haystack, you can use\na metal detector!). It later turned out that these bones were not from the so-called missing\nlink, but Dubois\u2019s discovery was nonetheless a major breakthrough in the area of research\nthat attempts to understand our origins.\nThe owner of the bones Dubois discovered was named Homo erectus (erect man), and up\nuntil 1984, all the known remains of this extinct hominid species would have \ufb01tted quite\ncomfortably in a large shoe box\u2014such was their rarity. This all changed with the discovery\nof an almost complete skeleton in East Africa that has become known as Turkana Boy.",
+    "to which it belongs is far from complete, but this is due to the fact that fossilization is very\nrare, and \ufb01nding what\u2019s left of these long-dead animals is very di\ufb03cult and often relies on\nsheer luck. What we do know is that the ancestors of the pouch-knife lived around 13 to\n14 million years ago. What caused the demise of the pouch-knife? One unlikely theory is\nthat an asteroid impact in South America caused the local extinction of many animal species, including the pouch-knife. There is some limited evidence for an impact event, but it is\nimpossible to say if it was disastrous enough to kill o\ufb00 some of the South American fauna.\nIt is more likely that the Great American Interchange led to the demise of the pouch-knife\n(see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 2). This began around 3 million years ago as a result of the formation of the Isthmus of Panama\u2014a land bridge that fully connected North\nand South America for the \ufb01rst time. Land and freshwater animals freely traversed this",
+    "so why have the remains of this extinct ape come to light in such situations? The answer is\nporcupines. These prickly animals will drag all manner of things back to their lair to gnaw\non, and thousands of years ago, the bones of giant apes were among the things they collected. Porcupines and their love of gnawing is also the reason we \ufb01nd nothing more substantial than the teeth and jawbones of the giant apes. Porcupines gnawed at the limb bones\nand the other large pieces of the skeleton until there was nothing left, except the very hard\nenamel caps of the teeth and the compact bone of the mandible.\nThe most recent remains of the giant apes are around 200,000 years old, and there is currently no evidence as to how or exactly when they died out. Regardless of exactly when these\ngiant primates died out, our ancient ancestors Homo erectus, who had reached as far east as\nIndonesia at least 840,000 years ago, may have come into contact with them. Their reaction",
+    "DU\nScientific name: Sylviornis neocaledoniae\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Galliformes\nFamily: Sylviornithidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The du is thought to have become extinct around 1,500 years\nago, but it is possible that the species survived into more recent times.\n\n65\n\n\f\n\n66\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nDu\u2014The 30-kg du constructed huge nest mounds on New Caledonia and the \u00cele des Pins. (Renata\nCunha)",
+    "population of thylacines still survives in Tasmania. Tasmania is a large, rugged, and sparsely\npopulated island, and there is a very faint possibility that the thylacine has somehow clung\nto existence. The last person to photograph a living thylacine, David Fleay, searched Tasmania with a colleague, and the evidence they found suggests that the thylacine was hanging\non into the 1960s. Sightings are still reported today, not only from Tasmania, but also from",
+    "to excavate a tunnel and deposit their eggs below the surface of the soil, where they\nwould be out of the sight of most predators. For added protection, the eggs were cocooned in a hardened foam egg sac with the appearance of a stale marshmallow.\n\u2022 Some of the glaciers of the Rocky Mountains are known as grasshopper glaciers as\nlarge numbers of Rocky Mountain locusts from the swarms were driven by winds high\nup into the mountains, where they perished on the glaciers, only to be covered by subsequent layers of snow and ice. As these glaciers thaw, they reveal the mummi\ufb01ed remains of these insects.\n\u2022 Although the Rocky Mountain locust was very numerous, surprisingly few specimens\nare to be found in collections. Entomologists at the time saw little point in collecting\nsuch numerous animals, as it was inconceivable to them that an insect forming such\nvast swarms could ever become extinct.",
+    "Where did it live? The remains of this bird have been found in New Caledonia and the\nnearby island of \u00cele des Pins.\nIn Australia, New Guinea, parts of Indonesia, and some of the Paci\ufb01c islands live birds\nknown by various names, including megapodes, brush-turkeys, mound builders, and\nincubator birds. These chicken-sized animals are unique among their feathered relatives\nfor building large mounds, in which they incubate their eggs. The well-known malleefowl\n(Leipoa ocellata) of Australia scrabbles at the ground with its feet and beak to excavate a\npit up to 3 m wide and 1 m deep. The male bird is actually responsible for digging, and he\npart \ufb01lls the pit with leaf litter and other rotting vegetation before his mate lays her clutch\nof eggs into the waiting organic incubator. The male kicks soil into the pit and keeps on\ngoing until he has formed a big heap, which can sometimes be 0.6 m high and several meters\nacross.",
+    "into the side of an ancient, 10-m-long baleen whale and tearing out a huge chunk of blubber\nand \ufb02esh. Like the great white shark, megatooth probably retired to a safe distance after this\ninitial strike to let the prey bleed to death before closing in to feast. Its food requirements\nmust have been enormous, and if the great white shark is anything to go by, it may have\nneeded about one-\ufb01ftieth of its weight in food every two weeks, which, for a fully grown\nmegatooth, was about 1 tonne of meat. An adult megatooth was able to tackle whales, but\nwhat did these sharks eat when they were young? They probably fed on large \ufb01sh and may\nhave had di\ufb00erent teeth from the adults, up to the job of keeping a \ufb01rm grip on slippery \ufb01sh.\nThe teeth of a young great white are more slender and narrow than those of the adult to\nprovide an advantage in catching fast-moving \ufb01sh.\nEven though the adult megatooth shark must have been the undisputed king of the sea,",
+    "than its relative, the gray wolf, and eventually died out.\n\u2022 The Rancho La Brea asphalt deposits of Los Angeles, California, have yielded the remains of more than 1,600 dire wolves\u2014one of the most common predators at the\nsite (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 4). In the site museum, there is an entire\ndisplay wall made up of 450 dire wolf skulls.\n\u2022 The wolves in the asphalt deposits were trapped over a period of thousands of years\nand were attracted to prey animals that had also gotten themselves trapped in the\nsticky goo. The wolves probably pounced on the unfortunate prey, and they, too, found\nthemselves stuck, with nothing but a slow, miserable death ahead of them.\n\u2022 How come so many dire wolves met a sticky end in the asphalt deposits of Rancho La\nBrea? They must have been very numerous animals, very stupid, or overly aggressive. It\nseems that some predators were aware of the dangers of the pits, or at least were repelled",
+    "Australia was their last refuge, and Wonambi was one of the last of their number. The bones\nof this animal from the Victoria fossil caves show that it was a large snake, perhaps as much as\n6 m long, which is comparable to some of the largest pythons and boa constrictors alive today.\nLike the living giant snakes, Wonambi was probably nonvenomous, instead relying on\nambush tactics and its muscular body to catch and su\ufb00ocate prey using constriction. Constriction is actually a very e\ufb00ective means of subduing prey and is used by a large number\nof snakes, not only by the large boas, pythons, and anacondas. Wonambi probably loitered\naround watering holes and other places that attracted its prey. If a suitable victim came\nwithin striking distance of the Wonambi\u2019s hiding place, the snake launched a lightning-fast\nlunge, snagging the prey with its sharp, curved teeth. In the blink of an eye, Wonambi threw",
+    "based on the size of their adornment. When \ufb01ghts between males did erupt, the horn\nmust have been a vicious weapon, and it must also have been used with great e\ufb00ect\nagainst any predators stupid enough to attack the giant rhino.\n\u2022 As with the other animals that evolved to survive the cold and warm cycles of the ice\nages, the giant rhino was able to cope with the changing conditions that saw global\ntemperatures increase and ice sheets the world over recede, although its populations\nmay have expanded and contracted with the movements of the ice. It is unlikely that\nhuman hunting was solely responsible for the extinction of these animals, but it may\nhave been su\ufb03cient to knock a species over the edge whose populations were already\nbeing squeezed by climate change.\nFurther Reading: Noskova, N. G. \u201cElasmotherians\u2014Evolution, Distribution and Ecology.\u201d In The\nWorld of Elephants\u2014International Congress, Rome, 126\u201328. Rome: 2001; Markova, A. K. \u201cPleistocene",
+    "Lots of animals hop, but the kangaroos are the largest animals to use hopping as their\npreferred mode of locomotion. The kangaroo\u2019s hop is actually a very e\ufb03cient means of getting around as it requires very little muscular e\ufb00ort at moderate speeds. The tendons that\nstretch down the back of the hind legs to the hugely elongated feet act like springs, and\nwhen the animal has gained momentum, these springs help supply much of the power for\nthe hop. Like the limbs of the \ufb02eet-footed placental mammals, for example, horses, which\nend in a single hoof, the digits on the hind limbs of many kangaroos are reduced, and only\none of them, the fourth toe, may be in touch with the ground, thus minimizing friction. The\nlarge tail acts like a counterbalance at high speed and as a prop to support the body weight\nof the animal when it\u2019s moving about slowly, foraging.\nAs well adapted as they are, the kangaroos have not escaped the devastation that has seen",
+    "we are familiar with today, and they\nwere rafted over the viscous rock of\nthe earth\u2019s mantle to more or less their\ncurrent positions. Although South\nAmerica faced North America across\nthe equator, there was no physical connection between the two landmasses.",
+    "GIANT MONITOR LIZARD\n\nGiant Monitor Lizard\u2014The giant monitor lizard was an enormous predatory reptile that prowled ancient\nAustralia up until around 40,000 years ago. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "out because of its growing spines.\nLike the short-beaked echidna, the giant echidna probably ranged over much of Australia, but it appears to have been another casualty of the changes that a\ufb00ected Australia\n40,000 years ago, and it became extinct with almost all of Australia\u2019s varied megafauna.\nSome experts suggest that climate change was the major cause of these extinctions, but",
+    "caused uproar among the zoological fraternity. There were cries of fake! and sham! as many\nexperts of the time claimed it to be nothing more than the abominable creation of a mischievous taxidermist. Gradually, scientists accepted that the platypus was a living, breathing\nanimal and not the work of an imaginative taxidermist. Not long after the platypus came to\nthe attention of Europeans, the echidna was described and named by scientists.",
+    "has shed some light on how this massive beast used its forelimbs. These studies suggest\nthe forelimbs of a giant ground sloth were adapted for fast movement. Such an ability was\nof little use to a plant-nibbling animal that needed a strong, sustained pull to bring tasty\nleaf-bearing branches within reach of its mouth. The research suggest that the muscles of\nthe forelimbs were used to power the large claws into other animals, and maybe not only\nin defense. The animal\u2019s teeth also give intriguing insights into the way it fed. They are not\nthe normal grinding blocks that are found in the mouths of plant-feeding mammals. They\nand the jaws they sit in appear to be adapted for slicing, much like the jaws and teeth of\nmeat-eating animals. The claws and teeth of this giant mammal have led some people to\nsuggest that the giant ground sloth was not a plant feeder at all, but a scavenging animal\nthat used its size to drive predatory animals from their kill before digging in to the carcass.",
+    "little information on the rest of its breeding behavior. Did several birds work collectively\nto build the huge mounds, or was each one the work of a single pair? Such large structures\nundoubtedly took a great deal of digging and subsequent back-\ufb01lling, and the birds must\nhave toiled day and night. It is possible that the mounds were built over time by generations\nof du. As these birds had given up the power of \ufb02ight, New Caledonia and the \u00cele des Pins\nmust have been free of land predators, and therefore the mortality of the young birds must\nhave been low. This scenario normally results in long-lived animals with very low reproductive rates, but in various places throughout these islands, there are abundant, fragmentary\nremains of the du, and it seems there were juvenile birds in profusion. This had led some\nexperts to suggest that the du produced large clutches of up to 10 eggs, and if this was the",
+    "weigh as much as 10 kg. Like any other group of animals, the lemurs were not without their\ngiants, and up until 500 years ago, Madagascar was home to some enormous lemurs.\nLots of skeletons and individual bones of the giant lemur have been unearthed from sites\non the west coast of Madagascar, and they belong to an animal with bodily proportions\ncomparable to a koala bear. The \ufb01ngers and toes of the giant lemur were very long indeed\nand probably enabled the living animal to get a good grip on tree trunks. Like the living\nkoala bear, the giant lemur probably spent the majority of its time in the trees. The jaws and\nthe teeth of this primate are very robust, and it probably used them to good e\ufb00ect to chew\nleaves. The giant lemur\u2019s canines are well developed, and it probably used these during the\nbreeding season, when disputes over territory and mates broke out, as well as for protecting\nitself from predators, however, this primitive primate lacked upper incisors. Projecting from",
+    "STELLER\u2019S SEA COW\nScientific name: Hydrodamalis gigas\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Sirenia\nFamily: Dugongidae\nWhen did it become extinct? It became extinct in the year 1768, although it is possible\nthat the species may have persisted for a few more years.\nWhere did it live? The last populations of Steller\u2019s sea cow were known from some of the\nislands in the Bering Sea, just o\ufb00 the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula.\nIn 1741, the St. Peter, captained by Vitus Bering, departed from Kamchatka. The mission was to \ufb01nd an eastern passage to North America. On board was a 32-year-old German\n\n45\n\n\f\n\n46\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nSteller\u2019s Sea Cow\u2014At least 8 m long, Steller\u2019s sea cow was the largest marine animal apart from the whales,\nand it is the largest animal to have gone extinct in relatively recent times. (Phil Miller)",
+    "\u2022 A Neanderthal\u2019s brain was actually as large as ours, but the skull was a very di\ufb00erent\nshape. The high forehead of a modern human skull accommodates the well-developed\nfrontal lobes, which may be the seat of the higher mental processes that characterize\nmodern humans. There is little in the artifactual record of Neanderthal behavior to\nsuggest that they possessed symbolic thought, as we do.\nFurther Reading: Speth, J. D., and E. Tchemov. \u201cThe Role of Hunting and Scavenging in Neandertal\nProcurement Strategies.\u201d In Neandertals and Modem Humans in Western Asia, edited by T. Akazawa,\nK. Aoki, and O. Bar-Yosef, 223\u201329. New York: Plenum Press, 1998; Thieme, H. \u201cLower Paleolithic\nHunting Spears from Germany.\u201d Nature 385 (1997): 807\u201310; Bo\u00ebda, E., J. M. Geneste, C. Griggo,\nN. Mercier, S. Muhesen, J. L. Reyss, A. Taha, and H. Valladas. \u201cA Levallois Point Embedded in the\nVertebra of a Wild Ass (Equus africanus): Hafting, Projectiles and Mousterian Hunting Weapons.\u201d",
+    "When did it become extinct? The giant beaver is thought to have become extinct around\n10,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? This giant rodent lived in North America. Its remains have been found\nfrom Florida to the Yukon and from New York State to Nebraska.\nModern-day beavers are big by rodent standards, with a weight of up to 35 kg for the\nEuropean species (Castor \ufb01ber). Imagine, then, a prehistoric beaver that weighed around\n200 kg and was around 2.5 m long\u2014about the same size as a black bear (Ursus americanus).\nThis was the giant beaver, and it was one of the largest rodents that has ever lived. Unlike\nextinct beasts, such as the mammoth and cave bear, the giant beaver has never been found\ndepicted in cave paintings, so we can only make assumptions of its appearance in life based\non its bones. In general appearance, the giant beaver was very similar to the modern-day\nspecies, just a lot bigger. Like the living beaver, this giant had its eyes high on its head so that",
+    "of Homo erectus, left Africa and dispersed over much of what we know as the Old\nWorld today.\n\u2022 Neanderthals were often portrayed as an unsuccessful species that eventually succumbed\nto the more sophisticated Cro-Magnons, but in actual fact, this extinct species of human\nsurvived for at least 250,000 years and was well adapted to a very harsh environment. In\ncomparison, our own species has only been around for a mere 120,000 years.\n\u2022 Our knowledge of what prehistoric humans were capable of making is limited to objects made from material that can survive the ravages of time, for example, stone and\nbone. Much of the wear on Neanderthal stone tools comes from wood working, yet we\nhave no idea what they were whittling as it has all rotted away, except for one solitary\nbowl (discovered in Abric Romani, Spain) and spears (from Schoeningen and Lehringen, Germany).\n\u2022 A Neanderthal\u2019s brain was actually as large as ours, but the skull was a very di\ufb00erent",
+    "thousands of years, humans, as a species, have become adapted to the relatively easy time a\ufb00orded\nby the Holocene. When the earth enters another ice age (and inevitably, it will), our current way\nof life will be impossible, and the human race will be pushed toward extinction like countless other\nspecies over time. In the unlikely event of the earth warming up by a few degrees and staying warm\nfor the next few millennia, the human race would be similarly challenged, and our survival would\nbalance on a knife\u2019s edge. In particular, melting of the glacier ice will raise global sea levels, inundating low-lying islands, deltas, and coastal plains. During the last interglacial, sea levels rose by about\n6 m, probably due to the near-complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Responding to rises in\nsea level will present major challenges to many nations, including dealing with the displacement of\nmany human populations.",
+    "of the South American native mammals to extinction. The giant, native animals that were unique\nto this continent are all extinct, and all that we have as reminders of their existence are dry bones\nand a few pieces of parched hide. Although the original South American giants are all gone, their\nsmaller relatives live on. Today, more than 80 species of marsupial survive in South America, but\nthey are mostly tree-dwelling animals with a liking for insects and fruit. The relatives of the giant\nground sloths live on in the trees as the \ufb01ve species of forest sloth, famous for their sluggish behavior. The anteaters, strikingly di\ufb00erent to all other mammals, are not unique to South America,\nbut it is here they reach their greatest size in the shape of the giant anteater. Super\ufb01cially similar\nto the glyptodonts, the armadillos live on as 20 living species, but they are distantly related to the\narmored giants of the Pleistocene, which grew to the size of a small car.",
+    "and its populations probably expanded and contracted, re\ufb02ecting the movement of the great\nice sheets. With this in mind, could climate change alone have led to the extinction of this\nanimal? No is the likely answer, and it was probably a combination of factors that led to the\nextinction of this megaherbivore. What about hunting? We know that Neanderthals and\nour ancestors hunted this animal. To them, a fully grown woolly rhinoceros was a massive\nsource of meat, fat, bone, fur, and leather, and the killing of such a large, dangerous animal\nwas probably seen as a very risky undertaking\u2014an act that the warriors within the tribe\nmay have used to demonstrate their bravery. Climate change de\ufb01nitely squeezed the populations of this animal, especially the warmer cycles, and with their populations under pressure, human hunting may have been su\ufb03cient to kill them o\ufb00 completely or reduce their\nnumbers to a point from which recovery was impossible.",
+    "most bizarre a\ufb04iction is the injury sustained by some unfortunate male bears. All male\nbears, and many other male mammals, for that matter, have a bone in their penis called the\nbaculum. In some male cave bears, this bone was broken, but exactly how it was fractured is\na mystery. Was it broken when a mating male bear was fending o\ufb00 other potential suitors, or\nwas it stepped on in a dark cave long after the bear died?\nThis extinct bear\u2019s predilection for caves must have brought it into direct competition\nwith prehistoric humans, who prized these places as refuges from the elements and predators. Our Pleistocene ancestors de\ufb01nitely knew of the cave bear and even depicted it in\nvarious paintings, which can be seen in a number of caves throughout Europe. One very\ninteresting painting shows a cave bear that seems to be bristling with spears, blood gushing from its mouth. Early cave bear \ufb01nds suggested to some experts that our ancestors may",
+    "spends the rest of its early development locked onto a teat in a pouch (marsupium), the\nevolution of wholly aquatic forms was impossible.\n\u2022 Some recent scienti\ufb01c research showed that, pound for pound, the marsupial lion had\none of the strongest bites of any predatory, land-living mammal. The bite of a 100-kg\nmarsupial lion was at least as powerful as that of a 250-kg lion.\n\u2022 The Nullarbor Plain in Australia is riddled with cave systems, some of which are connected to the surface by sinkholes. In 2002, a group of cavers exploring one of these\ntunnels found a chamber containing the bones of numerous, long-dead beasts spanning a period of time from 195,000 to 790,000 years ago (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d\nin this chapter). These animals had been roaming around on the plains and had tumbled to their deaths through the cave entrance. The cavers\u2019 torches illuminated the \ufb01nest marsupial lion skeletons that have ever been found\u2014lying on the cave \ufb02oor in the",
+    "in which it lived, this bird was a successful scavenger and predator.\nThis success continued up until the early eighteenth century, at which time humans appeared on the scene. The \ufb01rst humans to make any real di\ufb00erence to the ecology of Guadalupe were whalers and hunters, who came to catch and kill sea otters, fur seals, and elephant\nseals. On their ships, they carried goats as a source of meat and milk, and as a way of caching supplies on their hunting routes, they left some goats on Guadalupe. The idea was that\nthe goats would survive and the whalers could pick up some fresh meat and milk the next\ntime they were passing. Not only did the goats survive, but they bred in profusion, and\nbefore long, there were thousands of them running riot over the once virginal land. Goats\nin the wrong place can be devastating, as any gardener will attest. They eat anything and\neverything, and the numerous unique plants that covered Guadalupe were stripped away by",
+    "Seals, 8\u201311; Georg Steller, 47; predation,\n27, 37, 167\nSeed: diet of bears, 115; diet of birds, 14 \u201315, 17,\n44, 48, 147; diet of marsupials, 25; dispersal,\n44, 48; fossil seeds, 87\nSeranilla Bank, 9\nSeriemas, 176\nSexual dimorphism, 116, 132, 137\nSexual maturity, 54, 170\nSexual selection. See Evolution\nShallow water habitats, 167\nSheep. See Introduced species\nShrew, 59, 60\nSiberia, 19, 32, 75\nSicilian dwarf elephant, 116\u201319\nSicily, 116\nSink hole, 161\u2013 62\nSivathere, 76\u201378\nSmell: odor, 59, 82, 86, 105, 149; sense of smell,\n59, 110, 114, 126, 149, 152\nSnake. See Wonambi\nSouth America: Amerindians, 38, 85, 91;\namphibian declines, 3; bird fauna, 27; center of\ndiversity, 142; discovery, 41; dispersal from, 58,\n83; geographic range, 9, 96; geology, 55, 169,\n171; megafauna, 81\u2013 83, 90\u201394, 101, 109\u201311,\n168\u201376; overwintering, 7. See also Great\nAmerican Interchange\nSouth Carolina, 91\nSpain, 78, 139\nSteller, Georg Wilhelm, 45\u2013 47\nSteller\u2019s sea cow, 45\u2013 47\nStephens Island Wren, 18\u201331",
+    "GIANT CAMEL\nScientific name: Titanotylopus nebraskensis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Artiodactyla\nFamily: Camelidae\n\n181\n\n\f\n\n182\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nGiant Camel\u2014Compared to the modern camel, the giant camel was enormous. It stood around 3.5 m at\nthe shoulder. (Phil Miller)",
+    "its everyday business. The favored food of the dodo was probably the seeds of the various\nMauritian forest trees, but when its normal source of food became scarce in the dry season,\nit may have resorted to eating anything it could \ufb01nd. A liking for seeds ties in with other\nobservations of the dodo\u2019s behavior, which report that it ate stones. These stones passed into\nthe dodo\u2019s crop, which is like a big, muscular bag, and there they assisted in grinding the\nhard-shelled seeds.\nAs the dodo couldn\u2019t \ufb02y, it could only build its nest on the ground. Sailors described\nthese nests as being a bed of grass, onto which a single egg was laid. The female incubated\nthe egg herself and tended the youngster when it hatched. Sailors who saw the living birds\nsaid the young dodo made a call like a young goose. Apart from small pieces of information,\nwe know very little about the behavior of the dodo. We have no idea if they lived in social",
+    "Armadillo, 83, 171\u201372; Great American\nInterchange, 42; super\ufb01cial similarity to\nglyptodont, 90\nArtiodactyls, 109\nAsia, 103; animal dispersal, 103, 132, 133; animal\nevolution, 78, 97, 99; feline distribution, 96;\n\ufb01sh distribution, 166; hominid distribution,\n134; human migration, 98; hyena distribution,\n177; primate distribution, 179\u2013 80; reptile\ndistribution, 153; ungulate distribution 76, 79,\n106, 163\u2013 65, 182\nAtlantic Ocean: Falkland Islands, 36\u201338; great\nauk, 39\u2013 41; migration route, 7; movement of\nplants and animals between Africa and South\nAmerica, 42\nAurochs, 50\u201352\nAustralia: amphibian declines, 3\u2013 6; marsupials,\n171, 173. See also Australian thunderbird;\nDiprotodon; Giant echidna; Giant monitor\nlizard; Giant short-faced kangaroo; Marsupial\nlion; Pig-footed bandicoot; Quinkana;\nThylacine\nAustralian thunderbird, 145\u2013 48\nAustria, 114\nBacteria, 63, 149; decomposition, 19, 80, 108;\ndisease, 115; symbiosis with animals, 64,\n108, 164, 183\nBaculum, 115\nBahamas, 9\nBaja, 47\n\n\f\n\n198",
+    "Eagle, 27; harpy, 56; little, 56, 57; wedge-tailed,\n57. See also Haast\u2019s eagle\nEarthquake, 40\nEbu gogo, 130\nEchidna, 142. See also Giant echidna\nEldey Island, 40\nElephant, 81, 96. See also Mastodon; Sicilian\ndwarf elephant; Woolly mammoth\nElephant bird, 43\u2013 45, 53, 55, 61, 64, 145, 146,\n174, 176\nEmu, 44, 54, 55, 145, 148\nEndemism (Endemic), 28, 29, 31 68, 116\nEskimo Curlew, 6\u2013 8\nEuphrates, 78\nEurasia: bones and fossils, 74, 95, 114, 134; centre\nof evolution, 132, species dispersal, 136\nEurope, 38, 50, 52, 99, 117, 134; bones and\nfossils, 76, 79, 95, 96, 106\u2013 8, 114 \u201315, 158,\n166, 177; cave painting, 32; hominids, 137\u201339;\nspecies dispersal, 179; zoos, 35\nEuropeans, 45, 49, 116; agriculture, 15, 17, 25;\ncolonization by, 7, 11, 14, 17, 25, 29, 58\u2013 60,\n60\u2013 62, 132, 154; hunting by, 12, 35, 40, 50.\nSee also Scientist\nEvenk people, 32\nEvolution, 69, 171; bird, 44, 48, 174; camel, 182,\n183; convergent, 13, 40, 103, 142, 146, 170,\n172; evolutionary arms race, 103; horse, 33;",
+    "7\nMORE THAN\n50,000 YEARS AGO\n\nGIANT RHINOCEROS\n\nElasmotherium\u2014 This enormous rhinoceros roamed the steppes of Asia. The remnants of its horn have\nlong since disappeared, but in life, this weapon could have been 2 m long. (Renata Cunha)\n\nScientific name: Elasmotherium sibiricum\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Perissodactyla\nFamily: Rhinocerotidae\n\n\f\n\n164\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "Along with the individual vignettes are a number of entries that describe some of the discoveries and concepts that are crucial to understanding how life on earth has changed in the\nlast couple of million years. These include the amazing bone deposits of Rancho La Brea in\nLos Angeles, the ice ages, and the human age of discovery, which has seen humans exploring\nevery corner of the globe, often to the detriment of native fauna.\nWherever possible, I have tried not to use jargon. There is a whole dictionary of specialized zoological and paleontological terms, which can sometimes be confusing or di\ufb03cult\nto say. I have tried to write in more general terms without using this specialized language.\nHowever, there is a glossary at the end of the book to explain any jargon that was unavoidable. For those readers keen to trawl the Web for extra information, the best way is to type\nthe Latin name, or perhaps the common name, into a Web search engine. The amount of",
+    "later, this species also su\ufb00ered a total population crash, and it has not been seen since.\n\u2022 The gastric-brooding frog was very vulnerable to extinction as its range was so small.\nIt existed in one small corner of Australia and nowhere else on earth.",
+    "recently, scientists realized that alongside these bones were fossil seeds, pollen, insects and mollusks,\nand the bones of \ufb01sh, amphibians, small birds, and rodents. These microfossils allow paleontologists\nto build up a very detailed picture of the habitat and climate in Los Angeles during the \ufb01nal part of\nthe last ice age.\nInterestingly, of all the bones recovered from Rancho La Brea, only one human skeleton has been\nfound: a 1.5-m-tall woman in her mid-twenties, who appears to have su\ufb00ered a blow to the head.",
+    "MORE THAN 50,000 YEARS AGO\n\n\u2022 In contrast to group-living felines, like lions, female spotted hyenas are the dominant\nsex, and each hyena clan is ruled by an alpha female. Taking charge has had some unusual e\ufb00ects on the female\u2019s anatomy as the increased levels of testosterone coursing\nthrough the blood of a female spotted hyena has led to the development of a false penis\nand scrotum. The pseudopenis is actually a hugely modi\ufb01ed clitoris, which is erectile\njust like a real penis. The pseudoscrotum is formed from the exterior skin of the female\ngenitals.\n\u2022 Like our ancestor Homo erectus, the giant hyena evolved in Africa and then proceeded\nto disperse into Europe and Asia, reaching as far east as China.\nFurther Reading: Turner, A., and M. Ant\u00f3n. \u201cThe Giant Hyaena, Pachycrocuta brevirostris (Mammalia, Carnivora, Hyaenidae).\u201d GEOBIOS 29 (1996): 455\u201368.\n\nGIANT APE",
+    "Humans, modern, 60\u2013 62. See also Flores human;\nHabitat destruction; Homo erectus; Hunting by\nhumans; Neanderthal\nHunting by humans, 60\u2013 62, 70, 85; Australian\nmegafauna extinction, 158, 160; compared\nwith scavenging, 136; competition with large\npredators, 96, 106, 127; Eurasian megafauna\nextinction, 108, 116; North American\nmegafauna extinction, 99, 121, 133; protect\ncrops and livestock, 9, 12, 14 \u201315, 16\u201318,\n27\u201328, 38; ritualistic reasons, 57, 121; South\nAmerican megafauna extinction, 90\u201391;\nsport, 51, 134; zoological collections, 28. See\nalso Aurochs; Elephant bird; Moa; Passenger\npigeon; Quagga; Steller's sea cow; Tarpan\nHyena, 95, 127, 176\u201379\nIce age. See Glaciations\nIceland, 40\nIce sheets, 52, 107, 108, 121\u201323, 139, 165, 176;\nglacier, 101, 123, 167\nIdaho, 21\n\u00cele des Pins, 66\u2013 67\nIndia, 52, 67, 71, 180\nIndian Ocean, 64, 72",
+    "must have been a browser, feeding in the same way as modern elephants can sometimes\nbe seen doing in the African bush\u2014pulling branches to their mouth with their prehensile\ntrunk. The fact that these animals fed in a di\ufb00erent way to the mammoths is the reason why\nthey were able to live alongside one another on the same landmass for thousands of years\nwithout coming into competition. As many mastodon remains have been found in lake deposits and in what were once bogs, it has been suggested that they spent a lot of their time in\nwater, wading through the shallows grasping at succulent foliage with their \ufb02exible trunks.\nThe sharp eyes of an expert can reveal lots of telltale signs that enable us to build a\npicture of how the animal lived, and the remains of the mastodon are no exception. The\ntusks of male mastodons have been shown to bear interesting pits on their lower sides that\noccur at regular intervals. It has been proposed that these marks are scars, evidence of the",
+    "to a myriad of animal species, many of which were startlingly di\ufb00erent to what they knew already.\nThese new animals had to be collected and put on display. Live ones found their way into zoological\ngardens, and dead ones ended up stu\ufb00ed or pickled in the museums that started to spring up all over\nEurope. This was an exciting time to be alive if you were a naturalist, but a very nervous one if you\nwere an exotic, rare bird.\nMuseums and independently wealthy collectors would pay huge sums of money for specimens\nof rare animals. One of the most famous collectors was Lionel Walter Rothschild, a member of the\nRothschild banking family, who devoted his life to the collection and study of nature. As a boy, he\nstarted o\ufb00 collecting butter\ufb02ies, moths, and other insects, but he progressed on to larger animals,",
+    "narrow compared to a modern human, a feature that made them very accomplished runners. Apart from the skull, their skeleton is very similar to our own, and it would take an\nexpert to tell them apart. Adult males were around 1.8 m tall and physically very strong. The\nskull of Homo erectus it what really sets this species apart from us. First, the brow ridges of\nthe skull were very pronounced, and it also lacked a chin, but most important of all is the\ncranium and what it contained. The cranium of Homo erectus was smaller than our own and\ncarried a brain that was only around 75 percent of the size of an average modern human\u2019s.\nBecause the frontal lobes of Homo erectus\u2019s brain were very small compared to our own, its\nforehead was very sloping and shallow. As with other human ancestors, the lower jaw of\n\n135\n\n\f\n\n136\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "48 tonnes. By comparison, the largest great white sharks alive today are around 6 m long\nand 1.9 tonnes. Even these conservative estimates of the megatooth\u2019s length and weight suggest a truly terrifying creature that once patrolled the seas of the prehistoric earth. We know\nthat the megatooth was a very large animal, but what did it look like? We can only guess, but\nfor a long time, it was assumed to look like a giant great white. It is now reckoned to have\nhad the same general body shape as the great white, but with a heavier head, more massive\njaws, and longer pectoral \ufb01ns\u2014obviously, these reconstructions must be treated with caution as they based are nothing more than teeth and bits of backbone.",
+    "armored giants of the Pleistocene, which grew to the size of a small car.\nMany hundreds of thousands of years after the Great American Interchange reached its peak,\nhumans moved into the Americas via the Bering land bridge, although there is increasing evidence\nthat early seafarers may have reached these lands a long time before people walked across. Regardless of how humans got to North America, they also moved south into South America. Early crossings may have been made using boats, but the land bridge used by the animals of the New World for\nmillennia was certainly used by humans as well.",
+    "Texas. Some of these skeletons were complete, giving us a good idea of what the scimitar\ncats looked like as well as throwing some light on how they lived.\nThe scimitar cats were around the same size as a modern lion, with a stumpy tail; however,\nthey were lightly built, with relatively long limbs. Like the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta),\ntheir forelegs were noticeably longer than their hind legs, and as a result, their backs sloped\ntoward the rear. Although their forelegs were quite slender compared to the Smilodon saber\ntooth cats, they were undoubtedly powerful and used to great e\ufb00ect when grappling with\nprey. As well as long limbs, the scimitar cat\u2019s claws could be retracted as much as those of a\nmodern-day tiger or lion. The ability to retract their claws has important implications for\nthe way these cats caught their prey, which will be covered in more depth later. The serrated\ncanines of the scimitar cats were not as large as the massive daggers of the saber tooth cats,",
+    "there were at least two species of giant ape that lived in Asia, though apart from their size,\nthey bear little resemblance to the cryptozoological accounts that \ufb01re the imagination.\nIn 1935, the respected paleontologist Ralph von Koenigswald visited a traditional Chinese medicine shop and found the molars of what were undoubtedly a primate. Fossil teeth\nwere coveted in Chinese medicine. Known as dragon\u2019s teeth, they were ground down into\na powder for use in a variety of treatments. The teeth von Koenigswald found were saved\nfrom being crushed and were formally identi\ufb01ed as coming from the mouth of an extinct\nprimate. Since the discovery of these \ufb01rst teeth, other fossils of these primates have come\nto light, including more teeth and several jawbones from various cave sites. At the moment,\nthis is all we have to go on, but paleontologists have put forward several ideas as to what\nthese animals looked like and how they lived. In the same way that reconstructions of the",
+    "turtle alongside a Gal\u00e1pagos tortoise and you get an idea of the size of this extinct beast.\nNot only was the horned turtle big, but it also had a very bizarre appearance. Sprouting\nfrom its skull were large horns and spikes, the longest of which grew from toward the\nback of the head and could reach a span of 60 cm. This formidable forward armory was\ncombined with the typical tortoise carapace and a heavily protected tail that also sported\nspines. The horns of this extinct turtle made it impossible for the head to be pulled into\nthe shell during times of danger. It is possible that these horns were used by the turtle to\ndefend itself, but we don\u2019t know what predators lurked on the islands where these extinct\nreptiles lived. Male giant turtles can be quite aggressive to one another during the breeding season, and maybe the extinct giant used its horns and tail spikes to \ufb01ght other males\nfor the right to mate. As with other island animals, the horned turtles may have grown to",
+    "have a huge e\ufb00ect on the earth\u2019s inhabitants, which is not surprising as life generally fairs\nbetter in a greenhouse than in a refrigerator. It has been suggested that a sequence of ice\nages was responsible for the Cambrian-Ordovician extinction events. Life at this time was\nat its most diverse in the numerous shallow seas that surrounded the earth\u2019s landmasses. If\nthe earth did indeed enter a long phase of ice ages, the water from these shallow lagoons and\nseas disappeared as the world\u2019s moisture was locked up in the growing glaciers.\nAnother possibility is that the action of bacteria living in the mud on the sea \ufb02oor led to\nthe depletion of oxygen in the ocean, which in itself is due to climate change. All animal life\nat this time was marine\u2014there were no land-dwelling creatures\u2014and all animals require\noxygen. Deprived of oxygen, animals would have gone into a steep decline.\nOrdovician-Silurian",
+    "North America retained a connection to the other landmasses by way of the intermittent land bridges\nthat formed between its northwestern corner and the eastern tip of Asia. South America, on the other\nhand, has been completely isolated during its history for immense stretches of time.\nThe animal inhabitants of South America evolved in isolation to form a fauna that was amazing\nand unique. The mammals were particularly interesting, and many groups were known only from\nSouth America. Although South America was isolated from the other landmasses, some animals\nmanaged to set up home there by inadvertently rafting across the then narrow Atlantic Ocean from\nAfrica on \ufb02oating mats of vegetation. This is how rodents and monkeys are thought to have reached\nSouth America between 25 and 31 million years ago. Much later, at around 7 million years ago,\nsome representatives of the group of mammals that includes raccoons and coatis managed to reach",
+    "the landmasses, an event known as the Great American Interchange (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 2). The glyptodonts took advantage of this bridge and crossed\ninto North America, eventually spawning the species known as Glyptotherium texanum, whose fossils are found throughout Texas, South Carolina, and Florida.\n\u2022 It is highly likely that the \ufb01rst humans to reach the Americas saw the glyptodonts alive,\nbut we don\u2019t know the extent to which hunting a\ufb00ected their numbers. What we know\nfor sure is that certain tribes from Argentina were intimately aware of the animal\u2019s fossils. It is said that certain tribes used the huge carapaces as shelters during bad weather.\nIndeed, the animal still exists in the folk memory of some of these peoples.\n\u2022 Although fossils can tell us a lot about what an animal looked like and how it lived,\nthe bare bones often only give us tantalizing glimpses of the living animal. One such",
+    "FEWER THAN 500 YEARS AGO\n\nAurochs\u2014This old drawing, by an unknown artist, clearly shows the distinctive horns of the aurochs.\n(Cis Van Vuure)",
+    "The di\ufb00erences in the skeleton of the dire wolf compared with the living wolf give us some\nclues to how this extinct dog may have lived. The gray wolf is built for stamina and longdistance pursuit. It has long legs, a narrow chest, and a long, \ufb02exible back, enabling it to cover\nlong distances in bounding strides. The dire wolf, on the other hand, had relatively shorter\nlegs, and this has led some scientists to suggest that it was not much of a long-distance runner, although it could have undoubtedly burst into a sprint when the need arose.\nThe teeth of the dire wolf are more robust than those of the living wolf, and the welldeveloped cheek teeth were probably used to crack the bones of carcasses. Unfortunately,\nwe can never know for sure how the dire wolf lived, but like the living gray wolf, it was\nvery probably an opportunist, switching between active predation and scavenging, depending on the situation. Perhaps the dire wolf was a capable predator like its living relative, but",
+    "hops\u2014taking its weight on its forelimbs and pulling its back legs along. When it chose to\nup the pace, the hind limbs were moved alternately and, according to Aborigines, when it really wanted to move, it stretched out and took to a smooth gallop. Not only was the pig foot\nquick, but it also had a lot of stamina and could run at full speed for long periods of time.\nApart from being very \ufb02eet of foot, the pig foot was also said to be more dependent on\nplant food than the other types of bandicoot, which are generally insectivorous marsupi-",
+    "more about it.\nIn 1894, Lyall brought a total of 16 to 18 specimens of Stephens Island wren to the attention of the scienti\ufb01c establishment. It is not clear if his cat caught all of these, but late in\n1894, news of this bird had circulated in the ornithological community, and some collectors\nwere willing to pay big money for a specimen\u2014Lionel Walter Rothschild, the famous British collector, purchased nine specimens alone. With such a high price on the heads of these\ndiminutive birds, can we be sure that Lyall didn\u2019t go and catch some himself to supplement\nhis income? We\u2019ll never know, but the cats and the greed were too much for the Stephens\nIsland wren, and before 1894 was out, the species was extinct\u2014discovery and extinction all\nin the space of one year. This is pretty impressive, even by human standards of devastation.\n\u2022 Of the 16 to 18 specimens collected and sold by Lyall, only 12 can be found today in",
+    "animals in earth\u2019s history.\nEver since humans started to spread\naround the globe, we have contributed\nto the rate of animal extinction, but this\nentered a new phase with the dawn of\nthe new age: the era of discovery, when\nthe wealthy courts of Europe funded\nexpeditions using sailing ships in the\nhope of establishing trade routes and\nbuilding empires. New lands were discovered every year for centuries, and this\nis the time during which animals like\nthe dodo joined the roll call of extinction. Centuries later, in the eighteenth\nand nineteenth centuries, the age of discovery moved into yet another phase,\nand we started to ask more and more\nquestions about the world around us.\nScienti\ufb01c methods brought order and\nclassi\ufb01cation to the natural world, and\nthe natural historians were born. They\nwanted to name, number, and collect\nthe natural world\u2019s treasures, and every\nexpedition to far-o\ufb00 lands was incomplete without a zoologist, botanist, or",
+    "common thunderbird fossils also point to herbivory. Along with the bones of thunderbirds,\npaleontologists have unearthed numerous polished stones, known as gastroliths. These were\nswallowed by the bird and ended up in the gizzard, where they helped break up \ufb01brous plant\nmatter.\nAs it\u2019s very probable the thunderbirds were herbivorous, the numerous predators that\nonce stalked Australia must have hunted some of these birds, especially before they reached\nadulthood. This is one reason why some of the thunderbirds grew so huge, as large size is an\nexcellent defense against predators. Their other defense was powerful legs, which probably\nendowed some of the species with a powerful kick and a good turn of speed to get them out\nof harm\u2019s way.\nAs well equipped as they were to deal with the rigors of prehistoric Australian life,\nthese giant birds lacked the adaptability to deal with the combination of humans and the",
+    "forests. During these cold periods, forest cover the world over dwindled, and grassland edged in\nto replace the trees. As the glacial phase ended, the situation reversed, and the forests moved back\ninto their old range. Animals are free to move around, but specialist forest dwellers dwindled or",
+    "when she died), and the most astonishing thing about the \ufb01nd was the size of the individual.\nFully grown, she was no taller than a three-year-old child\u2014about 1 m tall, with a brain no\nbigger than a chimpanzee\u2019s.\nEver since the scientists published their discovery in the journal Nature, there has been\nheated debate on exactly what the skeleton represents. Is it a pygmy modern human, a modern human with a disease or anatomical abnormality, or a genuinely new species? Current\nopinion swings in favor of the skeleton being of a new species of human that may have\nevolved in isolation on the island of Flores from a Homo erectus\u2013like ancestor. Another\namazing thing about the skeleton was its age. The bones were not fossilized, nor were they\ncovered in calcium carbonate. They were actually very delicate, with the consistency of wet\nblotting paper. The material around the bones was aged using modern techniques, and it",
+    "35\n\n\f\n\n36\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nof the plains zebra, and if it had been allowed to survive for thousands more years, it\nwould have continued to di\ufb00erentiate until it was a distinct species in its own right.\nFurther Reading: Leonard, J. A., N. Rohland, S. Glaberman, R. C. Fleischer, A. Caccone, and M. A.\nHofreiter. \u201cRapid Loss of Stripes: The Evolutionary History of the Extinct Quagga.\u201d Biology Letters\n1 (2005): 291\u201395.\n\nWARRAH\n\nWarrah\u2014The Falkland Island fox, or warrah, was the only large land mammal on the windswept archipelago in the South Atlantic. (Phil Miller)",
+    "the Latin name, or perhaps the common name, into a Web search engine. The amount of\ninformation on the Web today is such that there will be numerous pages on most of the animals in this book, but only those sites ending in .gov or .edu are likely to carry information\nthat has been thoroughly researched and edited.\nIn this book, at the end of many entries, there is a list of resources for further reading.\nThese lists, as well as the selected bibliography at the end of the book, include textbooks\nand journal articles that can be found in any decent library. In addition to the Web and\nbooks, you can \ufb01nd more about the animals featured in this book by visiting natural history\nmuseums. A list of some of the museums where you can see skeletons and reconstructions\nof many extinct animals can be found at the back of this book.",
+    "are pro\ufb01cient climbers and excellent swimmers. However, when young they prefer to\nspend their time in the trees as they are a tasty morsel for lots of predators, including\nadults of their own species. Young giant monitor lizards may have spent their early\nyouth in the trees, well out of the way of their enormous relatives.\nFurther Reading: Molnar, R. Dragons in the Dust: The Paleobiology of the Giant Monitor Lizard\nMegalania. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004; Wroe, S. \u201cA Review of Terrestrial Mammalian and Reptilian Carnivore Ecology in Australian Fossil Faunas, and Factors Influencing Their\nDiversity: The Myth of Reptilian Domination and Its Broader Ramifications.\u201d Australian Journal of\nZoology 50 (2002): 1\u201324.",
+    "43\n45\n48\n50\n\n\f\n\nx\n\nCONTENTS\n\n4\n\n5\n\n6\n\n7\n\nMoa\nHaast\u2019s Eagle\nMarcano\u2019s Solenodon\n\n52\n55\n58\n\nFewer Than 10,000 Years Ago\n\n63\n\nMoa-Nalo\nDu\nHorned Turtle\nGiant Lemur\nWoolly Mammoth\nSivathere\nGiant Deer\nGiant Ground Sloth\nCuban Giant Owl\n\n63\n65\n68\n71\n73\n76\n79\n81\n83\n\n10,000\u201312,500 Years Ago\n\n89\n\nGlyptodont\nSaber Tooth Cat\nScimitar Cat\nAmerican Mastodon\nGiant Beaver\nAmerican Cheetah\nAmerican Lion\nWoolly Rhinoceros\nLitoptern\nDire Wolf\nCave Bear\nSicilian Dwarf Elephant\nMerriam\u2019s Teratorn\n\n89\n91\n94\n97\n99\n101\n104\n106\n108\n111\n113\n116\n119\n\nMore Than 12,500 Years Ago\n\n125\n\nGiant Short-Faced Bear\nFlores Human\nGiant Bison\nHomo erectus\nNeanderthal\nMarsupial Lion\nDiprotodon\nAustralian Thunderbird\nGiant Monitor Lizard\nQuinkana\nGiant Short-Faced Kangaroo\nGiant Echidna\nWonambi\n\n125\n127\n131\n134\n137\n139\n142\n145\n148\n150\n153\n156\n158\n\nMore Than 50,000 Years Ago\n\n163\n\nGiant Rhinoceros\nMegatooth Shark\nMagni\ufb01cent Teratorn\nPouch-Knife\n\n163\n165\n168\n171\n\n\f\n\nCONTENTS\n\nTerror Bird\nGiant Hyena\nGiant Ape\nGiant Camel",
+    "HAAST\u2019S EAGLE\nScientific name: Harpagornis moorei\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Falconiformes\nFamily: Accipitridae\nWhen did it become extinct? Haast\u2019s eagle is thought to have become extinct around\n500 years ago, although it has been said that the species managed to survive into very\nrecent times.\nWhere did it live? The eagle was found only in New Zealand.\nBefore the arrival of humans, birds ruled New Zealand. In the absence of mammalian\npredators, many of the feathered denizens of these islands gave up \ufb02ying, and some of them\nevolved into giants such as the moa (see the entry earlier in this chapter). These islands were\na treasure trove of animal prey for the animals that could reach them, and sometime between 700,000 and 1.8 million years ago, some small raptors, very similar to the extant little\n\n55\n\n\f\n\n56\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nHaast\u2019s Eagle\u2014Haast\u2019s eagle was an enormous bird that was a specialist predator of New Zealand\u2019s extinct\nmoa. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "121\n\n\f\n\n122\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nIce Ages\u2014In 100,000-year cycles, the eccentricity of earth\u2019s orbit changes. Less solar\nradiation reaches the earth during the more\neccentric orbit (outer orbit), a factor that\nis important in triggering ice ages. (Phil\nMiller)\n\nIce Ages\u2014In 19,000- to 23,000-year cycles,\nthe direction in which the earth tilts toward the sun switches. When the Northern\nHemisphere is tilted away from the sun during the winter equinox (lower orbit), cold\nconditions prevail and ice ages take hold.\nThe degree to which the earth tilts on its\naxis also switches, but in 41,000-year cycles.\nThis is the third factor that contributes to\nthe development of ice ages. (Phil Miller)",
+    "lived. Remains of this monster are very rare, but it has been estimated that it weighed\n350 to 400 kg and was probably around 3 m tall. Like the rest of its kind, it was a meat\neater, and in life, it must have been a truly spectacular creature.\n\u2022 In 2003, a high school student in Patagonia unearthed an almost complete skull of a\nnew terror bird species and one that may have been even bigger than B. burmeisteri.\nThis skull was not much less than 1 m long, and it gives a true sense of what imposing\ncreatures the largest terror birds must have been.\nFurther Reading: Marshall, L. G. \u201cThe Terror Birds of South America.\u201d Scientific American 270\n(1994): 90\u201395; Alvarenga, H.M.F., and E. H\u00f6fling. \u201cA Systematic Revision of the Phorusrhacidae (Aves: Ralliformes).\u201d Pap\u00e9is Avulsos De Zoologia 43 (2003): 55\u201391; MacFadden, B. J., J. LabsHochstein, R. C. Hulbert, and J. A. Baskin. \u201cRevised Age of the Late Neogene Terror Bird (Titanis) in",
+    "\ufb02ight. If any Eskimo curlews still remain, their continued survival will be fraught with\ndanger and uncertainty.\nFurther Reading: Johnsgard, P. A. \u201cWhere Have All the Curlews Gone?\u201d Natural History 89 (1980):\n30\u201333.",
+    "found in museum collections around the world, and one of the most astonishing things\nabout these remains is the size of the bones. The limb bones and their supporting structures are massive and give an impression of a heavy, powerful animal. In life, the digits of",
+    "prepared as they had never encountered any mammal, let alone one with the predatory proclivities of the domestic cat. In June 1894, one of the o\ufb00spring of the escaped cat was apparently taken in by one of the assistant lighthouse keepers, David Lyall. Lyall had an interest\nin natural history, and he was intrigued by the small carcasses his young pet brought back\nfrom its forays around this previously untouched island. The carcasses were those of a tiny\nbird, but of a sort that Lyall had never seen. With a hunch these birds were something special, he had one sent to Walter Buller, an eminent New Zealand lawyer and ornithologist,\nwho immediately recognized the sorry-looking carcass as an undescribed species. The bird\nwas de\ufb01nitely a type of New Zealand wren, related to another small New Zealand bird,\nthe ri\ufb02eman. Unlike the ri\ufb02eman, the Stephens Island bird was \ufb02ightless. The larger group\nto which these birds belong, the perching birds (passerines), has only a couple of \ufb02ightless",
+    "ago, just before the peak of the last ice age. The reason for the disappearance of Australia\u2019s\nlarge mammals is a mystery, but the widely held theory today is that they succumbed to a\ncombination of climate change and human activity. Several thousand years before they became extinct, the earth\u2019s climate cooled signi\ufb01cantly, and Australia\u2019s arid interior expanded\nto cover over 70 percent of the continent. The diprotodons needed a lot of greenery to",
+    "The pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) of North America is one of the fastest\nland animals on the planet, able to reach speeds of 100 km per hour for short bursts and\n40 to 50 km per hour over long distances. Why does it need such a turn of speed? There\nare no American predators that can sprint anywhere near fast enough to catch an adult\npronghorn in a straight pursuit\u2014well, there aren\u2019t any today. Some scientists believe that\nthe pronghorns evolved to run so quickly as a way of evading an American cat that evolved\nalong the same lines as the African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)\u2014a slender feline built for\nspeed. This was the American cheetah. The idea of a cheetahlike animal sprinting after\npronghorns on the American Great Plains seems far-fetched, but prehistoric America was a\nvery di\ufb00erent place from the place we know today.\nRemains of this sprinting cat are exceedingly rare, which is what you would expect for a",
+    "experts to suggest that the du produced large clutches of up to 10 eggs, and if this was the\ncase, the du\u2019s life span was probably fewer than 10 years, which is very low for such a large\nbird. Perhaps the birds were killed o\ufb00 by disease or intermittent harsh weather, forcing the\npopulations to adapt and produce large numbers of young.\nOn its Paci\ufb01c islands, the du probably lived a relatively peaceful existence, with no\npredators to worry about and only food and mating to concern its bird brain. This untroubled way of life was shattered by the arrival of humans, who reached these shores\nfrom the direction of Australia. It is thought that the \ufb01rst humans to reach these islands\nwere from a diverse group of people known as the Lapita and that they probably made\nlandfall on New Caledonia and the \u00cele des Pins around 1500 b.c., but this date is debatable. As with other untouched islands around the world, the arrival of humans heralded",
+    "1\nFEWER THAN\n100 YEARS AGO\n\nGOLDEN TOAD\n\nGolden Toad\u2014The golden toad was restricted to the\ncloud forest above the city of Monteverde in Costa\nRica. It was last seen in 1989. (Renata Cunha)\n\nScientific name: Bufo periglenes\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Amphibia\nOrder: Anura\nFamily: Bufonidae\nWhen did it become extinct? No golden\ntoads have been seen since May 1989.\nWhere did it live? The golden toad was\nonly known from an area of cloud forest\nabove the city of Monteverde in\nCosta Rica.",
+    "death and destruction for the original inhabitants. A large, \ufb02ightless bird like the du,\nwith no innate fear of humans, was easy pickings, and its \ufb02esh would have been a welcome treat for seafarers who had probably eked out a survival on meager rations for many\nmonths. The nest mounds, with their sizeable clutches of big eggs, would also have been\nvulnerable to humans and their collected menagerie (dogs, pigs, rats, etc.), and nest raids\nhastened the decline of the du. It is thought that humans managed to wipe out the du\nabout 1,500 years ago.\n\u2022 It has been suggested that the du may have survived into more recent times as giant\nbirds exist in the folklore of the present inhabitants of New Caledonia and the \u00cele des\nPins.\n\u2022 New Zealand, New Caledonia, the \u00cele des Pins, and surrounding islands in the western\nPaci\ufb01c are the only visible parts of a great, submerged continent known as Zealandia,\na landmass with an area greater than Greenland or India. Zealandia sank beneath the",
+    "THE MAJOR EXTINCTIONS AND THEIR CAUSES\nCambrian-Ordovician\nGeologists use a series of extinction events that occurred around 490 million years ago\nto de\ufb01ne the end of the Cambrian period and the beginning of the Ordovician. These\nevents led to the demise of many types of marine animal. The brachiopods (marine mollusks resembling bivalves) were very numerous before this event, but whatever occurred all\nthat time ago had a drastic e\ufb00ect on their numbers. The trilobites, ancient forerunners of\ntoday\u2019s numerous creepy crawlies, could also be found in profusion before this event, but\nthe Cambrian-Ordovician mass extinctions heralded a slow decline of these organisms that\nlasted for millions of years.\nWhat caused this series of extinction events almost 500 million years ago? No one can\nbe sure, but many scientists suggest it was a lengthy series of glaciations. By far the most\nimportant source of energy for life on earth is the sun. Its heat, reaching out over millions",
+    "\u2022 The glyptodonts shared South America with a huge number of very large animals, all\nof which are collectively known as megafauna. All of the really large representatives of\nthe megafauna became extinct around 10,000 years ago, which is further evidence that\nthere were some global changes occurring, although hunting by prehistoric humans\ncan never be ruled out.\n\u2022 The formidable carapace of the glyptodonts and the intriguing tail weaponry of some\nspecies may have been put to good use in \ufb01ghts between males during the breeding\nseason.\n\u2022 North America, like South America, had its own megafauna, but the two groups of\nanimals on these huge landmasses were isolated from one another until a great deal\nof geological activity formed the isthmus of Panama, e\ufb00ectively joining the two continents around 3 million years ago. This land bridge allowed animals to move between",
+    "Even though the adult megatooth shark must have been the undisputed king of the sea,\nthe great white shark\u2014one of the most impressive predators alive today\u2014actually coexisted with the megatooth. How did these two enormous predatory \ufb01sh manage to live at\nthe same time without coming into direct competition with one another? They may have\nmanaged to coexist by feeding on di\ufb00erent prey. As the great white is much smaller than\nthe megatooth, its preferred prey is seals and sea lions, while megatooth was capable of attacking and killing whales. The great white is still around today doing the same thing it has\ndone for millions of years, but all that remains of the megatooth are petri\ufb01ed fragments of\nits body. What happened to this giant shark?\nThe megatooth\u2019s massive appetite probably made it very vulnerable to the ravages of\nglobal cooling, which entered a harsh phase around 2 million years ago. Temperatures at",
+    "pendek, this animal is said to be around 150 cm tall and to reside in the dense rainforest. Is it possible that another species of hominid has escaped detection by the scienti\ufb01c world and is living in the rapidly dwindling forests of this huge Indonesian\nisland?\nFurther Reading: Morwood, M. J., R. P. Soejono, R. G. Roberts, T. Sutikna, C.S.M. Turney, K. E.\nWestaway, W. J. Rink, X. Zhao, G. D. van den Bergh, D. Rokus Awe, D. R. Hobbs, M. W. Moore,\nM. I. Bird, and L. K. Fifield. \u201cArchaeology and Age of a New Hominin from Flores in Eastern Indonesia.\u201d Nature 431 (2004): 1087\u201391; Wong, K. \u201cThe Littlest Human: A Spectacular Find in Indonesia Reveals That a Strikingly Different Hominid Shared the Earth with Our Kind in the Not So\nDistant Past.\u201d Scientific American, February 2005; Brown, P., T. Sutikna, M. J. Morwood, R. P. Soejono, E. Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo, and D. Rokus Awe. \u201cA New Small-Bodied Hominin from the",
+    "Cambrian\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 490 to 543 million\nyears ago.\nCanid\u2014a name for the group of predatory mammals commonly known as dogs.\nCarboniferous\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 299 to 352 million\nyears ago.\nCarrion\u2014the name given to dead and decaying animals that are eaten by scavengers.\nCellulose\u2014the glucose-based polysaccharide that is found in the cell wall of all plants.\nCentra\u2014a disc-shaped section of the vertebral column.",
+    "What can the remains of the scimitar cats tell us about the way they lived? We know\nfrom where scimitar cat bones have been found that these predators probably migrated\nwith the cyclical periods of cold and warm that have prevailed on earth for hundreds of\nthousands of years, and it is likely that they roamed the cold expanses and forests of the\nNorthern Hemisphere. We can assume that the conditions in which these animals survived\nare very similar to what we see in the Northern Hemisphere today. Much like the Siberian\ntiger, the scimitar cats were adapted to cold, temperate conditions. For camou\ufb02age, they\nmay have had very pale, dappled fur, much like a lynx (Felis lynx) or bobcat (Lynx rufus).\nA large predator with dark fur in this environment would have stood out like a beacon, thus\nmaking it very di\ufb03cult to approach wary prey.",
+    "For its size, Haast\u2019s eagle actually had short wings, a characteristic it shared with the\nharpy eagle. Many eagle species have long, broad wings, allowing them to soar e\ufb00ortlessly\nat high altitude for long periods of time, but in those species that have evolved in forest habitats, long wings would be a disadvantage. In these situations, stubbier wings are\na much better bet, and because of this, it is thought that Haast\u2019s eagle was an animal of\nforests and bush.\nWith its great size, terrible talons, and maneuverability, Haast\u2019s eagle must have been a\nformidable predator, but what did it eat? At least a dozen moa skeletons have been found\nthat bare gouges and scars in the bones of their pelvis. Until the arrival of humans, Haast\u2019s\neagle was the top predator in New Zealand, and it is highly likely that the marks on these\nmoa bones were caused during a predatory attack by Haast\u2019s eagle. From a perch in a tall",
+    "AUROCHS\n\nAurochs\u2014The aurochs was the ancestor of\nmost modern cattle, albeit significantly larger\nthan most modern breeds. Both males and females feature prominently in ancient cave art.\n(Cis Van Vuure)\n\nScientific name: Bos primigenius\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Artiodactyla\nFamily: Bovidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last known\naurochs died in 1627.\nWhere did it live? The aurochs was found\nthroughout Europe, the Middle East, and\ninto Asia, with subspecies in North Africa\nand India.",
+    "Scientific name: Megatherium americanum\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Pilosa\nFamily: Megatheriidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last giant ground sloths are thought to have died out\naround 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The giant ground sloths were found throughout South America.\nSouth America is probably the most biodiverse landmass on earth, yet, many thousands\nof years ago, the fauna of this continent was even more remarkable. A perfect example of\nthis long-gone South American fauna is a ground-dwelling sloth that was the same size\nas an elephant. This was the giant ground sloth, and it was an immense and unusual animal. Fully grown, the giant ground sloth was about 6 m long, and estimates of its weight\nrange between 4 and 5 tonnes. Several skeletons (real and copies) of this animal are to be\nfound in museum collections around the world, and one of the most astonishing things",
+    "but the oil from its blubber was also coveted because it gave o\ufb00 little smoke and odor when\nit was burned. The skin was processed to make a range of leather goods.\nIt has been suggested that even when Steller \ufb01rst observed the sea cow in 1741, it was\nalready rare, its populations reduced to a fraction of their former strength by human hunting over thousands of years. Indeed, bones and fossils show that this species lived along\nmuch of the North Paci\ufb01c coast, from Baja northward and down to northern Japan. What\nSteller discovered were the last populations of this impressive animal, which had survived\nin a remote, inhospitable area. As it was such a large animal, it is very likely that Steller\u2019s sea\ncow was a slow breeder, a fact that made it even more vulnerable to the e\ufb00ects of overhunting. Whatever the state of the population of this animal when it was discovered, we know\nthat by 1768, 27 years after it was described by Steller, it was extinct. It is possible that a few",
+    "111\n\n\f\n\n112\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nDire Wolf\u2014The dire wolf was more heavily built than the living wolf. The remains of more than 1,600\ndire wolves have been unearthed from the Rancho La Brea asphalt deposits. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "When did it become extinct? The most recent remains of this hominid are 18,000 years\nold, but it is very possible that it survived well into historic times.\nWhere did it live? The bones of Flores man have only been found on the island of Flores,\nIndonesia.\nIn 2004, a group of scientists revealed to the world what they found in a cave on the\nisland of Flores, Indonesia. The story featured in the news all over the world, and their\ndiscovery could be one of the most important paleoanthropological discoveries ever made.\nAlmost 6 m beneath the \ufb02oor of a large limestone cave called \u201cLiang Bua,\u201d the team of Australian and Indonesian scientists found a partial skeleton of a human, but one that was quite\nunlike anything that had ever been seen before. Although the skeleton was not complete,\nthere was enough to see that it was an adult female (she was probably around 30 years old\nwhen she died), and the most astonishing thing about the \ufb01nd was the size of the individual.",
+    "that the Neanderthals were only capable of wrestling with their prey and hacking it to death\nwith stone hand axes or similar tools. However, recent \ufb01nds paint a picture of a human that\ncould fashion spears and other weapons to strike at prey from a distance. With this said,\nthey probably had to close in for the killer blow, using their great strength to \ufb01nish o\ufb00 the\nprey. The bones of Neanderthals that have been discovered over the past 150 years or so\noften show signs of injury, such as bone fractures and breaks, that may have been in\ufb02icted\nwhen these extinct humans were tackling and killing wild beasts.\nEven more surprising is the fact that many of these bone breaks and fractures were healed,\nan observation that gives us a tantalizing glimpse of how these extinct humans interacted\nwith one another. Injured Neanderthals must have been cared for by those around them,\nperhaps in a family group or even a tribe, because a solitary Neanderthal with a broken leg",
+    "When did it become extinct? The giant camel is thought to have become extinct around\n1 million years ago.\nWhere did it live? The giant camel lived in North America.\nIt is di\ufb03cult to use the word camel without picturing the deserts of the Middle East and\nAsia; however, it may come as a surprise to learn that the camels originated and underwent\nmost of their evolution in North America. The oldest ancestors of the camels are rabbitsized, four-toed animals known from 40-million-year-old fossils. Over millennia, these ancestors gave rise to a number of species, of which only a few survive today. The giant camel\nwas one of these species, and a very large one at that. The most familiar camel alive today,\nthe dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), can be 2.1 m at the shoulder, 3 m long, and weigh\n1,000 kg\u2014a big animal, but it would look puny next to the giant camel, which, at 3.5 m tall\nand at least 1,800 kg, was the biggest camel that has ever lived.",
+    "as high as 9 billion individuals. If these estimates are anywhere near the true number, then\nthe passenger pigeon was undoubtedly one of the most numerous bird species that has ever\nlived. This enormous population was not evenly spread, but was concentrated in gigantic\n\ufb02ocks so large that observers could not see the end of them and so dense that they blocked\nout the sun. Some records report \ufb02ocks more than 1.6 km wide and 500 km long\u2014a \ufb02uttering expanse of hundreds of millions of passenger pigeons. We can only imagine what one\nof these \ufb02ocks looked like, but we can be sure that it was quite a spectacle.",
+    "the quelili; the skins were sold to the highest bidder.\nAmazingly, one small group of quelilis survived this onslaught, but these were accounted\nfor by Rollo Beck, an ornithologist and collector who landed on the island on December 1,\n1900. No sooner had he landed on the island than he saw a \ufb02ock of 11 quelili heading straight\nfor him. In the mistaken belief that the bird was still common, he shot all but two of the \ufb02ock,\nand in doing so, Rollo Beck consigned the quelili to extinction.\n\u2022 Guadalupe was once home to an array of unique plants and animals, but we know only\na fraction of what species the island once supported. At least six species and subspecies\nof bird have become extinct since humans \ufb01rst colonized the island.\n\u2022 Guadalupe was covered in distinct vegetation types, ranging from areas of succulent\nherbs to forests of endemic cypress. Today, almost all of this has disappeared and most\nof the vegetation is little more than a few centimeters tall, all thanks to the tireless",
+    "Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History\n10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW\nWashington, DC 20560\nUSA\nhttp://www.mnh.si.edu\nPage Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits\n5801 Wilshire Boulevard\nLos Angeles, CA 90036\nUSA\nhttp://www.tarpits.org\nMuseum of Paleontology\nThe University of Michigan\n1109 Geddes Avenue\nAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1079\nUSA\nhttp://www.lsa.umich.edu/exhibitmuseum\nPeabody Museum of Natural History\nYale University\n170 Whitney Avenue\nNew Haven, CT 06520-8118\nUSA\nhttp://www.peabody.yale.edu\nNatural History Museum of Los Angeles County\n900 Exposition Boulevard\nLos Angeles, CA 90007\nUSA\nhttp://www.nhm.org\nThe Mammoth Site\n1800 Highway 18 Truck Route\nHot Springs, SD 57747\nUSA\nhttp://www.mammothsite.com/\nThe University of Alaska Museum of the North\n907 Yukon Drive\nFairbanks, AK 99775\nUSA\nhttp://www.uaf.edu/museum\nYukon Beringia Interpretive Centre\nWhitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2C6\nCanada\nhttp://www.beringia.com\nNatural History Museum\nCromwell Road\nLondon SW7 5BD\nUK\nhttp://www.nhm.ac.uk",
+    "speci\ufb01c purposes. Again, debate rages over whether these tools were made by Flores humans\nor modern humans who occupied the cave at a later date Their size suggests that they were\nwielded by small hands, but until more bones and tools are unearthed, it will be di\ufb03cult\nto know for sure. Regardless of the tools Flores humans fashioned, they hunted the Flores",
+    "poultry was attributed to the thylacine, even though they were rarely seen. The authorities\nat the time initiated a bounty scheme in which farmers and hunters could collect a reward\nfor the thylacines they killed. Between 1888 and 1909, this bounty was \u00a31 per thylacine,\nand records show that 2,184 bounties were paid out, but it is very likely that the bounty was\nleft unclaimed on many occasions. By the 1920s, the thylacine was very rare in the wild, and\nthe species clung to survival as a few scattered individuals in the former strongholds of its\nrange. Although human persecution was the \ufb01nal blow for this animal, it was probably also\nsu\ufb00ering from competition with introduced dogs and the diseases they carried. Benjamin\nwas the last known thylacine, and after 50 years with no evidence of any surviving individuals, the species was declared extinct in 1986. Many people cling to the hope that a remnant",
+    "onto one of the teats inside. The teat expands in their mouth, and they\u2019re locked in place for\nthe next few months, swallowing their mother\u2019s milk. When the diprotodon baby outgrew\nthe pouch, it ventured out into the wide world, keeping close to its mother and retreating to\nits furry refuge at the \ufb01rst sign of danger, in much the same way as a kangaroo joey.\nToday, Australia is bereft of its large, native land predators, but thousands of years ago,\nthis land was home to several creatures that could have made short work of a young diprotodon that had wandered too far from its mother. There was the marsupial lion, with\nits formidable claws and teeth, and it is likely that this predator killed and ate young diprotodons, and even the adults of the smaller species. The thylacine was another animal\nthat may have preyed on these big, lumbering marsupials, and although it is unlikely that\nan individual marsupial lion or thylacine could have overpowered and killed the largest,",
+    "S shape to keep their heads out of harm\u2019s way. The turtles that people often keep as pets\nfall in the \ufb01rst group, the cryptodires, and these can pull their heads right into their shells\nby bending their necks below the spine.\nThere\u2019s no doubt that some of the turtles, especially the land-dwelling species, are very\nslow, lumbering creatures, characteristics that are often linked to evolutionary failure\nand poor adaptability. However, nothing could be father from the truth for the turtles.\nThese shelled reptiles are a successful group of animals that have been around since the\nTriassic\u2014at least 215 million years (and probably considerably longer)\u2014which makes\nthem much older than the lizards and snakes. Not only are they ancient, but they are\namong the very few living reptiles that have become almost completely amphibious, only\nleaving the water to lay eggs (some species of snake also only leave the water to lay eggs).",
+    "The most recent Quinkana remains are around 40,000 years old, and as is the case for\nmost extinct animals from this period, we have no accurate idea of exactly when this species died out. It may have been around up until very recent times, but until we \ufb01nd the\nbones, we\u2019ll never know for sure. Australian Aborigines undoubtedly came face-to-face with\nQuinkana, and unfortunate individuals may have even fallen prey to it. To what extent humans hunted this reptile, if at all, is unknown, but such a large, land-dwelling animal may\nhave been hunted by humans at some point in the past.\nWe do know that the most recent bones of this animal come from a time in Australia\u2019s history that is marked by the disappearance of many of its amazing animals. Around\nthis time, global cooling was gripping the planet, and although Australia was never buried\nbeneath ice, weather systems the world over were a\ufb00ected. Rains failed, and Australia dried",
+    "The evolutionary history of the snakes may be sketchy, but some answers have been discovered in the home of animal anomalies: Australia. In various cave sites in Australia, paleontologists have found the bones of a long-dead animal that belonged to a very ancient group\nof snakes, all of which are now extinct. This group, the Madtsoiidae, survived for around\n90 million years, from the middle of the Cretaceous to the Pleistocene. They were once found\nin Australia, South America, Africa, Madagascar, and Europe, but they slowly died out, until",
+    "South Wales, which is around 100 million years old. A fossilized platypus tooth has\neven been found in Argentina, demonstrating that these animals have not always been\nrestricted to Australia and New Guinea. It is highly likely that monotremes were once\nfound all over the ancient landmass of Gondwanaland.\nFurther Reading: Griffiths, M., R. T. Wells, and D. J. Barrie. \u201cObservations on the Skulls of Fossil\nand Extant Echidnas (Monotremata: Tachyglossidae).\u201d Australian Mammalogy 14 (1991): 87\u2013101;\nPledge, N. S. \u201cGiant Echidnas in South Australia.\u201d South Australian Naturalist 55 (1980): 27\u201330;\nMurray, P. F. \u201cLate Cenozoic Monotreme Anteaters.\u201d Australian Zoologist 20 (1978): 29\u201355.",
+    "that by 1768, 27 years after it was described by Steller, it was extinct. It is possible that a few\nindividuals survived in the shallow waters of other islands in the Bering Sea, but an expedition in the late eighteenth century did not \ufb01nd any sea cows. Even today, some people cling\nto the hope that Steller\u2019s sea cow survived into the modern day, with claims of sightings\naround the islands in the Bering Sea. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that such a large\nanimal, which spent so much of its time at the surface, has escaped detection in an increasingly crowded world. Twenty-seventy years is an amazingly short amount of time for an\nanimal to be wiped out, and it shows just how relentless humans can be in their extermination of other creatures.\n\u2022 Steller, during his time on the St. Peter, documented hundreds of new species, including the northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus), the sea otter (Enhydra lutris), Steller\u2019s sea",
+    "pigeons could have been forced over the edge by an introduced viral infection known as\nNewcastle disease.\n\u2022 The nesting colonies of passenger pigeons were huge, covering an area of up to 2,200 km2,\nwhich is considerably bigger than the area of Jacksonville in Florida.\n\u2022 Passenger pigeons were used to feed pigs and were processed to make oil and fertilizer.\nAlthough the adult birds were eaten in their millions, the young pigeons, known as\nsquabs, were said to be delicious.\n\u2022 The term stool pigeon originates from the practice used by hunters to kill large numbers\nof passenger pigeons. A single bird was captured and its eyes were sewn shut with\nthread before it was attached to a circular stool that could be held aloft on the end\nof a stick. The stool would be dropped and the pigeon would \ufb02utter its wings as it\nattempted to land. Other pigeons \ufb02ying overhead would see one of their number apparently alighting, and they, too, would land in the hope of \ufb01nding food, allowing the",
+    "SCIMITAR CAT\n\nScimitar Cat\u2014The scimitar cats are another extinct species of felines with large canine teeth. They were\nlarge, long-limbed animals, and they probably used their impressive teeth to kill and dismember large herbivorous mammals. (Renata Cunha)\n\nScientific name: Homotherium sp.\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivora\nFamily: Felidae\n\n\f\n\n10,000\u201312,500 YEARS AGO",
+    "of the vegetation is little more than a few centimeters tall, all thanks to the tireless\nmouths of the introduced goats.\n\u2022 Guadalupe is governed by Mexico, and even though the island has been a protected\nreserve since 1928, only recently has anything been done to restore the habitats on\nthe island. In 2005, a scheme was initiated to remove the goats from the island, and\nit is hoped that once these destructive herbivores are gone, the island\u2019s vegetation will\nregenerate naturally.\n\u2022 Caracara bones from the Rancho La Brea asphalt deposits, approximately 40,000 years\nold, are supposedly very similar to quelili bones, and as California is so close to Guadalupe, there is a good chance that this is where the ancestors of the quelili originated.\nFurther Reading: Abbott, C. G. \u201cClosing History of the Guadalupe Caracara.\u201d The Condor 35\n(1933): 10\u201314.",
+    "this feline lived? Is it possible to say whether the American lion was a social animal that\nlived and hunted in prides, as lions do today, or whether it was a solitary predator? Amazingly, there is some evidence to suggest that the American lion used teamwork to catch and\nsubdue prey. This evidence is in the shape of a 36,000-year-old mummi\ufb01ed bison that was\nfound in Alaska by a gold prospector in 1979. Blue Babe, as this bison came to be known,\nhas wounds that seem to be the work of two or three American lions. In the hide of this\ndead animal are the puncture wounds made by canine teeth and the characteristic slashes\nmade by large feline claws. The only other animal capable of in\ufb02icting such wounds was\nthe large scimitar cat, Homotherium serum, but a bite from this animal would have left a big\ntear in the skin, rather than puncture wounds. For some unknown reason, the lions that attacked this bison only ate part of the carcass before they were disturbed. We know the kill",
+    "ago, the ancestors of the two living camel species migrated into Asia via the Bering land\nbridge.\n\u2022 The dromedary camel is actually extinct in the wild. It was domesticated at least\n3,500 years ago (possibly as much as 6,000 years ago) and proved so useful to early",
+    "INDEX\nBanded hare-wallaby, 155\nBantu, 72\nBarbados, 8\nBear, 32, 42, 100\u2013101, 105, 126. See also Cave\nbear; Short-faced bear\nBeaver, 23. See also Giant beaver\nBering Land Bridge: bears, 127; bison, 132,\ncamels, 183; felines, 103, 105; human\nmigration, 42, 113; mastodon, 97\nBering Sea, 45\u2013 47\nBering, Vitus, 45\u2013 47\nBison, 86, 126. See also Blue Babe; Giant bison\nBite. See Hyena; Marsupial lion; Megatooth\nshark; Saber tooth cat; Scimitar cat; Thylacine\nBlue Babe, 105\u2013 6\nBoers, 35\nBolivia, 111\nBones: archeological sites, 41, 115\u201316; chemical\nanalyses, 115, 126; commodity, 32; DNA, 57;\ndiscovered by Charles Darwin, 110; evidence of\ngroup living, 94, 96, 127; evidence of predation\nand hunting, 57, 96, 116, 130, 144; lake clays,\n79, 80, 100; wishbone, 66\u2013 67. See also Cave;\nRancho La Brea\nBorneo, 72\nBrain, 87; cave bear, 114; dire wolf, 113; hominid,\n129\u201330, 135, 136, 137, 139; saber tooth cat, 94\nBreeding, 17, 72; grounds, 6\u20137, program, 35;\nseason, 9, 31, 72, 74 \u201375, 78, 80, 91, 98\u201399,",
+    "105, 112; predation of, 112; South American,\n91, 101, 170\nMegalania. See Giant monitor lizard\nMegalodon. See Megatooth shark\nMegapode. See Du\nMegatooth shark, 165\u2013 68\nMenhaden (\ufb01sh), 39\nMerriam\u2019s teratorn, 119\u201321\nMexico, 16, 27, 28, 126\nMiddle East, 50\u201352, 137, 182\nMilankovitch, Milutin, 123. See also\nClimate change\nMiocene, 78, 90, 171\nMissouri, 7, 13, 21\nMoa, 44, 52\u201358, 61\nMoa-nalo, 63\u2013 65\nMongolia, 33, 184\nMongoose, 72, 177\nMonitor lizard. See Giant monitor lizard\nMonogamy, 170\nMonotreme, 142, 156\u201358\nMucus, 4, 149",
+    "recent past, or the far-reaching consequences of an expanding human population. The main\npurpose of Extinct Animals is to present what we know about the lives of animals that have\ndisappeared forever in a way that just about anyone can read and understand. Textbooks are\nfull of fascinating information, but all too often, they are inaccessible to general audiences.\nThis book provides a bridge to those resources for anyone who has even the slightest interest in the world around him and what it was once like.",
+    "However, what the tarpan lacked in size it more than made up for in resilience and stamina.\nBeing an animal of the Asian steppes, it was able to survive in the very harsh conditions that\nsometimes sweep over these treeless plains. In the wintertime, its grayish brown coat grew\nlong to give it added protection from the cold. In some of the more northern reaches of its\nrange, the tarpan may even have been white. According to some of the Evenk people, ivory\nhunters searching for the tusks of mammoths in the deep permafrost of Siberia would\noften \ufb01nd white horses. It is possible that these could have been white tarpan that met\ntheir end in a bog, only to become entombed in ice as the earth entered another of its many\nglaciations.\nLike other horses, the tarpan was a grazer and a herd animal. Like many other \ufb02eetfooted animals, the tarpan found protection from its predators by living in a herd. Long ago,\nthe Asian steppe was prowled by many di\ufb00erent predators, many of which were perfectly",
+    "87\n\n\f\n\nThis page intentionally left blank\n\n\f\n\n5\n10,000\u201312,500\nYEARS AGO\n\nGLYPTODONT\n\nGlyptodont\u2014The glyptodont\u2019s huge, domed\ncarapace made it almost invulnerable to\npredators. (Natural History Museum at\nTring)\n\nGlyptodont\u2014Even if a predator was stupid enough\nto attack an adult glyptodont, its lashing tail could\ninflict some serious injury. (Natural History Museum at Tring)\n\nScientific name: Glyptodonts\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Cingulata\nFamily: Glyptodontidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The glyptodonts became extinct about 10,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The glyptodonts were native to South America, although fossils of a\nsimilar animal are known from the southern parts of North America.\n\n\f\n\n90\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "increasing aridity in Australia, which reached a climax some 20,000 years ago and an increase in the abundance of charcoal in the fossil record, suggesting a change in the frequency\nof \ufb01res. We also know that humans reached Australia around 60,000 years ago. Humans\nundoubtedly hunted the prey of the marsupial lion, and it could have been a combination of\ncompetition with humans and a \ufb01re-induced vegetation change brought about by humans\nas well as climate change that forced these remarkable Australian mammals into extinction.\n\u2022 The mammals are divided into three groups: the monotremes (duck-billed platypus\nand echidnas), marsupials, and placentals. The latter have become the most widespread\nand successful of all the mammals, while the marsupials are at their most diverse in\nAustralia and South America. As marsupial females give birth to an embryo that\nspends the rest of its early development locked onto a teat in a pouch (marsupium), the",
+    "thought that the dwarf elephant evolved from the straight-tusked elephant (Elephas antiquus),\nan inhabitant of Europe up until around 11,500 years ago. Searching for new areas of habitat,\nthe elephants took to the water or crossed a land bridge, eventually reaching Sicily.\nEven though Sicily is one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean, it is a small landmass,\nand a straight-tusked elephant, at around 10 tonnes, is a huge animal with a big appetite.\nLiving, fully grown elephants require about 200 kg of food every day to survive. This can be\nsustained on the mainland, where the animals can move to new areas of habitat, but the vegetation on an isolated landmass would quickly be exhausted by the immense appetites of these",
+    "Further Reading: \u201cA Passing in Cincinnati\u2014September 1, 1914.\u201d In Historical Vignettes 1776\u20131976,\nWashington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1976; Halliday, T. \u201cThe Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon Ectopistes migratorius and Its Relevance to Contemporary Conservation.\u201d Biological\nConservation 17 (1980): 157\u201362.",
+    "domesticated horses had found their way all over the world, as human explorers took them\nwherever they went.\nIn a vain attempt to resurrect the tarpan, the Polish government collected together a\nnumber of ponies that were considered to have tarpan characteristics. These were taken\nfrom their peasant owners and sent to forest reserves. This was a pointless exercise as the\nponies they chose were a product of millennia of selective breeding and they were no more\npurebred tarpan than a German Shepherd dog is a purebred wolf. The same German scientists who thought it would be possible to resurrect the aurochs turned their attention to\nrecreating the tarpan by selective breeding. This notion sorely lacked merit because no one\nknew or knows to this day what constitutes the tarpan on a genetic level. These attempts at\nselective resurrection did produce two types of horse, the Konik of Poland and the Heck of\nGermany, which are thought to resemble the tarpan super\ufb01cially.",
+    "Extinction Insight: Entombed in Tar\u2014The Rancho\nLa Brea Asphalt Deposits\nIn downtown Los Angeles is one of the most fantastic fossil sites in the whole world\u2014a place that\nhas given us an unparalleled glimpse of a small corner of ice age earth. Rancho La Brea, frequently\nreferred to as the La Brea tar pits, has yielded around 1 million bones since excavations began\nthere in 1908. The site is actually above an oil \ufb01eld, and oil has been seeping to the surface through\n\n85\n\n\f\n\n86\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "larynx to produce the sounds we know as words. Without these soft tissues, it is impossible\nto know exactly what sounds the Neanderthals were capable of making, but it has been suggested that Neanderthal language was not as elaborate as our own.\nAlong with some form of vocal communication, the Neanderthals buried their dead.\nSome paleontologists have suggested that the Neanderthals adorned the bodies of their\ndead with \ufb02owers, but this theory is very controversial and is based on the discovery of one\nskeleton commonly known as the Shanidar burial. If it were true, such a ritual would indicate that these long-dead humans had a complex culture that possibly included religion and\na concept of life after death.\nSo what happened to the Neanderthals? This is a big mystery, but numerous theories\nattempt to explain the disappearance of this other species of human. A popular one is that",
+    "was made in winter as the bison had its winter coat and good stores of fat under its skin in\npreparation for the harsh conditions ahead. Perhaps some really bad weather closed in, forcing the lions to abandon their kill. Most tellingly of all, there was a large piece of American\nlion cheek tooth buried in the neck of the bison. Maybe the killers returned to the carcass\nafter it had been frozen, and as they gnawed at the rigid \ufb02esh, one of them broke a tooth.\nThe carcass was left for good and eventually covered by silt during the spring thaw, only to\nbe unearthed by a high-pressure water hose 36,000 years later.\nFinds like Blue Babe give us vivid glimpses of the how the American lion lived, and as\nwith other extinct animals, the bones of the animal itself also tell many stories. Two specimens of the American lion from the Yukon show severe damage to the front of the lower\njaw. The damage had healed, leaving large swellings on the mandible. We know that living",
+    "When did it become extinct? The most recent specimens of this prehistoric animal are\naround 1.6 million years old, but there is circumstantial evidence that this great beast\nsurvived into much more recent times.\nWhere did it live? The remains of this animal have been found on the central steppes of\nAsia and at locations in southern Russia.\nMammoths were not the only giant, shaggy beasts that stalked the cold, windswept lands\nof central and northern Asia. That other group of massive herbivorous mammals, the rhinoceri, also spawned species that were adapted to the cold conditions that have prevailed on\nearth for the last 2 million years. The giant rhino was one of these animals. We only know\nit only from a few skeletons and isolated bones, but even these dry remains are a real sight.\nThe living animal, walking across the treeless plains of central Asia, must have been a very\nimpressive sight. An adult giant rhino was around 6 m long, 2 m at the shoulder, 5 to 6",
+    "canine teeth (see the entries \u201cSaber Tooth Cat\u201d and \u201cScimitar Cat\u201d in chapter 5).\nWhen South America was rafted away from the other landmasses that formed the supercontinent of Gondwanaland, it carried an unusual assemblage of mammals quite distinct\nfrom the inhabitants of the other continents. There were the forerunners of the sloths, anteaters, and armadillos we know today as well as less familiar types. Along with Australia,\nSouth America was also a marsupial stronghold, and for a while, these pouched mammals",
+    "Jaguar, 42, 90, 96, 105, 111, 172\nJamaica. See Antilles\nJurassic, 55\nKamchatka, 45, 47\nKangaroo, 12, 140; pouch, 144; predation, 12,\n141; red, 143. See also Cave, Nullarbor Plain;\nGiant short-faced kangaroo\nKansas, 7, 21\nKelp, 46\nKeratin, 5, 132, 164\nKiwi, 44, 54, 55, 145\nKomodo dragon, 148\u201350\nKre\ufb00t, Gerard, 25\nKurt\u00e9n, Bj\u00f6rn, 116\nLabrador, 7\nLake Callabonna, 143, 144\nLake clay, 80\nLand bridge, 117\u201319, 137. See also Bering Land\nBridge; Isthmus of Panama\nLapita, 67\nLava tube, 64\nLemur, 45. See also Giant lemur\nLightning Ridge, 158",
+    "xviii\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nbone of life on earth. It enables us to picture the lives of long-dead creatures and shows how\ncataclysmic events have ravaged life on earth on numerous occasions.",
+    "the world appears to coincide with the disappearance of these intriguing cats and many\nother prehistoric, predatory mammals. Perhaps a combination of climate change and hunting by prehistoric humans pushed the populations of the large herbivores to extinction. As\ntheir prey dwindled, the Smilodon species, with their very specialized hunting technique,\nfound it increasingly di\ufb03cult to \ufb01nd su\ufb03cient food in the changing landscape. It is amazing\nto think that our ancestors probably watched the Smilodon species hunting and going about\ntheir everyday lives. Even more intriguing is the possibility that our forebears were probably\nkilled and eaten by these impressive cats.\n\u2022 Three species of Smilodon are known: S. populator, S. fatalis, and S. gracilis. The species\ndescribed here, S. populator, probably evolved from S. gracilis after it reached South\nAmerica from the north. S. gracilis probably also gave rise to S. fatalis, which is the most",
+    "on an island shrinks, but for some animals smaller than a rabbit, the reverse is true, and they\ndevelop into giants. Survival on an island can be tough; food may be in short supply, and dispersing to new habitats is not an option. Therefore, if you are a big animal, it makes sense to\nshrink as a smaller body requires less energy than a big body. Scholars always assumed that\nhumans were beyond this general biological rule because they can make \ufb01re to keep warm and\nuse a host of other ways to cheat the environment. Perhaps the ancestors of the Flores humans\nwere less adaptable than modern humans, and the conditions favored a smaller body size.\nAlong with the bones, a great number of stone artifacts were also found. Many of these\nare simple stone tools, but some are much more sophisticated and seem to be designed for\nspeci\ufb01c purposes. Again, debate rages over whether these tools were made by Flores humans",
+    "SABER TOOTH CAT\nScientific name: Smilodon populator\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Carnivora\nFamily: Felidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This cat is thought to have gone extinct around 10,000\nyears ago, but as with any prehistoric animal, it is impossible to know exactly when it\ndisappeared.\nWhere did it live? This feline lived in South America.\n\n91\n\n\f\n\n92\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nSaber Tooth Cat\u2014The South American Smilodon populator was the largest saber tooth cat\nas well as one of the largest cats that has ever\nlived. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "Britain and the decks of Atlantic ships. It seems that the entire world population of Eskimo\ncurlew lived and traveled as one immense \ufb02ock, which, at its peak, probably numbered in\nthe millions. There is protection in numbers, but each year, many individuals were undoubtedly picked o\ufb00 by predators or perished due to exhaustion. These risks were intensi\ufb01ed\nmassively when Europeans started to settle North America.\nBecause the curlew \ufb02ew in such great \ufb02ocks, the settlers called them prairie pigeons, recalling the enormous \ufb02ocks of passenger pigeons that blotted out the sun in eastern North\nAmerica. There are accounts of an Eskimo curlew \ufb02ock of 1860 measuring more than 1 km\nlong and wide. Any animal that is edible and exists in huge numbers quickly attracts the attention of hunters, and unfortunately, the curlew was both of these things. The curlew may\nhave seemed numerous, but the enormous \ufb02ock the hunters preyed on was the entire global",
+    "INDEX\n73, 131; glaciation, 122, 183; interglacials,\n127; Jaktor\u00f3w, 51, 52; marine, 46; northern\nhemisphere, 14, 17, 52, 95, 101, 126, 133,\n183; rainforest, 131, 161; reserves, 33;\nsouthern hemisphere, 3, 11\u201313, 145, 154,\n155; Wiskitki, 51\nFossa, 72; giant 72\nFunk Island, 40\nGalapagos Islands, 64, 69, 70\nGastric-brooding frog, 3\u2013 6\nGastroliths, 147\nGeirfuglasker Island, 40\nGeorgia, Republic of, 134\nGermany, 3, 33, 137, 139\nGiant ape, 179\u2013 81\nGiant beaver, 99\u2013101\nGiant bison, 131\u201334\nGiant camel, 181\u2013 84\nGiant deer, 79\u2013 81, 112, 165\nGiant echidna, 156\u201358\nGiant ground sloth, 81\u2013 83\nGiant hyena, 176\u201379\nGiant lemur, 71\u201373\nGiant monitor lizard, 144, 148\u201350, 157\nGiant rhinoceros, 163\u2013 65\nGiant short-faced bear, 115, 125\u201327\nGiant short-faced kangaroo, 153\u201355\nGigantism, 174\nGlaciations, 32, 38, 75, 93, 105, 106, 127, 178\nGlacier. See Ice sheets\nGlossopetrae, 168\nGlyptodont, 42, 89\u201391, 173\nGoats, 25, 27\u201328, 65\nGobi Desert, 184\nGolden toad, 1\u20133, 5\nGondwanaland, 41, 55, 68, 71, 145, 158, 171",
+    "spines for extracting earthworms from the soil.\nThe echidnas are a specialty of Australasia and are only known from Australia and New\nGuinea. As with any group of living mammal, these odd animals were once represented by\ngiant species, and up until 40,000 years ago, there lived an echidna as large as a sheep. Today,\nthe largest echidna species is the western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijni), which can\nweigh as much as 16 kg; however, the giant echidna was about 1 m long and weighed at least\n50 kg. All the living echidnas are specialist predators of invertebrates, so we can be con\ufb01dent\nthat the giant echidna was no di\ufb00erent, although it is impossible to tell if this extinct monotreme preferred to eat ants or worms.\nThe giant echidna\u2019s large size may have a\ufb00orded it protection from some predators, but\nthe thylacine, marsupial lion, and giant monitor lizard were all large enough to tackle an",
+    "species. Herds of sheep, goats, and cattle grazed the delicate plains of inland Australia,\nlands that simply could not tolerate the intensive chomping of countless mouths, not to\nmention the hordes of hooves, which churned the ground into a dust bowl. Not long after\nEuropeans \ufb01rst settled Australia, the pig-footed bandicoot joined the long roll call of extinct marsupials.\n\u2022 Although the last veri\ufb01able pig-footed bandicoot was collected in 1901, interviews\nwith Aborigines suggest that it may have survived until the 1950s in some parts of the\nremote interior. As this animal is so small and shy, there is an outside chance that it\nsurvives today in some forgotten corner of inland Australia.\n\u2022 The Australian zoologist Gerard Kre\ufb00t sought the help of Aborigines to help him\n\ufb01nd some specimens of the pig-footed bandicoot. The picture he showed them was a\npig-footed bandicoot, but it lacked a tail, and so after several false starts, where they",
+    "sweat to cool the underlying blood. Its skin was darkened with melanin, a pigment that\nprotects the skin cells from the damaging e\ufb00ects of the sun\u2019s ultraviolet radiation.",
+    "Permafrost\u2014soil that is at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years.\nPermian\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 251 to 299 million years\nago.\nPerrisodactyls\u2014the group of herbivorous animals that includes horses, rhinoceri, and so\non, characterized by their odd number of hooves.\nPhotosynthesis\u2014the process by which plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and\nwater into food.\nPinniped\u2014the group of mammals that includes seals and sea lions.\nPlankton\u2014the mass of passively \ufb02oating, drifting, or somewhat motile organisms occurring in a body of water, primarily comprising microscopic algae, protozoa, and the larvae of\nlarger animals.\nPleistocene\u2014a geological epoch that extended from 10,000 to 1.8 million years ago.\nPliocene\u2014a geological epoch that extended from 1.8 to 5.3 million years ago.\nPolynesian\u2014the people and the culture originating from a group of around 1,000 islands\nin the Paci\ufb01c Ocean.\nPuggle\u2014the name given to the young of echidnas.",
+    "of darkness, using lanterns to dazzle them and sticks to club them. The fattened birds that\nsurvived took to the wing for the start of their migration, but gales would often blow them\ninto New England, and this was the signal for every man with a gun to come out and harvest\nthe poor animals. In the 1830s and 1840s, the birds were blown o\ufb00 course and ended up in\nNantucket. The populace killed the birds so mercilessly that the island\u2019s supply of powder\nand shot ran dry, interrupting the slaughter.\nUnder such intense hunting pressure, the Eskimo curlew was doomed. In 1900, Paul\nHoagland was hunting with his father near Clarks, Nebraska. They scared 70 Eskimo\ncurlews into taking \ufb02ight and followed them to a newly plowed \ufb01eld. They killed 34 of\nthe birds with four shots. In 1911, the same man came across eight of the birds, and\nhe killed seven of them. Reduced from an enormous \ufb02ock covering an area equivalent",
+    "though the mastodons survived for millions of years through numerous cycles of global cooling and warming. A second theory is that humans hunted the mastodons to extinction during their dispersal into North America from eastern Asia 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, at the\nend of the latest ice age. We know that humans hunted these animals as their weapons have",
+    "started o\ufb00 collecting butter\ufb02ies, moths, and other insects, but he progressed on to larger animals,\nusing his portion of the family fortune to secure rarities, especially birds. During his lifetime, Rothschild accumulated 2,000 mounted mammals, about 2,000 mounted birds, 2 million butter\ufb02ies and\nmoths, 300,000 bird skins, 144 giant tortoises, and 200,000 birds\u2019 eggs. He employed a small army\nof collectors to scour the far reaches of the globe for additions to his collections, and he was particularly keen to get his hands on species that had dwindled in numbers due to habitat destruction and\nhuman hunting and persecution. Rothschild was not alone as a fanatic collector of living things, and\nit is thought that together, these private collectors may have contributed to the extinction of several\nspecies, particularly birds that had already been pushed to the edge by human disturbance of their\nonce pristine habitats.",
+    "disproportionately large head. If the size estimates of the giant apes are correct, they were the\nlargest primates that have ever lived, and the largest species was more than twice the weight of\nthe largest male gorilla. Like those of the gorillas, the molars of the giant apes appear to be suited\nto pulverizing plant food. It\u2019s believed that they made use of the forests of bamboo that grow in\nSoutheast Asia, much in the same way as the living giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca).\nMost of the remains of the giant ape have been found in caves, but it is very unlikely that\nthe living animal was a cave dweller. No primates, except humans, routinely frequent caves,",
+    "Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia.\u201d Nature 431 (2004): 1055\u201361; Morwood, M. J., P. Brown, E.\nJatmiko, T. Sutikna, E. Wahyu Saptomo, K. E. Westaway, D. Rokus Awe, R. G. Roberts, T. Maeda, S.\nWasisto, and T. Djubiantono. \u201cFurther Evidence for Small-Bodied Homininss from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia.\u201d Nature 437 (2005): 1012\u201317; Obendorf, P. J., C. E. Oxnard, and B. J.\nKefford. \u201cAre the Small Human-like Fossils Found on Flores Human Endemic Cretins?\u201d Proceedings\nof the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2008), doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1488.",
+    "Extinction Insight: The Great American Interchange\nFollowing their discovery by Europeans in 1492, North America and South\nAmerica have been collectively known\nas the Americas or the New World,\ntwo immense landmasses that had been\nclose geographical neighbors for time\nimmemorial. However, the geological\nhistories of North and South America\nare very di\ufb00erent, and for huge expanses\nof time, there has been no physical link\nbetween them whatsoever. All of the\nlandmasses on earth were once assembled in a superlandmass, Pangea. Over\nmillions of years, Pangea fragmented,\nand all of the continents in the modern\nSouthern Hemisphere were grouped as\na southern supercontinent, Gondwanaland, while the continents of the Northern Hemisphere formed the northern\nsupercontinent, Laurasia. Over millions\nof years, these supercontinents were\nwrenched apart by the colossal forces\nof plate tectonics into the landmasses\nwe are familiar with today, and they\nwere rafted over the viscous rock of",
+    "Further Reading: Woods, C. \u201cLast Endemic Mammals in Hispaniola.\u201d Oryx 16 (1981): 146\u201352;\nMacFadden, B. J. \u201cRafting Mammals or Drifting Islands?: Biogeography of the Greater Antillian Insectivores Nesophontes and Solenodon.\u201d Journal of Biogeography 7 (1980): 11\u201322; Morgan, G. S., and\nC. A. Woods. \u201cExtinction and Zoogeography of West Indian Land Mammals.\u201d Biological Journal of\nthe Linnean Society 28 (1986): 167\u2013203.",
+    "WONAMBI\nScientific name: Wonambi naracoortensis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Sauropsida\nOrder: Squamata\nFamily: Madtsoiidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This snake became extinct around 40,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? This snake was only found in Australia.\nThe snakes are a very odd group of reptiles. Sinuous and legless, they have evolved some\namazing ways of catching their food and protecting themselves. Although these limbless\nreptiles are endlessly fascinating, their origins are nothing short of a mystery. It is thought\nthat their closest relatives are the monitor lizards, and although snake fossils are quite common, they can be hard to study, so we can only guess at how and why these remarkable reptiles evolved from lizard ancestors with functional limbs to the serpents we know today.",
+    "These cores enable us to look back in time and to see how the earth\u2019s climate has changed over\nthe eons. If we go back as far as 620,000 years, it seems that there have been seven glacial-interglacial\ncycles, each of which has lasted between 88,000 and 118,000 years. These cycles are dominated by\nthe cold, glacial phases, as the warmer interglacials have only lasted for between 28,000 and 49,000\nyears.\nAs an average human life span is around 75 years, we have little appreciation of cycles that are\nplayed out over hundreds of thousands of years\u2014all we can ever see are the aftere\ufb00ects. The implications for life on earth of these continual oscillations between chilly and warm are huge. Landliving animals can migrate in the face of climatic change, but plants, with their roots \ufb01xed \ufb01rmly\nin the ground, must simply allow their range to recede and expand with the changing conditions.\nThe glacial periods are not only cold, but also dry, conditions that do not favor the growth of dense",
+    "Further Reading: Savage, J. M. \u201cAn Extraordinary New Toad from Costa Rica.\u201d Revista de Biolog\u00eda\nTropical 14 (1966): 153\u201367; Jacobson, S. K., and J. J. Vandenberg. \u201cReproductive Ecology of the\nEndangered Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes).\u201d Journal of Herpetology 25 (1991): 321\u201327; Phillips, K.\nTracking the Vanishing Frogs. New York: Penguin, 1994.",
+    "most important factor. Toward the end of the last glaciation, the increase in global temperatures was responsible for the disappearance of northern grasslands, as the warmer, wetter conditions favored the growth of forests. These boreal forests cover vast swathes of the\nNorthern Hemisphere today, and thousands of years ago, they probably deprived the giant\nbears of prime scavenging territory. The dwindling populations under pressure due to habitat loss, competition, and even disease transmitted by the spreading brown bears may have\nbeen su\ufb03cient to drive the giant short-faced bear to extinction.\n\u2022 The giant short-faced bear is known to have existed for at least 800,000 years, and possibly far longer. In that time, the species experienced many global warming and cooling\nevents, lending support to the theory that it was not one single factor that led to the\nextinction of this species.\n\u2022 The remains of this bear have been found in caves. The bones discovered in Potter",
+    "experiencing glaciations and warm interglacials, but like much of the American megafauna,\nit disappeared at the end of the last glaciation. Humans were spreading though North",
+    "would get so excited and desperate that they would try to mate with anything that moved,\nincluding other males. Occasionally, between 4 and 10 feverish males would grab hold of\neach other to form a toad ball the signi\ufb01cance of which is unknown\u2014perhaps a female was\nin the middle of the ball but managed to give her suitors the slip. Once a male had struggled\nwith his competitors and beaten them to get a good hold of a female in the breeding grasp\nknown as amplexus, he could fertilize her eggs\u2014or at least, this was his intention. Often,\nother males would come along and try to separate the mating couple so that they could get\na chance at fertilizing the female\u2019s eggs.\nWhat with all this wrestling and bad sportsmanship, it\u2019s quite surprising that the golden\ntoad managed to breed at all, but breed they did, and the female would eventually lay 200\u2013400\n3-mm eggs in a long string in the breeding pool. Compared with many species of toad, the",
+    "megafauna. Like many of the animals that adapted to the cold conditions of the ice age, the\ngiant deer grew to a great size. In stature, it was a little larger than an average moose (Alces\nalces), measuring about 2.1 m at the shoulder. This is impressive enough, but the antlers of\nthe male were enormous. Skeletons have been found with antlers weighing 40 kg, which\nhave a span of more than 3.6 m. Why this deer should have such huge adornments on its\nhead has been a source of heated debate for some time, but it is now generally accepted",
+    "MARCANO\u2019S SOLENODON\n\nMarcano\u2019s Solenodon\u2014Marcano\u2019s solenodon, like its living close relatives, was a nocturnal predator of\ninvertebrates and other small animals. (Phil Miller)\n\nScientific name: Solenodon marcanoi\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Soricomorpha\nFamily: Solenodontidae\nWhen did it become extinct? It is not known when Marcano\u2019s solenodon became extinct,\nbut it was probably after the Europeans \ufb01rst reached the New World at the end of the\n\ufb01fteenth century.\nWhere did it live? The remains of this animal are only known from the island of\nHispaniola.\nHispaniola, along with Cuba and Jamaica, make up the Caribbean island group known\nas the Greater Antilles. All these islands once had their own distinctive fauna, the ancestors\nof which somehow reached these islands from North, Central, and South America. Today,\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 500 YEARS AGO",
+    "The giant bison seems to have vanished before humans arrived in North America, but it is\nunlikely it became extinct in the normal sense. As the giant bison adapted to the ever changing\nAmerican landscape, it evolved into the smaller fossil species, the ancient bison (Bison antiquus). Bison antiquus lived between about 20,000 and 10,000 years ago and, in turn, evolved\ninto the modern bison. Mitochondrial DNA recovered from Bison antiquus is very similar to\nthat of modern bison, demonstrating the association. No DNA has yet been recovered from\nthe fossils of the giant bison, but there is a clear reduction in size moving from the giant bison,\nto the ancient bison, to the modern bison, providing a good example of evolutionary change.\nThe \ufb01rst humans to colonize North America, the Clovis culture, known from their widespread, distinctive \ufb02int arrowheads and spearheads, undoubtedly knew the ancient bison\u2014the",
+    "Sexual selection\u2014a theory that states that certain traits and characteristics can be explained by competition between members of a species.\nSilurian\u2014one of the earth\u2019s geological ages, which extended from 416 to 443 million years\nago.\nSinkhole\u2014a depression or hole in the surface of the ground due to the removal of soil and\nbedrock, usually by water.\nSteppe\u2014a grassland plain without trees.\nSymbiotic\u2014the close and often long-term relationship that exists between two species of\norganism.\nSynapsid\u2014the class of animals that includes mammals and their closest relatives such as\nthe now extinct mammallike reptiles.\nSyphilis\u2014a sexually transmitted disease caused by a spirochete bacteria that a\ufb04icts many\ntypes of mammal.\nTertiary\u2014the geological period that extended from 1.8 to 65 million years ago.\nThermal inertia\u2014the ability of a substance to store internal energy as heat and has important implications for animals. A large animal has a lower surface area to volume ratio than a",
+    "What happened to these feathered giants? The simple answer is humans. Polynesians\n(called M\u0101ori), on their seafaring craft, reached New Zealand around a.d. 1300, and their\ne\ufb00ect on the plants and animals of these islands was dramatic. We can only imagine what\nthese people thought when they reached New Zealand, but they must have been at sea for a\nlong time without charts and no idea of their destination, so for them to come across these\nverdant, volcanic islands stocked with all sorts of food must have been cause for celebration.\nThere is evidence to suggest that these migrants started wild\ufb01res, maybe to clear areas for\nthe cultivation of crops or perhaps as a way of driving prey animals out from cover. They\nalso hunted the moa directly, and what with the combined e\ufb00ects of this and habitat loss,\nthe moa were doomed. The moa were probably long-lived birds, and it has been shown that\nthey only reached full size at about the age of 10, with several more years passing before they",
+    "\u2022 The name \u201cAmerican cheetah\u201d is often used to describe two extinct North American\ncats, the other being M. inexpectatus, which was a larger, and even more ancient species.\nIn terms of appearance, this cat was halfway between the living cheetah and the living\npuma, and it may have been a more generalist predator than M. trumani.\n\u2022 The cheetah and its prey (usually, gazelles, Gazella sp.) are often used to exemplify\nthe concept of evolutionary arms races. In this case, the cheetah and the gazelle are\nlocked in a struggle\u2014if the cheetah evolves to run slightly faster, it will be able to\ncatch more prey, weeding out the slower individuals from the population of gazelles;\nthe surviving, faster gazelles pass on their \ufb02eet-footedness to their o\ufb00spring, and\neventually, these quicker individuals will predominate. So this process goes, with\nevolution continuously honing each species so that neither has the advantage for\nlong.",
+    "have been very hard as horses have excellent smell and hearing and can sense the approach\nof danger way before they can see it. When the domestication breakthrough came, hunting was made much easier on the back of a tame tarpan, and the species began its slow,\ninexorable slide toward extinction. Hunting was not the main problem facing this species.\nAs people became aware of the usefulness of the tarpan, more and more would have been\ntaken from the wild to supplement the young that were reared from the tame individuals.\nThe numbers of the domesticated tarpan grew, and over time, their distinctive characteristics, such as aggression and spiritedness, were \ufb01ltered out in the process of selective breeding to produce a horse that was calm and cooperative. These animals were less like tarpan\nand more like today\u2019s horses. Unfortunately for the tarpan, it could still mate with these\ndomesticated horses, and its unique genes were diluted. This continued until the middle of",
+    "unafraid of humans. Dodos had never seen a human, and as a result, they had not learned\nto be afraid. It is said they would waddle up to a club-wielding sailor only to be dispatched\nwith one quick swipe. In the rare situation in which they felt threatened, they would use\ntheir powerful beak to good e\ufb00ect and deliver a painful nip.\nHunting obviously hit the dodos hard\u2014their size and small clutches suggests that they\nwere long-lived, slow-breeding birds, which was not a problem in the absence of predators, but as soon as humans and their associated animals entered the equation, extinction\nwas inevitable. Seafarers who visited Mauritius brought with them a menagerie of animals,\nincluding dogs, pigs, rats, cats, and even monkeys. These animals disturbed the nesting\ndodos and ate the lonesome eggs. With this combination of hunting, nest disturbance, and\negg predation, the dodo was doomed. It has been suggested that \ufb02ash \ufb02ooding could have",
+    "actually splayed, and it was once thought that this is how the living animal must have\nlooked. This idea is now rejected as such large, splayed teeth jabbed into a victim would\nhave generated skull-splitting force.\n\u2022 In the marsupials we know today, the young become independent as soon as they \ufb01nish taking their mother\u2019s milk. However, the pouch-knife young may have stayed with\ntheir mother for extended periods of time to learn and develop the specialized killing\ntechnique used by this species.\n\u2022 Victorian paleontologists came up with all sorts of ideas for how the pouch-knife used\nits impressive teeth. One of the more amusing theories is that the marsupial used its\ncanines and scabbards like can openers to open the domed carapaces of glyptodonts\n(see the entry in chapter 5). Even if a pouch-knife was foolish enough to gnaw the bony\nshell of one of these animals, it would have quickly found itself with a pair of broken\ncanines.",
+    "old\u2014it was just that the very dry conditions in the cave had prevented it from rotting.\nInterestingly, the mummi\ufb01ed skin was studded with bony nodules, which probably\ngave the animal excellent protection from the teeth and claws of predators, and perhaps even the spears and arrows of early humans.\n\u2022 It would be fantastic if a species of giant ground sloth had somehow survived into\nthe modern day, but accounts of the mapinguary may be due to confusion with other\nanimals or derived from folk memories of when humans encountered these animals\nthousands of years ago.\nFurther Reading: Bargo, M. S., G. De Iuliis, and S. F. Vizca\u00edno. \u201cHypsodonty in Pleistocene\nGround Sloths.\u201d Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 51 (2006): 53\u201361; Bargo, M. S., N. Toledo, and\nS. F. Vizca\u00edno. \u201cMuzzle of South American Pleistocene Ground Sloths (Xenarthra, Tardigrada).\u201d",
+    "GREAT AUK\nScientific name: Pinguinus impennis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Charadriiformes\nFamily: Alcidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last pair of great auks was killed in 1844, although\nthere was a later sighting of the bird in 1852 on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.\nWhere did it live? The great auk was a bird of the Northern Atlantic, frequenting islands\no\ufb00 the coast of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and northern Europe.\nIn the roll call of recently extinct animals there is a long list of bird species, and \ufb02ightless\nbirds feature very prominently\u2014hit hard by the spread of humans to the far reaches of the\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 200 YEARS AGO\n\nGreat Auk\u2014The largest of the auks was killed off by overzealous hunting. (Natural History Museum\nat Tring)",
+    "\u2022 The ancestors of the mastodons evolved in North Africa around 30 to 35 million years\nago. From this point of origin, they spread through Europe and Asia, eventually crossing into North America.\n\u2022 Europe was once home to a species of mastodon, but it became extinct around 3 million years ago, leaving North America as the last refuge for these animals.\n\u2022 As the remains of mastodons are found singly, it has been proposed that these animals did not form family groups. They may have led a solitary existence, only coming\ntogether during the breeding season, which is in contrast to modern elephants, and\nprobably mammoths.\n\u2022 The disease tuberculosis leaves characteristic grooves on the bones of infected animals.\nIt is possible that diseases such as tuberculosis were brought to North America by\nhumans as they dispersed throughout the continent.\nFurther Reading: Fisher, D. C. \u201cMastodon Butchery by North American Paleo-Indians.\u201d Nature 308",
+    "not only for their beautiful appearance, but also for their playfulness and the ability of some\nspecies to mimic the human voice. The inherent beauty and charm of these birds makes it\nhard to understand why humans would willingly seek to wipe them out, but this is exactly\nwhat has happened on a number of occasions.\nOne of the most tragic examples of how humans have actively exterminated one of\nthese interesting birds is the tale of the Carolina parakeet, a beautiful bird and the only\nnative parrot of the United States. Around 30 cm long and 250 g in weight, this colorful bird was very common in the eastern deciduous forests of the United States, and\nespecially in the dense woodland skirting the many great rivers of this region. The birds\nnormally lived in small groups, although larger \ufb02ocks would gather in the presence of",
+    "that have completely forsaken the power of \ufb02ight, the sternum of the giant owl does\nhave a keel, indicating that the living bird\u2019s \ufb02ight muscles may have been large enough to\ntake the bird into the air for very short distances. Much like a turkey, the giant owl was\nprobably capable of short, feeble \ufb02ights when threatened, but its long legs and large feet\nsuggest that it preferred stalking around at ground level. In terms of size, the giant owl\nwas far in excess of any living owl. The two eagle owl species, (Bubo bubo and Bubo blakistoni), are the largest living owls and can reach a weight of around 4.5 kg. The Cuban owl\nwas probably double this weight. Because of its size and because Cuba was free of large\nmammalian predators, the Cuban giant owl may have switched from a nocturnal lifestyle to a diurnal one. Strutting around the forested islands of Cuba, the giant owl used\nits predatory adaptations to hunt animals as large as hutia (Capromys pilorides), stocky",
+    "spending most of their time in lakes and rivers, browsing on aquatic vegetation.\n\u2022 The fact that Australian Aborigines lived alongside diprotodons in some parts of Australia for thousands of years is the reason why some people believe that the stories of\nthe bunyip, a terrible aquatic beast, are based on folk memories of living diprotodons.\nThe bunyip is said to be a dangerous animal that will kill any creature that ventures\ninto its aquatic home. However, it is often the case that due to huge stretches of time,\nthe recollections of extinct animals that persist in folk memories are often massively\ndistorted.\nFurther Reading: Wroe, S., M. Crowther, J. Dortch, and J. Chong. \u201cThe Size of the Largest Marsupial and Why It Matters.\u201d Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 271 (2004):\nS34\u2013S36; Wroe, S., and J. Field. \u201cA Review of the Evidence for a Human Role in the Extinction",
+    "remain. Some animals met their end in peat bogs, and these deep beds of slowly decomposing plant\nmatter are excellent for preservation of animal bones and even soft tissues. Tar pits, like peat bogs,\nkeep oxygen away from the remains of dead animals, and the bones that come to lie in these pools\nof ooze are remarkably well preserved.\nThe fossil record may be very fragmentary, but it is continually being added to. With every passing day, new fossils are revealed as the action of water, wind, and ice erodes the surface of the earth.",
+    "The range of the thylacine, also inaccurately known as the Tasmanian wolf or Tasmanian\ntiger, once encompassed the forests of New Guinea and most of Australia, as bones and\nother remains testify. However, at least 40,000 years ago, humans reached these lands, and\nthe demise of the thylacine began. When European explorers \ufb01rst reached this part of the",
+    "that the species would not survive for very long in the face of human persecution. In\nactual fact, the warrah was exterminated in Darwin\u2019s own lifetime.\n\u2022 It was once a widely held myth that wolves sucked the blood of their prey, a belief that\nled to their persecution wherever they were found.\nFurther Reading: Alderton, D. Foxes, Wolves, and Wild Dogs of the World. Poole, UK: Blandford Press,\n1994; Nowak, R. Walker\u2019s Carnivores of the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.",
+    "fought these invaders but were forced to abandon their prime territories. The Europeans\nmercilessly destroyed the abundant South African wildlife, not only for food and skins, but\nalso for recreation and to make way for agriculture. The quagga was one of the casualties\nof this onslaught. In the 1840s, great herds of quaggas and other animals roamed South\nAfrica, but only 30 years later, in 1878, the last wild quagga was shot dead. The last quagga,\na female, died in Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam in 1883. Today, the remnants of this\nSouth African wildlife can only be seen in national parks.\n\u2022 Six subspecies of the plains zebra are recognized. Two of these, the quagga and\nBurchell\u2019s zebra, are extinct today, and the other subspecies have lost a lot of their habitat to human encroachment. Although their numbers have declined, zebras can still be\nseen in large numbers in sub-Saharan national parks.\n\u2022 As with the tarpan and the aurochs, animal breeders are attempting to resurrect the",
+    "many as 24 species of moa. The smallest species were around 1 m tall and weighed around\n25 kg, while the biggest species, Dinornis robustus, on South Island, and Dinornis novaezelandiae, on North Island, were enormous, at around 4 m at their full height and 275 kg in\nweight. Interestingly, moa skeletons and reconstructions are almost always shown standing\nupright, but scientists now think that they walked around with their neck held more or less\nhorizontal to the ground, but they could have probably risen to their full height when they\nneeded to. All the moa were covered in very \ufb01ne feathers, resembling hair\u2014much like the",
+    "being the knuckle-dragging ogres of Victorian imagination, were actually a sophisticated\nand successful species.\nWe know from artifacts that have come to light that the Neanderthals made tools, and\ntheir ability in this regard was not far behind that of the Cro-Magnons (modern humans\u2014\nour species\u2014in Europe) who replaced them. Ancient unearthed tools thought to have been\nfashioned by Neanderthal hands provide us with an intriguing yet incomplete picture of\nhow our relatives lived. How did they go about catching their food, for instance? Their teeth\nand jaws are typically those of a vegetarian-omnivore, but analysis of their bone chemistry\nhas led some people to speculate that their diet was mainly meat, and if this came from\nliving animals, how did they catch and subdue their prey? For a long time, scientists believed\nthat the Neanderthals were only capable of wrestling with their prey and hacking it to death",
+    "famous paleontologist Bj\u00f6rn Kurt\u00e9n challenged this view and suggested that the peculiar\narrangements of bones could have been produced by chance as other bears shoved old bones\naround the cave \ufb02oor, preparing their winter retreat.\nThese and other \ufb01nds give us a fascinating glimpse of how early humans and long-dead\nanimals interacted in a very di\ufb00erent world. Some cave bear bones have been found bearing\nthe scorches from \ufb01re and the cut marks from stone tools. These show that prehistoric humans hunted the cave bear. But did they drive it into extinction? The cave bear survived hundreds of thousands of years of oscillating climatic conditions and changing habitat, and in the\nvery harsh glacial periods, the species may have been reduced to small populations that managed to cling to survival in sheltered valleys. Perhaps it was human hunting in combination\nwith the pressure of a changing climate that led to the demise of these interesting mammals.",
+    "ELEPHANT BIRD\nScientific name: Aepyornis sp.\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Struthioniformes\nFamily: Aepyornithidae\nWhen did it become extinct? It is not\nprecisely known when the elephant bird\nbecame extinct, but it may have hung on\nuntil the eighteenth or nineteenth century.\nWhere did it live? The elephant bird was\nfound only on the island of Madagascar.\nElephant birds were among the heaviest birds\nthat have ever existed. Following the extinction\nof the last dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the\nmighty reptiles that had dominated the earth\nfor more than 160 million years, the long overshadowed birds and mammals evolved into a\ngreat variety of new species, some of which\ngave rise to giants like the elephant bird.\nIn their general appearance, elephant birds\nwere\nsimilar to the \ufb02ightless birds called \u201cratElephant Bird\u2014The largest of the elephant bird\nspecies weighed around 450 kg. (Renata Cunha) ites\u201d with which we are familiar today, such as\n\n\f\n\n44",
+    "shipwrecked on Bering Island. Not only were these huge marine animals slow moving and\ngentle, but they also lived in family groups and appear to have been very curious. Steller\nobserved them investigating the small boats of men who carried guns and spears to shoot\nand stab them. In what was a very wasteful strategy, the wounded animals were allowed to\nswim o\ufb00 in the hope that the surf and tide would bring them ashore. Often this was not the\ncase, and the moribund animal would simply die and sink. The animals that were landed\nwere butchered, and although the \ufb02esh had to be boiled for quite some time, it was very\nsimilar to beef in taste. When the survivors of the St. Peter were rescued along with barrels\nof Steller\u2019s sea cow meat, it was not long before whalers, \ufb01shermen, and hunters, attracted to\nthe area for the bounteous amount of wildlife, turned their attention to these gentle animals\nto nourish them on their expeditions. Not only did they eat the meat and fat of this animal,",
+    "islands harbored other \ufb02ightless and \ufb02ying birds, bats, giant tortoises, and even snakes,\nall of which are now extinct. Precious little information is available on these animals.\nFurther Reading: Cheke, A. S. \u201cEstablishing Extinction Dates\u2014The Curious Case of the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and the Red Hen Aphanapteryx bonasia.\u201d Ibis 148 (2006): 155\u201358; Johnson, K. P., and\nD. H. Clayton. \u201cNuclear and Mitochondrial Genes Contain Similar Phylogenetic Signal for Pigeons\nand Doves (Aves: Columbiformes).\u201d Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 14 (2000): 141\u201351.",
+    "better perception of distance than kangaroos with a wide \ufb01eld of view. This could be very\nimportant for an animal that was moving at high speed through areas of open forest and tall\nshrubs, where there were numerous obstacles to negotiate. It may have also helped when\nreaching up into trees to select the most nutritious leaves. With that said, large herbivores\nare suited to surviving on low-quality food, and the forward-facing eyes may have given the\nliving animal an advantage we will never fully understand.\nThe giant kangaroo bounded around the wilds of Australia for a long time. The oldest fossils of this animal are around 1.6 million years old, whereas the most recent are 40,000 years\nold. It seems to have died out at around the same time as the majority of the Australian megafauna. Unfortunately, the de\ufb01nitive explanation for the extinction of these animals is elusive.\nThere are some scientists who believe that the \ufb01rst human inhabitants of Australia are solely",
+    "CAROLINA PARAKEET\nScientific name: Conuropsis carolinensis\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Psittaciformes\nFamily: Psittacidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last Carolina parakeet is thought to have died in 1918.\nWhere did it live? This parakeet was a wide-ranging inhabitant of the United States.\nThe two subspecies of this bird ranged from central Texas to Colorado and southern\nWisconsin, across to the District of Columbia and the western side of the Appalachian\nMountains, and throughout the drainage basin of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.\nFew animals have fascinated humanity for as long as the parrots and their relatives. Indigenous people in the tropics and people from Western societies alike covet these birds,\n\n13\n\n\f\n\n14\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nCarolina Parakeet\u2014Stuffed skins, like this one, and bones are all that remain of the Carolina parakeet.\n(Natural History Museum at Tring)",
+    "Today\u2019s land-dwelling, large mammal fauna is a shadow of what it was in prehistory. Since\nthe disappearance of the dinosaurs, almost every landmass has been home to a changing roll\ncall of large mammals. Of all the large mammals, the herbivores have attained the greatest sizes,\nand this, along with thick skin, horns, tusks, and antlers, has given them a lot of protection\nfrom potential predators. However, evolution always \ufb01nds a way, and over the last 50 million\nyears or so, there have been at least four separate mammal groups that have evolved a weapon\nto dispatch large, thick-skinned prey. The weapon is the saber tooth, and we have already been\nintroduced to two types of extinct cat that were able to kill their prey with massively modi\ufb01ed\ncanine teeth (see the entries \u201cSaber Tooth Cat\u201d and \u201cScimitar Cat\u201d in chapter 5).",
+    "Litoptern, 108\u201311\nLondon Zoo, 35, 38\nLord Howe Island, 68, 70\nLujan formation, 111\nLyall, David, 30\nMadagascar, 60, 61, 158. See also Elephant bird;\nGiant lemur\nMagni\ufb01cent teratorn, 168\u201371\nMammoth, 123; cave paintings, 100; compared\nwith mastodon, 97\u201399; frozen in permafrost,\n19, 32; part of the megafauna, 112, 126, 133,\n164; predation, 92, 96, 126; Rancho La Brea,\n87; tusks, 74 \u201375, 165\nManatee, 46, 167\nM\u0101ori, 54, 57\nMapinguary, 82, 83\nMarcano's solenodon, 58\u2013 60\nMarco Polo, 45\nMarrow, 127, 175\nMarsupial, 42, 90, 110. See also Diprotodon;\nGiant short-faced kangaroo; Marsupial\nlion; Pig-footed bandicoot; Pouch-knife;\nThylacine\nMarsupial lion, 139\u2013 42, 144, 157, 161\nMastodon. See American mastodon\nMauritius, 48\u201350, 61\nMazovia, Duke of, 51\nMediterranean, 116\u201319, 9, 10\nMegafauna: Australian, 24, 142, 152, 162;\nextinction of, 61, 105, 113, 144, 155, 157, 160;\nmodern, 132; Northern Hemisphere, 79, 101,\n105, 112; predation of, 112; South American,\n91, 101, 170",
+    "Day, D. The Doomsday Book of Animals. London: Ebury Press, 1981.\nDiamond, J. A. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking Books, 2005.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. New York:\nHarperCollins, 2006.\nFlannery, T. The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People. New York:\nGrove Press, 2002.\nFlannery, T., and P. Schouten. A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World\u2019s Extinct Animals. New York:\nAtlantic Monthly Press, 2001.\nFuller, E. Extinct Birds. Sacramento, CA: Comstock, 2001.\nGarbutt, N. Mammals of Madagascar: A Complete Guide. London: A&C Black, 2007.\nHaines, T., and P. Chambers. The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. London: BBC Books, 2005.\nHallam, T. Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.",
+    "Aboriginals, 13, 24 \u201325, 145, 152\nAfrica: animal dispersal, 78, 103, 179; bush, 98;\ncentre of evolution, 75, 99; geographic range,\n50, 76, 95, 96, 158, 166, 177; geology, 45,\n71; human evolution, 61, 134 \u201337; human\nmigration, 44, 116, 139; savannah, 90. See also\nQuagga\nAlaska, 19, 104 \u2013 6, 126\nAmbush predator: big cats, 92, 96; humans,\n145; marsupial, 12, 141, 171\u201373; reptiles,\n149, 152, 159. See also Predator adaptations\nAmerican cheetah, 101\u2013 4\nAmerican lion, 104 \u2013 6, 133\nAmerican mastodon, 86\u2013 87, 92, 97\u201399,\n112, 123, 133\nAmerican plains. See Grassland\nAmerindian, 59, 60, 103, 121; hunting, 18, 121\nAmphibian, 3, 6, 30, 59, 87. See also Gastricbrooding frog; Golden toad\nAndes, 169\u201370\nAnteaters, 42, 83, 171; feeding behavior, 157\nAntilles, 9, 58\u2013 60\nAntlers: ancient art, 76; composition, 164; giant\ndear, 79\u2013 80; protection from predators, 171;\nsexual selection, 165. See also Defense\nApatite, 166\nArchipelago, 36, 55, 63\u2013 65\nArgentina: Amerindians, 91; bird fossils, 169,",
+    "Today, four species of echidna have been described, and all of them, more or less, bear a\nsuper\ufb01cial resemblance to hedgehogs. They have long spines on their back, and their small\nhead ends in a thin snout. Three of the living echidna species have a relatively long snout\nand are known as long-beaked. Long-beaked echidnas are known only from the highlands\nof New Guinea. The most common living species is the short-beaked echidna, and it is\nfound all over Australia and in some parts of New Guinea. The short-beaked echidna is a\nspecialist predator of ants and termites. It probes the ground and insect nests with its long\nsnout and uses its long tongue to bring the prey to its mouth, in much the same way as an\nanteater; indeed, another, albeit incorrect name for the echidnas is \u201cspiny anteaters.\u201d The\nlong-beaked echidnas are similarly equipped with a long tongue, but theirs is equipped with\nspines for extracting earthworms from the soil.",
+    "the coast of Newfoundland, we know that the great auk hunted \ufb01sh that were up to about\n20 cm long, including such species as the Atlantic menhaden and the capelin. The grace and\nease with which the great auk sliced through the water was not re\ufb02ected in the way it moved\nabout on land. It was built for swimming, and on land it was a very cumbersome animal,\nwaddling around in the same way as the larger penguin species. As its feet were positioned",
+    "were no mammalian predators, \ufb02ight was an unnecessary extravagance, especially\nas food was so abundant.\nFlight limits the maximum\nsize a bird can ever be, and so\nwithout this limitation, the\nMoa\u2014Several species of moa once inhabited the islands of New moa grew to huge sizes. SecZealand. They ranged in size from 1-m-tall, 25-kg birds to 4-m-tall, ond, as there were no mam275-kg giants. (Renata Cunha)\nmalian herbivores in New\nZealand, the moa evolved to\n\ufb01ll this gap, taking on the ecological role that animals such as deer \ufb01ll in many other parts\nof the world.\nToday, between 10 and 15 species of moa are recognized by scientists from their remains,\nbut it is impossible to know exactly how many species of these interesting birds once inhabited the islands of New Zealand. Some experts have suggested that there could have been as\nmany as 24 species of moa. The smallest species were around 1 m tall and weighed around",
+    "its sensitive nose up at the chance of consuming meat when it was easily available such as\nfrom an abandoned carcass. There are even bones from some localities that suggest that, at\nleast in some places, the bears were mostly feeding on meat.\nBecause so many remains of the cave bear have been found over the years, we have a very\ngood picture of what ailments these animals su\ufb00ered from. The skeletons of many cave\nbears show signs of osteoarthritis, and in severe cases, the vertebrae of the spine have fused\ntogether or elaborate outgrowths of bone have sprouted from the limbs. Severe cases of this\ndisease made the su\ufb00ering animal lame. In many skeletons, there are the telltale signs of\nsevere dental wear and disease, and in the sinuses of the heads of a few individuals, there are\nthe large pockmarks of bone-eating bacterial infections. Although cave bears were robust",
+    "and kept predators at bay as well as having a multitude of other uses. Homo erectus stone\nimplements may be just a fraction of what these hominids were capable of creating. They\ncould have produced a range of di\ufb00erent tools using plants and various bits of animal, but if\nthese have stood the tests of time anywhere and not rotted away completely, they have not\nyet come to light.\nHomo erectus was undoubtedly a physically strong hominid, but was it an active predator\nor a scavenger on the kills made by predators such as big cats? Hunting requires a lot of time\nand energy, and it can also be very dangerous. Scavenging is less dangerous, but it is not easy,\nespecially if you are planning on stealing a carcass from beneath the nose of a saber tooth\ncat. However, the risks of scavenging are outweighed by the rewards of a huge amount of\nfresh meat.\nThe oldest Homo erectus fossils are around 1.8 million years old, and the most recent",
+    "10,000\u201312,500 YEARS AGO\n\nQuaternary Science Reviews 24 (2005): 1287\u20131301; Ant\u00f3n, M., and A. Galobart. \u201cNeck Function and\nPredatory Behavior in the Scimitar Toothed Cat Homotherium latidens.\u201d Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19 (1999): 771\u201384.\n\nAMERICAN MASTODON\n\nAmerican Mastodon\u2014The American mastodon was an elephantlike creature that inhabited North\nAmerica for a much longer period of time than the mammoths. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "USA 103 (2006): 7351\u201353; Lister, A. M., and A. V. Sher. \u201cThe Origin and Evolution of the Wooly\nMammoth.\u201d Science 294 (2001): 1094\u201397.",
+    "particularly fragile, and until very recently, no one had much of an idea how the head of\na thunderbird looked. Recent discoveries show that these birds had enormous heads and\nvery impressive beaks. The beaks are very deep, but quite narrow, and some of the species\nappear to have been equipped with powerful jaw muscles. Naturally, the impressive biting\napparatus of these extinct birds has led paleontologists to speculate about what they ate.\nSome paleontologists believe that they were carnivores, or perhaps even scavengers capable\nof breaking the bones they found at carcasses. Others believe that the thunderbirds were\nherbivores fond of nibbling vegetation and using their terri\ufb01c bill to crack open seeds and\nnuts. The image of a giant, carnivorous duck is an enticing one, especially for the media, but\nit is highly unlikely that these huge birds were meat eaters, or even scavengers. They lack",
+    "stone. Many of the animals in this book did not die long enough ago for their bones to have become\ncompletely mineralized, while others died in the wrong place for fossilization to occur. A perfect\nexample of the latter are the remains that have been found in the dry caves of the Nullarbor Plain,\nAustralia (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d on the Nullarbor Plain Caves in chapter 6). The animals that\ndied in these natural pitfall traps never got buried, and their bones lay on the \ufb02oor of the cave for\ntens of thousands of years before being seen by human eyes for the \ufb01rst time. The remains of these\nextinct Australian animals were still just bone, albeit very delicate, as no water had ever percolated\nthrough them to leave any strengthening minerals. Similarly, the remains of so-called Flores man,\nrecovered from Ling Bua Cave in Indonesia, had not undergone any mineralization and were on the\nverge of decomposing altogether.",
+    "of milk teeth from more than 70 young mammoths. Could the scimitar cat have been a\nspecialist predator of young mammoths? Based on observations of elephants, we know that\nyoungsters aged between two and four years old will stray from the family group to satisfy\ntheir curiosity with the world around them. Isolated, they are vulnerable to attack from\nlions. It is possible that the scimitar cat was preying on similarly curious young mammoths\nand maybe even dismembering the carcasses before certain parts were taken back to the cave\nfor consumption by the adults and cubs. These mammoth remains may have been brought\ninto the cave by other animals, such as dire wolves, the remains of which have also been\nfound in this refuge; nevertheless, we are left with a tantalizing glimpse of how these longdead cats may have lived. Perhaps they were specialist hunters of the young of the numerous\nelephantlike animals that once roamed the Northern Hemisphere.",
+    "When the species was \ufb01rst discovered in 1973, it was considered to be quite common, but\nby 1981, not a single specimen was to be found\u2014it was as though it had been spirited away.\nLike the golden toad of Costa Rica, exactly what happened to the gastric-brooding frog\nis unknown, but there have been several explanations, some of which are more plausible\nthan others. Pollution of the mountain streams by logging companies and gold panners has\nbeen cited as a reason for the disappearance of this species, but tests on the stream water\nfailed to show any signi\ufb01cant pollution. Habitat destruction has also been mentioned, but\nthe areas where this frog was found have been pretty well protected. With pollution and\nhabitat destruction largely ruled out, we arrive at the specter of disease. The chytrid fungus\nhas caused the deaths of amphibians all over the world. The fungus latches on to the body\nof an amphibian and takes root in its skin. The fungus forms cysts within the deeper layers",
+    "including forests and parklands as well as steppe grasslands, where it grazed on and browsed\na wide range of plants.\nExactly how the giant bison used its enormous horns is not clear, but they were de\ufb01nitely\nimportant when it came to the breeding season. Males must have fought for the right to mate\nwith as many females as possible, but it is likely that the males with the most impressive horns\naverted disputes through display, by simply intimidating their rivals with their size. Pleistocene\nNorth America supported a diverse population of predatory mammals, many of which were\na match for a bison, even a giant one. The larger saber tooth cats, American lions, and wolves\nhunting in packs may have been able to overpower a fully grown giant bison, but tackling an\nadult male with its vicious horns and great strength must have been very dangerous. The predators of the giant bison most likely focused their attention on calves and on old and sick adults.",
+    "cm tall at the shoulder. Its tail, unlike that of a wolf, was thickly furred, and like a fox, it\nexcavated dens in the sandy soil of the coastal dunes. Apart from mice, the land of the Falkland Islands supports precious little prey that sustained the warrah, but it is possible that\ninsect larvae and pupae featured prominently in its diet. Although the interior of the Falkland Islands is rather impoverished when it comes to carnivore food, the coast is a bounteous source of nourishment at certain times of the year. The islands are used by numerous\nmarine animals, including seals, sea lions, penguins, and a variety of \ufb02ying seabirds. When\nthese animals were raising their young, times must have been good for the warrah, and it\nprobably made o\ufb00 with eggs, nestlings, adult birds, and even young pinnipeds. To reach\nthese good supplies of food, the warrah traveled along well-worn paths that must have been",
+    "Spain, 78, 139\nSteller, Georg Wilhelm, 45\u2013 47\nSteller\u2019s sea cow, 45\u2013 47\nStephens Island Wren, 18\u201331\nStool pigeon, 18\nSumatra, 108, 130\nSumerians, 76\u201378\nSwamp, 100\u2013101\nTarpan, 31\u201333\nTasmania, 11\u201313, 144\nTasmanian wolf. See Thylacine\nTassili n'Ajjer, 78\nTemperature regulation, 107, 156, 183\nTenrec, 60\nTeratorn. See Magni\ufb01cent teratorn; Merriam's\nteratorn\nTerritory: bird, 54, 57, 169; mammal, 59,\n72, 127, 183\nTerror bird, 174 \u201376; colonization of North\nAmerica, 42; mistaken identity, 84; South\nAmerican predators, 90, 110, 172\nTexas: Great American Interchange, 91, 174;\nmigration route, 7; scimitar cat remains,\n19, 95\u201396",
+    "and the best way to tell them apart is to look at their teeth. The teeth of a mammoth are\ntopped o\ufb00 with shallow enamel ridges, making them very e\ufb00ective grinding surfaces for the\nmashing up of grasses and other coarse plant matter. The mastodon\u2019s teeth, on the other\nhand, are quite di\ufb00erent, as each one is surmounted with a small, enamel-covered cone that\nlooks a lot like a nipple, which is where the Greek name mastodon comes from (mastos translates as \u201cbreast\u201d; odont translates as \u201ctooth\u201d).\nThe structure of the mastodon\u2019s teeth gives us an idea of what these animals ate. As the\nteeth lacked a ridged grinding surface, we can assume that plants like grasses were o\ufb00 the\nmenu for these lumbering beasts, but their dentition seems to be well suited to chopping and\nchewing twigs and leaves. Unlike the mammoths, which were grazing animals, the mastodon\nmust have been a browser, feeding in the same way as modern elephants can sometimes",
+    "attempt to explain the disappearance of this other species of human. A popular one is that\nour ancestors, on their migration north from Africa, moved into the lands of the Neanderthals and eventually outcompeted them, even possibly going out of their way to eradicate\nthem. A second popular theory is that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred to such\nan extent that the characteristics of Neanderthals were diluted so much that we cannot see",
+    "it left these rocky refuges and moved out into the fast-\ufb02owing water, it showed itself to be\na very accomplished swimmer. Its powerful hind-limbs terminated in feet that were almost\ncompletely webbed, and these were used with good e\ufb00ect to propel the frog through the\nwater. The big, protruding eyes of this frog were positioned well on top of its head, and this\nallowed it to survey what was going on in the air and on land, while its body was out of sight\nbeneath the water. Although it was very well adapted to an aquatic existence, the gastricbrooding frog would often leave the water to hunt or to seek out a new stretch of stream.\nIts favored prey were small invertebrates, such as insects, but unlike many types of frog,\nthe gastric brooder did not have a long, sticky tongue to secure its prey; instead, it waited\nuntil its food was within range and simply lunged at it with an open mouth. With its prey",
+    "has been observed that the disappearance of many of the world\u2019s large land-living animals at\nthe end of the last ice age coincides with the dispersal of humans north from more temperate latitudes and into the New World. As the ice age relaxed its grip, humans edged farther\nand farther north into areas that had previously been inhospitable, and we know that these\nprehistoric people, our ancestors, hunted the mammoth for its meat and all the other parts\nof its body, which their skilled hands could turn into clothes, tools, and shelters. It is very\npossible that the human species contributed to the extinction of many majestic animals,\nincluding the woolly mammoth.\n\u2022 Ten species of mammoth have been identi\ufb01ed from around the world, and the group\nis thought to have evolved from an ancestor that lived in North Africa about 5 million\nyears ago.\n\u2022 The woolly mammoth was not nearly as large as some of the other mammoth species. The steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii), the Columbian mammoth",
+    "the Asian steppe was prowled by many di\ufb00erent predators, many of which were perfectly\nable to catch and subdue an animal as large as the tarpan. One by one, the tarpan\u2019s predators\ndied out, leaving only the wolf, the occasional bear, and of course, humans. By all accounts,\nthe tarpan was a very spirited animal and quite capable of defending itself by kicking and\nbiting. Humans are known to have killed the tarpan by driving herds of them o\ufb00 cli\ufb00s, a\nsure\ufb01re way of killing lots of them quickly.\nHorses are shown in many cave paintings throughout Europe, and it is very likely that\nthe tarpan and its relatives were simply hunted before an ancient innovator thought it\nwould be a good idea to try to tame them. Hunting these animals on the steppes must\nhave been very hard as horses have excellent smell and hearing and can sense the approach",
+    "Extinction Insight: Human Discovery and Extinction\nIn this chapter, you can read about some of the animals that have become extinct in the last\n500 years or so. Many of these were birds, and many inhabited islands that only became known to\nEuropeans during the last \ufb01ve centuries. Although the intensity of human movement started to really increase \ufb01ve centuries ago, migration and exploration are innate facets of human nature and are\nthings we have always done. The search for food and companions and simple curiosity has driven\n\n\f\n\nFEWER THAN 500 YEARS AGO",
+    "There are some scientists who believe that the \ufb01rst human inhabitants of Australia are solely\nto blame, while there is another group of experts who think that climate change was responsible. As we have seen, prehistoric extinctions can very rarely be attributed to a single cause,\nunless the landmass in question is a small island. In the majority of cases, the evidence indicates a number of causes in combination ultimately leading to the extinction of a large number\nof species. The probable causes for the disappearance of the giant kangaroo were the spread of\nhumans through Australia and climate change. Humans modi\ufb01ed the landscape through their\nuse of \ufb01re and probably hunted the giant kangaroo. Climate change made this continent more\ninhospitable to the large animals, which are often more sensitive to environmental change.\n\u2022 The giant kangaroo was not closely related to the group that contains the large, living",
+    "America were the ones with some sort of protection. The extinct glyptodonts, like the armadillos,\nwere protected with a tough carapace, while the ground sloths had powerful claws, thick skin, and\ngreat size on their side. Apart from mammals, one other group of South American animals, the terror birds, managed to survive in North America for a while, but it is possible that they crossed by\nisland hopping before the two landmasses became connected by a corridor of land.\nThe animals that moved into South America from the north thrived, and most of them are\nstill around today, even though this continent has been massively altered by humans. All of the\nSouth American cats, bears, and dogs have their origins in North America, but they all adapted\nto the varied habitats o\ufb00ered by this continent and may have even played a role in driving some\nof the South American native mammals to extinction. The giant, native animals that were unique",
+    "Scientific name: Mammut americanum\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Proboscidea\nFamily: Mammutidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The American mastodon is thought to have become extinct\naround 10,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The American mastodon was native to North America, and many remains have been found in the area immediately south of the Great Lakes.\nThousands of years ago, several species of mammoth could be found on the North American continent; however, these were not the only huge, shaggy, elephantlike beasts to be\nfound in these lands. The mastodon, a creature that is often confused with the mammoth,\nlived in North America for a very long period of time\u2014much longer than the mammoth\u2014\nevolving from creatures that crossed into the New World from Asia via the Bering land\nbridge as early as 15 million years ago.\n\n97\n\n\f\n\n98\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "tribe of hungry humans for many, many days, and the dwarf elephant\u2019s lack of fear made it\nvery easy to hunt. Sicily could have supported no more than a few hundred dwarf elephants,\nand this small population was probably wiped out in a few decades.\n\u2022 The islands of the Mediterranean are part of the continental crust, rather than being\ncreated relatively recently by volcanic activity. Therefore they have been around for a\nlong time\u2014isolated outposts in the azure waters of the Mediterranean.",
+    "and at least 1,800 kg, was the biggest camel that has ever lived.\nCamels are very interesting animals that have evolved a number of adaptations for surviving in very tough environments, and the two species of camel alive today, the dromedary and\nthe Bactrian (Camelus bactrianus), are born survivors, able to thrive in some of the harshest\nplaces on earth. What do we know about the giant camel? Was it similarly hardy? In some\nways, it may have been, but the America in which it lived was very di\ufb00erent to the land we\nknow today. The climate was warmer and moister, so it is unlikely the giant camel was as\nhardy as the living species.\nCamels are unique for their humps, which at one time were thought to store water, but\nare now known to store fat, making it possible for these animals to go for long periods\nof time without food. There is no way of knowing if the giant camel was humped. The",
+    "drawn to Rancho La Brea for one thing: carrion. Animals of every description met a slow and\ngrisly end in these sticky tar pits, and the larger ones, in their struggles to free themselves, must\nhave attracted predators from far and wide. Saber tooth cats came to try their luck, as did dire\nwolves and a range of other large predators. Many of these also became trapped until the sticky\ngoo was a banquet of dead and dying animals, just the sort of thing to appeal to scavengers.\nMerriam\u2019s teratorn and a host of other scavenging birds, including condors, eagles, and ravens,\nprobably perched in trees near the edge of the tar pits waiting for the \ufb01nal, futile struggles of a\nlarge mammal. With the poor animal still alive, the scavengers descended and perched on the\nhulking brute, tearing at the tar-matted hide with their sharp beaks. Just like today, squabbles\namong scavenging animals were commonplace, and the teratorns probably jostled for space on",
+    "atmosphere.\nPermian-Triassic\nThe mother of the major extinctions is the one that occurred at the end of the Permian period (about 250 million years ago), an event which de\ufb01nes the beginning of the Triassic. The\nPermian-Triassic extinction killed o\ufb00 around 96 percent of all marine species and about\n70 percent of land-dwelling species. Many theories for the cause of this event have been suggested, and some are more credible than others. The usual suspect of an asteroid strike (or\neven multiple strikes) has been proposed, but in the absence of de\ufb01nite crater(s), we cannot\nbe sure if this was the case. At around the right time to coincide with the Permian-Triassic\nevent, there appears to have been a massive increase in volcanic activity. The Siberian Traps\nare the lasting reminders of this colossal outpouring of basalt from the earth\u2019s mantle. In\nthis scenario, a plume of hot magma from the deep mantle rose up and ruptured the crust,",
+    "\u2022 The thylacine, when compared to the wolf, is one of the best examples of convergent\nevolution, the phenomenon by which two unrelated animals from widely separated\nlocations have a striking resemblance to one another because of the similar niches to\nwhich they have had to adapt. In Australasia, the thylacine \ufb01lled the niche of a running\npredator that is occupied by canid predators in the Northern Hemisphere, and as a\nresult, it came to look like them.\n\u2022 There are several preserved fetuses of the thylacine in museum collections around the\nworld, and scientists had suggested that it would be possible to bring the thylacine back\nfrom extinction using the DNA from these specimens and the technology of cloning.\nDNA was extracted from these specimens, but it was badly degraded, and therefore\ncloning would have been impossible.\nFurther Reading: Bailey, C. Tiger Tales: Stories of the Tasmanian Tiger. Sydney: HarperCollins, 2001;",
+    "Miocene sivathere fossils are also known from Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Spain. The\nanimals probably immigrated into Africa at a later date as the oldest sivathere remains\nfrom this continent are 5 million years old. These unusual gira\ufb03ds were successful animals that diversi\ufb01ed into several species that succeeded in colonizing a huge area of the\nancient earth. What happened to them? Before Edwin Colbert made the link between the\nKish artifact and Sivatherium, this extinct beast was thought to have disappeared around\n1 million years ago, the victim of climatic change and competition from other herbivorous\nungulates. If the Kish artifact depicts a genuine animal that survived until at least 3500\nb.c., our explanations for the disappearance of Sivatherium are inaccurate. The discovery\nof this small copper sculpture has provided us with the intriguing possibility that a species\nof sivathere survived until the cusp of recorded history and actually occupied a place in the",
+    "When did it become extinct? The only known remains of this bird are from around\n6 million years ago, but we don\u2019t have a more accurate idea of exactly when it became\nextinct.\nWhere did it live? The remains of this bird have been found in Argentina.\nThe two species of condor that inhabit the Americas are enormous birds. If you have ever\nseen one of these birds for real or television footage of one of them tearing at the carcass of a\ndead animal, you\u2019ll appreciate just how big they are. They can be around 1.1 m tall, and their\nwingspan can be as much as 3.1 m. In the sky, these birds use their huge wings to soar for\nhours on updrafts of warm air, surveying their immense territories for food. With the living\ncondors in mind, let\u2019s travel back in time around 6 million years and visit Argentina. Back\nthen, the Andes were only starting to form due to the tectonic forces that pushed the Paci\ufb01c\nplate under the South American plate. As a result, the \ufb02at grasslands of Argentina were",
+    "very compelling, especially on a group of small islands where news travels fast and where\nlivelihoods are at stake. In an attempt to quell the populace, the colonial government of the\nFalkland Islands ordered a bounty on the warrah, and fur hunters soon moved in to collect\nhandsome rewards for delivering the pelts of dead animals.\nThe Falkland Islands, with a land area roughly the size of Connecticut, could never\nhave supported huge numbers of warrah. Even before the human invasion, the warrah",
+    "these frogs evolved a couple of tricks that turned the stomach into a snug little capsule for\ntheir developing brood. It seems that the eggs and the tadpoles of this frog secreted a type\nof chemical known as a prostaglandin. This chemical blocked the cells of the stomach lining from secreting acid, and the walls of the stomach thinned. The young frogs turned the\nstomach into a cozy cr\u00e8che. After six to seven weeks of developing in their mother\u2019s alimentary canal, 6 to 25 tiny but fully developed froglets clambered out of their mother\u2019s mouth\nto begin their own life in the big wide world. Throughout this whole brooding period, with\nher stomach e\ufb00ectively shut down, the female frog was unable to feed, so after the departure\nof her young, her \ufb01rst consideration was probably \ufb01nding some food.\nIn fewer than 10 years after its discovery, the gastric-brooding frog disappeared. Extensive searches of the mountain streams in the early 1980s failed to turn up a single specimen.",
+    "tortoises that inhabit the Gal\u00e1pagos Islands and some of the islands in the Indian Ocean.\nThe moa-nalo may have been equipped with powerful bills and sturdy legs, but their\nwings were tiny structures that were of no use whatsoever for \ufb02ight. Like the moa of New\nZealand, the dodo of Mauritius, and the elephant bird of Madagascar, the moa-nalo had no\nneed of \ufb02ight as there were no large predators on the Hawaiian Islands. In this predator-free\nenvironment, the birds gave up \ufb02ight and became large, ground-dwelling creatures.\nWhat did these peculiar birds eat? The numerous remains that have been found of the\nmoa-nalo include coprolites (fossilized droppings). These droppings have been studied, and\nit seems that the moa-nalo were specialist plant eaters. They probably waddled around the\nlush Hawaiian Islands nibbling a variety of low-growing plants. The beaks of some species of\nmoa-nalo are even equipped with serrations that functioned like teeth, enabling them to take",
+    "this gas (mostly methane) is locked away within the crystal structure of frozen water, and a\nhuge impact or an increase in ocean temperatures due to a colossal eruption may have been\nenough to melt these extensive reserves, releasing huge quantities of methane into the atmosphere. Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases of all, and billions of tonnes of\nit released all at once could have triggered a runaway greenhouse e\ufb00ect that turned the earth\ninto a sweltering sphere for thousands of years. Any one of these events (\ufb02ood eruption,\nasteroid impact, or an enormous release of methane) would be very bad news for all life, but\nif all three were perhaps linked, it must have been as close to the end as life has ever come.\nTriassic-Jurassic\nThe next mass extinction after the Permian event is the one that divides the Triassic period\nfrom the Jurassic: the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. This was minor compared to the",
+    "brain. Cutting one of these ancient skulls in half shows that the braincase of the cave bear\nwas no bigger than that of the brown bear, and much of the extra space is actually taken up\nby air spaces and all the elaborate structures that gave the cave bear a very acute sense of\nsmell. The living bears are renowned for their keen sense of smell, but it seems the cave bear\ncould probably outperform any bear, living or dead, in tracking scents.",
+    "Order: Litopterna\nFamily: Macraucheniidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This species of litoptern became extinct around 10,000\nyears ago.\nWhere did it live? The litopterns were found only in South America.\nIn 1834, the young Charles Darwin discovered the foot bones of an extinct herbivorous\nmammal in Patagonia. Initially, these bones were thought to have once taken the weight\nof a giant llamalike animal, but it was later realized that they belonged to a very di\ufb00erent creature. Most of the large plant-eating mammals that have wandered the earth for\nthe last few thousand years can be divided into two major groups: the odd-toed ungulates\n(perrisodactyls)\u2014animals like horses and rhinoceri\u2014and the even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls), a group that includes deer, cattle, and so on. In the years following Darwin\u2019s discovery, more \ufb01nds came to light, and it slowly became clear that up until about 10,000 years\nago, South America had its own large plant-eating mammals, and they were unique\u2014quite",
+    "larly, and some of them are surprisingly large. If a live giant ground sloth was found today, it\nwould be the zoological story of all time.\n\u2022 It is thought that there were around four species of giant ground sloth. The species\nmentioned here (Megatherium americanum) was by far the biggest. The closest living\nrelatives of these extinct animals are the anteaters, armadillos, and tree sloths. The biggest of these, the giant anteater, would be dwarfed by even the smallest giant ground\nsloth.\n\u2022 In 1895, a rancher by the name of Eberhardt found some hide in a cave in Patagonia\nthat turned out to be giant ground sloth skin. The skin was in very good condition, and\nsome people believed that it was from an animal that died relatively recently. When\ntechniques became available to age the skin, it was found to be several thousand years\nold\u2014it was just that the very dry conditions in the cave had prevented it from rotting.",
+    "In the late nineteenth century, much of the United States was a frontier where people sought\nto realize their American dream, and many of them headed to the vast prairies of this continent. The term prairie conjures up images of beautiful, undulating plains stretching as far\nas the eye can see, yet this image is not altogether accurate. In the winter, these plains get\nbitterly cold, and in the summer, they are blistering hot. Add to this an almost perpetual\nwind, and what you get is an unforgiving environment. As if these tough conditions weren\u2019t\nenough for the settlers, they were also confronted with an insect that amassed in swarms of\na gargantuan nature.",
+    "it may have been capable of moving on its hind legs over short distances, much like the\nthylacine (see the entry in chapter 1). This may have been important in reaching up to the\nneck of its prey to deliver the killer bit. Exactly what prey the pouch-knife killed and ate is\nunknown, but it may have been a specialist predator of the numerous small- to mediumsized herbivores that once roamed South America. As it was short-legged and quite sturdy,",
+    "change directly a\ufb00ected the terror birds by changing their habitats and the populations of\ntheir prey. Although there is a great deal we don\u2019t know about the life and times of the",
+    "(foraminifera and coccoliths) that lived at or\nnear the surface of the ocean. These tiny living things secrete a protective shell of calcium\ncarbonate that is often very ornate, and like terrestrial plants, the coccoliths use photosynthesis to convert water and carbon dioxide into\nfood. When these tiny organisms die, they sink\nto the seabed, leaving tiny shells that build up into sedimentary deposits on the sea\ufb02oor.\nExperts who study these shells, micropaleontologists, can identify di\ufb00erent species of foraminifera\nand coccoliths. In life, each species inhabited a narrow range of sea surface temperatures, and so\nscientists can analyze the layers to determine if ancient surface waters of the ocean were cooler or\nwarmer than today at the same geographic location.\nDuring the past two decades, analyses of ice cores from Antarctica have provided new information on climate variability during the last 800,000 years. As it falls, snow carries with it atmospheric",
+    "living kangaroos and hands with long, central \ufb01ngers, resembling grappling hooks, instead\nof normal paws. The feet of this hopping brute were reduced to a single, large fourth toe\ntipped with a single hoo\ufb02ike nail. With such a small surface area in contact with the ground,\nthe animal could hop around the open forests and plains of Australia with considerable ef\ufb01ciency. All the large living kangaroos are dedicated herbivores, and we can safely assume\na plant-based diet for the short-faced kangaroo. Its koalalike head suggests a leaf-eating\nhabit. Perhaps it used the grappling hooks on its forepaws to bring high tree branches to\nwithin reach of its mouth to nibble the leaves. Marsupials, like all mammals, cannot digest\nplant matter without the help of symbiotic micro-organisms. Animals like cattle have a",
+    "As with the bones of the giant short-faced bear (see the entry on this animal in chapter 6),\nchemical analyses of the remains of the cave bear have revealed some interesting things\nabout the life of this animal. Most living bears are opportunistic omnivores that eat whatever, whenever they can \ufb01nd it. Apparently, the cave bear was predominantly a herbivore\nthat probably fueled its bulk with all manner of succulent leaves, bark, roots, tubers, fruits,\nnuts, and seeds. Although the teeth of the cave bear are undoubtedly those of a generalist,\nthey have lost some of the carnivorous edge seen in the dentition of the living brown bear.\nIts molars were absolutely massive, perfect for crushing and pulverizing tough plant foods.\nAlthough the cave bear may have been very keen on plant food, it is very unlikely it turned\nits sensitive nose up at the chance of consuming meat when it was easily available such as",
+    "AUSTRALIAN THUNDERBIRD\nScientific name: Dromornithids\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Anseriformes\nFamily: Dromornithidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The last of the Australian thunderbirds died out around\n30,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The bones of these birds are known only from Australia.\nToday, Australia is home to two species of giant \ufb02ightless bird: the emu of the bush\nand plains and the cassowary of the northern forests. These two species are closely related\nto the other ratites, the giant \ufb02ightless birds that evolved on the immense southern landmass of Gondwanaland: the ostrich of Africa, the rhea of South America, the kiwis of\nNew Zealand, and the extinct moa and elephant birds of New Zealand and Madagascar,\nrespectively.\n\n145\n\n\f\n\n146\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nAustralian Thunderbird\u2014Stirton\u2019s thunderbird (Dromornis stirtoni) was probably the largest Australian\nthunderbird and one of the heaviest birds ever to have lived. (Rod Wells)",
+    "and Evolutionary Significance of Sizes of Giant Extinct Kangaroos.\u201d Australian Journal of Zoology 54\n(2006): 293\u2013303.",
+    "megafauna, 91, 97\u2013101, 103, 105, 112, 121,\n132\u201333; prehistoric landscape, 100, 111, 126;\nproductivity, 14, 16; pronghorn antelope, 102;\nspecies migrating from, 83, 85\nNorthern hemisphere: glaciations, 107,\n122\u201323; Great American Interchange,\n41\u2013 42; habitats, 95, 127; megafauna, 96.\nSee also Convergent evolution\nNorway, 40\nOhio, 101\nOil: animal fat and blubber, 10, 18, 40, 47;\ndeposits in the ground, 85\u2013 87, 108; sebaceous\nglands, 74\nOkapi, 77, 78\nOld World: camels, 183; locusts, 22; primates; 72,\n139; vultures, 170\nOmnivore: bears, 115; birds, 56; 126\u201327;\nhominids, 138\nOrang pendek, 131\nOrnithological collectors, 28, 30, 62\nOsteomyelitis. See Disease\nOwen, Richard, 140, 146\nOwl. See Cuban giant owl\nOxford Ashmolean Museum, 50\nPaci\ufb01c Ocean, 63\u2013 65, 151\nPanniculus carnosus, 157",
+    "Long, J., M. Archer, T. Flannery, and S. Hand. Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One\nHundred Million Years of Evolution. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2002.\nMacdonald, D. The New Encyclopaedia of Mammals. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. The Velvet Claw: Natural History of the Carnivores. London: BBC Books, 1992.\nMacPhee, R.D.E., ed. Extinctions in Near Time. New York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum, 1999.\nMartin, P. S. Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tucson: University of Arizona Press,\n1989.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.\nMorwood, M., and P. van Oosterzee. A New Human: The Startling Discovery and Strange Story of the\n\u201cHobbits\u201d of Flores, Indonesia. London: HarperCollins, 2007.\nMurray, P., and P. V. Rich. Magnificent Mihirungs: The Colossal Flightless Birds of the Australian Dreamtime. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.",
+    "Scientific name: Teratornis merriami\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Ciconiiformes\nFamily: Teratornithidae\nWhen did it become extinct? This bird died out around 10,000 years ago.\nWhere did it live? The remains of this bird have been found in various locations in North\nAmerica, including California, southern Nevada, Arizona, and Florida.\nThe Rancho La Brea asphalt deposits in California have yielded a huge number of fossils,\nthe remains of animals that became entombed in sticky tar between 8,000 and 38,000 years\nago (see the \u201cExtinction Insight\u201d in chapter 4). Bird fossils, rare elsewhere because they are\nso fragile, have been found in abundance at Rancho La Brea. This one rich deposit of fossils\ngives us an excellent idea of what birds lived in that corner of California all those millennia\n\n119\n\n\f\n\n120\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS",
+    "\u2022 The giant kangaroo was not closely related to the group that contains the large, living\nkangaroos. Its closet living relative is the banded hare-wallaby (Lagostrophus fasciatus),\na small animal, barely 2 kg in weight, that is extinct on the mainland.\n\u2022 The group to which the giant kangaroo and the banded hare-wallaby belong is known\nas the sthenurinae (Greek for \u201cstrong tails\u201d). This group of marsupials diversi\ufb01ed about\n2 million years ago, and it was once represented by numerous species, all of which are\nnow extinct, apart from the banded hare-wallaby. The giant short-faced kangaroo was\nthe largest, but many of the other species were also very large, far bigger than the living\nred kangaroo.\n\u2022 The bones of the short-faced kangaroo have been found in many sites across Australia,\nincluding the Naracoorte World Heritage fossil deposits in South Australia.\nFurther Reading: Helgen, K. M., R. T. Wells, B. P. Kear, W. R. Gerdtz, and T. F. Flannery. \u201cEcological",
+    "This enigmatic, long-dead mammal looked very much like its distant relative, the mammoth, but it was not as large as the largest of these animals, reaching a height of around 3 m,\na length of about 4.5 m, and a weight of 5.5 tonnes. Its skeleton was stockier, with shorter,\nmore robust legs than a similarly sized mammoth, and its skull was also a di\ufb00erent shape,\ngiving the mastodon a receding brow, rather than the big, \ufb02at forehead of their elephantine\nrelatives. The tusks of the mastodon were very impressive, reaching lengths of around 5 m,\nbut they were not as curved as the mammoth\u2019s. Like the mammoths, the mastodons were\ncovered in thick, shaggy fur that was needed to ward o\ufb00 the cold, but it is impossible to\nknow what color this pelage was in life\u2014dark brown has been suggested, but we have no\nway of knowing. So, on the outside, the mastodons and the mammoths were very familiar,\nand the best way to tell them apart is to look at their teeth. The teeth of a mammoth are",
+    "Again, we can only make educated guesses at the culprit, but climate change is a de\ufb01nite\npossibility, such are the vagaries of earth\u2019s motion through space. A series of ice ages and\nwarmer periods led to the cyclical rise and fall of sea levels. Before this series of changes, the\nshallow seas would again have been the focus of animal activity, but global cooling deprived\nthese creatures of the habitat they required. In the intervening warm periods, the creatures\nthat evolved to live in the new habitats provided by the cool conditions were doomed. So\nthis cycle continued for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years, with animal diversity decreasing all the while.\nDevonian-Carboniferous\nThe late Devonian extinction happened around 360 million years ago, and instead of one\nevent, it seems the decline in animal species, which marks the beginning of the Carboniferous period, was also a series of events that lasted for around 20 million years. Again, we can",
+    "quagga was very likely a subspecies of the plains zebra and not a distinct species at all.\nSometime between 120,000 and 290,000 years ago, the population of plains zebras in\nSouth Africa became isolated from the rest of their species and they started to take on a\nslightly di\ufb00erent appearance. The major di\ufb00erence between the quagga and the plains zebra\nis the animals\u2019 coat. Live specimens of the quagga only had obvious stripes on their head and\nneck, but even the 23 specimens in the world\u2019s museums exhibit a lot of variation, with some\nspecimens having more stripes than others. The unusual name \u201cquagga\u201d comes from the Hottentot name for the animal, quahah, in imitation of the animal\u2019s shrill cry. Aside from these\ndetails, quaggas lived like the plains zebras that can still be seen in sub-Saharan Africa today.\nThey lived in great herds and could often be found grazing with wildebeest or hartebeest and",
+    "moa bones were caused during a predatory attack by Haast\u2019s eagle. From a perch in a tall\ntree, Haast\u2019s eagle surveyed its territory for moa and other large, ground-dwelling birds,\nand on sighting some suitable quarry, it launched an assault. Swooping toward the prey at a\nspeed of between 80 and 100 km per hour, it swung its terrible talons forward in preparation for the contact. The eagle\u2019s powerful legs absorbed the force of the impact, but the prey\nwas probably knocked clean o\ufb00 its feet. If the initial strike was not enough to kill the prey,\nthe puncturing force of eight huge talons caused massive internal bleeding, and before long,\nthe victim succumbed to blood loss and shock. With its prey dead, the eagle used its talons\nand beak to tear the skin of the hapless victim before digging into its \ufb02esh.\nThe large living eagles most often take prey that is considerably smaller than themselves",
+    "pelage of shaggy hair.\nA fully grown woolly mammoth was around 3 m tall at the shoulder and probably\nweighed in the region of 7 tonnes, which is quite a lot smaller than a large African bull\nelephant (3.5 m tall and 10 tonnes in weight), but its dense fur made it look very imposing.\nThe remains of the woolly mammoth have been found in many locations, and some of them\nare in excellent condition, which allows us to build a very good picture of what the living\nanimal was like. We know that the dense fur of the mammoth was around 50 cm long, and\nwe also know what color this fur was\u2014some of these huge beasts had dark brown fur, while\nothers had pale ginger or even blonde fur. The fur of the woolly mammoth, coupled with\nan 8-cm layer of fat beneath the skin, served as insulation from the terrible cold of the ice\nage tundra. Sebaceous glands in the skin of the mammoth exuded greasy oil into the shaggy\ncoat to enhance its insulating properties. Another interesting adaptation protected them",
+    "About the Author\nROSS PIPER is an independent scholar. His lifelong interest in natural history, especially\nanimals, led to academia and he went on to gain a \ufb01rst-class degree in zoology from the\nUniversity of Wales, Bangor, and a PhD in entomology from the University of Leeds. He\ncurrently lives in Hertfordshire, England. This is his sixth book.",
+    "to the slightly acidic bite of rainwater,\nthe erosive power of the wind, and the\n\ufb01erce rays of the sun. Being underground may a\ufb00ord some protection,\nbut acidic solutions percolate through\nthe soil, and there are countless bacteria to digest the nutrients left in the\nbone. In the vast majority of cases,\nthe bones of the long-dead animal\nare worn away to dust and nothing\nremains to show it once lived. Preservation also depends on where the\nanimal lived. If it was a denizen of The Lottery of Fossilization\u2014The paleontologist\nwarm, humid forests, the chances of Grayon E. Meade proudly poses with some of the nupreservation are even slimmer. Forests merous scimitar cat remains discovered in Freisenhahn\nabound with scavenging animals and Cave, Texas, during the summer of 1949. These cats\u2019 rebacteria, and if the bones manage to mains were buried by sediment and the cave was sealed\n\ufb01nd their way into the ground, the by natural processes. They lay undisturbed for thousands",
+    "domesticated horses, and its unique genes were diluted. This continued until the middle of\nthe nineteenth century, when it was realized that purebred tarpans were very rare. In 1879,\nthe last wild tarpan was killed, but some had been taken into captivity years before and\nwere often kept on the private estates of noblemen. These captive animals dwindled due to\nneglect, and the last one died in Poland in around 1887. When the tarpan became extinct,",
+    "Limestone is dissolved slowly by\nrainwater, and over millions of years,\nany large area of this rock soon becomes riddled with caves and tunnels.\nThis is exactly what has happened to\nthe Nullarbor Plain, and its \ufb02at surface\nbelies a network of caverns and tunnels, only a tiny proportion of which\nhave been explored. In May 2002, a\ngroup of cavers found a sinkhole on the\nsurface of the Nullarbor Plain\u2014a sinkhole appears when the roof of a limestone cavity is dissolved, leaving a short\npipe into the cavern beneath. They\ndecided to explore the sinkhole and\nlowered themselves through the 11-m\npipe and into the cavern below. It was\na further 20 m to the \ufb02oor of the cavern, and when they shined their head\ntorches on the rocks around their feet,\nthey were met with a site that no human\nhad ever before seen. Around them, littering the \ufb02oor of the cavern, were numerous skeletons. Some of the bones\nwere semiconcealed by sediment, while\nothers were lodged between rocks and",
+    "going until he has formed a big heap, which can sometimes be 0.6 m high and several meters\nacross.\nThe mound of the malleefowl is quite an impressive structure for a small animal, so\nimagine the humps formed by a 30-kg, 1.5-m-tall extinct mound builder. On the \u00cele des\nPins, there are enormous, 4,000-year-old mounds, some 5 m tall and almost 50 m across,\nthat were once thought to be burial mounds created by islanders. Excavations of these\nmounds revealed no human remains and no grave goods, leading to the theory they may\nhave been built by a giant bird as incubator mounds. Four thousand years have passed since\nthe mounds were \ufb01rst built, and in that time, the elements have probably eroded them, so\nthey must have been considerably bigger when they were new.\nSadly, the du is not around today, and we can only guess at what this bizarre bird looked",
+    "planation of how they caught their prey, but how did they kill? For some time, it was thought\nthat these cats used their canines to prize apart the prey\u2019s vertebrae, but research has shown\nthat their teeth were much too brittle for this. If the jaws were slammed shut on bone, the\ncanines would have shattered, and without its weapons, a saber tooth would have starved to\ndeath. It was also suggested that the teeth were used to slice open the soft underbelly of the\nprey, but again, the risk of contacting bone during the killer bite was too great. It seems that\nthe Smilodon species actually went for the neck. Using the great muscular strength in their\nforelimbs to keep hold of the victim long enough to deliver the killer bite, they plunged their\nhuge fangs into the soft throat of the prey, severing the important blood vessels and crushing\nthe windpipe. Biting this way, a large fold of the prey\u2019s skin was probably taken in to the cat\u2019s",
+    "must have been on the wing almost continually. Fortunately, a huge wingspan is perfect for",
+    "had been isolated long enough for their animal inhabitants to evolve traits suited to a predator-free\nenvironment such as \ufb02ightlessness in birds. A huge number of islands were once home to \ufb02ightless\nbirds: Mauritius with the dodo, Madagascar with the elephant bird, and New Zealand with the moa.\nWhen humans discovered these islands, it was the beginning of the end for a wealth of species\u2014\nanimals that were perfectly adapted to their surroundings but powerless to resist humans\u2014 because\nof the animals that live with us and the habitat destruction we inevitably cause. The animals of larger\nlandmasses were better placed to adapt to the human challenge as many of them could simply move\ninto areas where humans had not reached. With this said, there is increasing evidence that human\nhunting and habitat destruction may have contributed to the extinction of the American and Australian megafauna. It is becoming increasingly clear that modern humans are the most destructive",
+    "it fed solely on meat, but although it was big, it was not really equipped to be a predator. Its\nbones seem too slender to have enabled it to tackle the large animals that its big appetite\nrequired, and although it was an endurance athlete, it was not \ufb02eet of foot enough to catch\nfast-running prey. In some ways, scavenging is an easy option: you let another animal do the\ndirty work of killing, the smell of death gets carried on the air, and then you turn up to chase\nthe predators away from their kill with your formidable size. Easy! This is not to say that the\nshort-faced bear didn\u2019t actively kill when the opportunity arose, but scavenging seems much\nmore likely. It is easy to imagine the scene of a pack of wolves feasting on the carcass of a\nyoung mammoth, only to be scared o\ufb00 by the sight of a giant bear looming over them. With",
+    "and elephant bird were big animals, but they were gentle vegetarians. However, a long-legged\nbird living in South America several million years ago gave rise to a group of birds collectively\nknown as terror birds. As their name suggests, these animals were not the sort of feathered\ncritter you would be pleased to see at your bird feeder. They were big birds; the smallest were\nat least 1 m tall, while the biggest stood as high as 3 m. All of them bear the hallmarks of\nbeing ferocious predators. Why these nightmarish birds came to evolve in South America is\nnot fully understood as no other place on earth has ever produced a group of predatory giant\nbirds. Gigantism in birds is normally associated with herbivory, yet whatever conditions prevailed in South America many millions of years ago allowed the evolution of a successful and\nvaried group of feathered carnivores.",
+    "big cities on the East Coast of the United States. It has been said that during the end of the\neighteenth century and for much of the nineteenth century, servants and slaves in these big\ncities may have eaten precious little animal protein apart from passenger pigeon meat. For\nseveral decades, passenger pigeons ready for the oven could be bought for as little as three\npennies.\nBy 1896, only 250,000 passenger pigeons remained, grouped together in a single \ufb02ock,\nand in the spring of that year, a group of well-organized hunters set out to \ufb01nd them. Find\nthem they did, and they killed all but 5,000 of them. Only three years later, the last birds in\nthe wild were shot. Once the most numerous bird on the whole planet, the passenger pigeon\nhad been wiped out in a little more than 100 years.\n\u2022 It is thought that the passenger pigeon\u2019s breeding and nesting success was dependent\non there being huge numbers of individuals. Habitat destruction and hunting led to",
+    "numbers to a point from which recovery was impossible.\n\u2022 In 1929, in Staruni, Ukraine, an amazingly well preserved female woolly rhinoceros\nwas discovered. Apart from the fur and hooves, the carcass was complete. It had come\nto rest in oil- and salt-rich mud, and these conditions had prevented bacterial decay. It\nis currently on display in the Krakow Museum of Zoology, Poland.\n\u2022 It has been suggested that as the woolly rhinoceros was such a large, dangerous animal,\nprehistoric humans may have hunted it using traps, instead of facing it directly and\nrisking a goring on the end of its impressive horn. Perhaps ancient hunters drew them\nto excavated pits or deep mud. Once trapped, the struggling rhinoceri could have been\nsafely killed with spears.\n\u2022 The closet living relative of the woolly rhinoceros is thought to be the rare Sumatran\nrhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). This shy, rarely seen animal is the smallest of the",
+    "Paddle, R. The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000; Guiler, E. Thylacine: The Tragedy of the Tasmanian Tiger. Oxford:\nOxford University Press, 1985.",
+    "sustain itself. Luckily, the Rocky Mountain locust was not a fussy eater\u2014it would nibble a\nhuge range of plants, and in the absence of foliage, it would munch bark, leather, laundry,\ndead animals, and even the wool o\ufb00 a sheep\u2019s back. As can be imagined, the multitude of\nmandibles left a trail of devastation, and between 1873 and 1877, the vast swarms of insects\ncaused massive crop damage in Nebraska, Colorado, and some other states, estimated at\naround $200 million.\nAround 30 years after these immense swarms left a trail of devastation in their wake, the\nRocky Mountain locust mysteriously vanished. The reason behind the extinction of this\ninsect has been speculated on for some time. Some experts have suggested that the species\nnever became extinct and that the locust was actually the swarming phase of a species that",
+    "\u2022 A famous New Zealand explorer, Charles Douglas, a man who was not prone to exaggeration and \ufb02ights of fancy, claimed in his journal that he had an encounter with two\ngiant birds of prey in the Landsborough River Valley of South Island sometime in the\n1870s. If this is true, is it possible that Haast\u2019s eagle somehow clung to existence in a\nremote part of New Zealand until very recent times? Unfortunately, we\u2019ll never know\nthe truth as Douglas killed and ate both of these mysterious birds.\n\u2022 The bones of another giant raptor have also been found in New Zealand, and these are\nnow thought to have once belonged to a massive type of harrier. Harriers are lightly\nbuilt birds of prey weighing in at around 700 g. The New Zealand giant harrier (Circus\neylesi) was more like 3 kg.\nFurther Reading: \u201cAncient DNA Tells Story of Giant Eagle Evolution.\u201d PLoS Biology 3 (2005): e20;",
+    "bones.\n\u2022 Since humans colonized Hawaii, more than 56 species of bird have become extinct,\nand many of the remaining native species are severely endangered. The demise of some\nof these species is thought to have been caused by avian malaria, which was introduced\nto the islands by nonnative birds brought by humans.\nFurther Reading: James, H. F., and D. A. Burney. \u201cThe Diet and Ecology of Hawaii\u2019s Extinct Flightless Waterfowl: Evidence from Coprolites.\u201d Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society 62 (1997):\n279\u201397; Sorenson, M. D., A. Cooper, E. E. Paxinos, T. W. Quinn, H. F. James, S. L. Olson, and\nR. C. Fleischer. \u201cRelationships of the Extinct Moa-Nalos, Flightless Hawaiian Waterfowl, Based\non Ancient DNA.\u201d Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B: Biological Sciences 266 (1999):\n2187\u201393; Slikas, B. \u201cHawaiian Birds: Lessons from a Rediscovered Avifauna.\u201d Auk 120 (2003):\n953\u201360.",
+    "for the right to mate. As with other island animals, the horned turtles may have grown to\ngreat size because there was very little in the way of threats in their isolated home terrain.\nAlternatively, great size is a simple yet e\ufb00ective defense against many predators. The truth\nis that we\u2019ll never know the evolutionary force behind the incredible size and appearance\nof these turtles.",
+    "canines of the scimitar cats were not as large as the massive daggers of the saber tooth cats,\nbut they were still impressive weapons. The European species, H. crenatidens, has the biggest\ncanines of all the known scimitar cats. At around 100 mm, they dwarf those of an adult tiger,\nwhich are normally 55 to 60 mm long. To protect these fangs, the mandible of the scimitar\ncat was massively developed, with \ufb02anges that acted like scabbards, probably to protect the\ncanines. These scabbards were at their most impressive in H. crenatidens. Not only were the\ncanines of scimitar cats fearsome, but their incisors were equally arresting. In H. crenatidens,\nthe incisors undoubtedly formed an e\ufb00ective puncturing and grabbing mechanism that tore a\nlump of \ufb02esh from the unfortunate victim and were useful for carrying dismembered limbs.\nWhat can the remains of the scimitar cats tell us about the way they lived? We know",
+    "67\n\n\f\n\n68\n\nEXTINCT ANIMALS\n\nwaves around 23 million years ago. It once formed part of the giant landmass known as\nGondwanaland, but all that we can see today are its highest reaches.\n\u2022 The \ufb02ora and fauna of New Caledonia are very special. Many of the plants and animals are endemic and relics of the \ufb02ora and fauna that populated the now fragmented\nGondwanaland. As there were no native New Caledonian mammals, the fauna was\ndominated by birds and reptiles, but along with the du, many of the other, large denizens of this unique place are sadly extinct.\nFurther Reading: Poplin, F., and C. Mourer-Chauvir\u00e9. \u201cSylviornis neocaledoniae (Aves, Galliformes,\nMegapodiidae), oiseau G\u00e9ant \u00e9teint de l\u2019ile des Pins (Nouvelle-Cal\u00e9donie).\u201d Geobios 18 (1985): 73\u2013105;\nSteadman, D. W. \u201cExtinction of Birds in Eastern Polynesia: A Review of the Record, and Comparisons\nwith Other Pacific Island Groups.\u201d Journal of Archaeological Science 16 (1989): 177\u2013205.\n\nHORNED TURTLE",
+    "DIPROTODON\nScientific name: Diprotodon sp.\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\nOrder: Diprotodontia\nFamily: Diprotodontidae\nWhen did it become extinct? The most recent remains of a diprotodon are the 30,000year-old bones from Cuddie Springs in southeastern Australia.\nWhere did it live? The diprotodons were found only in Australia.\nLike all of the landmasses on earth, Australia was once home to an array of large animals known as megafauna. The Australian assemblage of giant beasts included massive\n\n\f\n\nMORE THAN 12,500 YEARS AGO\n\nDiprotodon\u2014This reconstruction of a large diprotodon doesn\u2019t really convey its rhinoceros-like proportions. (Australian Museum)",
+    "Scientific name: Phorusrhacids\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Aves\nOrder: Gruiformes\nFamily: Phorusrhacidae\nWhen did it become extinct? Experts disagree on when the last terror bird became extinct. Some scientists argue that it was as little as 15,000 years ago, which is very unlikely. It\u2019s far more probable that they became extinct around 1.8 million years ago.\nWhere did it live? The remains of these animals have been found throughout South\nAmerica, and the fossils of one species have been found in Florida and Texas.\nIn the right circumstances, birds can evolve into giants. In the vast majority of cases, they\nhave done this on oceanic islands in the absence of any large land predators. Most of the extinct giant birds are decidedly lacking when it comes to predatory ferocity. Birds like the moa\nand elephant bird were big animals, but they were gentle vegetarians. However, a long-legged",
+    "pouch-knife. It is amazing that the skull of the pouch-knife is so super\ufb01cially similar to\nthose of the saber tooth cats, even though marsupials and cats sit on very di\ufb00erent branches\nof the mammalian family tree. Again, this is another excellent example of convergent evolution and goes to show how nature can come up with similar solutions to the same problem\nin very di\ufb00erent locations.\nThe skulls of saber tooth cats and the pouch-knife may be very similar at \ufb01rst glance,\nbut there are many major di\ufb00erences, which show that the pouch-knife was a very di\ufb00erent\nmammal. Its sabers were enormous, relatively larger than those of Smilodon populator, and\nthey also grew throughout the animal\u2019s life, which was very useful as the tips and cutting\nedge always remained sharp. As the pouch-knife\u2019s teeth grew continuously, they could not\nbe \ufb01xed in the jaw with a bulbous anchor like those of the saber tooth cats. Instead, they",
+    "1777 by none other than Captain Cook. Known as Tu\u2019i Malila, this tortoise died in\n1965, at age 188. The longevity of an immense turtle like the horned giant can only be\nguessed.\n\u2022 Further back in the fossil record, in the age of the dinosaurs, there were other extinct\nturtles that were truly enormous. One of these, Archelon, is only known from 70-millionyear-old fossils. It was about 4 m long, and the span of its \ufb02ippers was around 4.5 m. Fully\ngrown, Archelon probably weighed in the region of 2 to 3 tonnes. Its large head and powerful bite appear to be suited to eating shelled mollusks such as the extinct ammonites.\nFurther Reading: Gaffney, E. S. \u201cThe Postcranial Morphology of Meiolania platyceps and a Review\nof the Meiolaniidae.\u201d Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 229 (1996): 1\u2013166; Gaffney,\nE., S. Hutchison, J. Howard, F. A. Jenkins, and L. J. Meeker. \u201cModern Turtle Origins: The Oldest\nKnown Cryptodire.\u201d Science 237 (1987): 289\u201391.",
+    "INDEX\nCoprolite, 64\nCosta Rica, 1\nCougar, 42, 96\nCretaceous, 158\nCrocodile, 144. See also Quinkana\nCro-magnon man. See Human\nCrop milk, 17\nCrops, 15,17, 54, 72\nCuba, 16. See also Cuban giant owl; Marcano\u2019s\nsolenodon\nCuban giant owl, 83\u2013 85\nCuddie Springs, 142, 145\nCzech Republic, 116\nDakotas, 21\nDam (beaver), 100\nDarwin, Charles, 38, 109\nDeer: antlers, 164, 165; classi\ufb01cation, 109; niche\noccupied, 53; part of the megafauna, 112, 126.\nSee also Giant deer\nDefense: Carolina parakeet, 15; Cuban owl, 85;\nEskimo curlew, 7; gastric-brooding frog, 4;\ngiant deer, 80; giant echidna, 157; giant ground\nsloth, 82\u2013 83; glyptodont, 90; Hawaiian plants,\n64; humans, 115, 136; large size as a defense,\n69, 118, 147, 164 \u2013 65; litoptern, 110; moa, 54;\nmonitor lizards, 150; nest building, 85; quagga,\n35; solenodon, 60\nDenmark, 41\nDigestion, 5, 118, 149\nDingo, 12\nDinosaur, 70; eggs, 44; evolution of birds, 55,\n67; extinction of, 33, 43, 153, 167, 171, 175;\nfossils, 18\nDiprotodon, 142\u2013 45",
+    "\u2022 Five thousand years ago, Kish in Iraq, was a very di\ufb00erent place. It sat at the eastern\nedge of what has become known as the Fertile Crescent, the arc of land watered by\nthree enormous rivers: the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris. Today, these areas are semiarid,\nbut \ufb01ve millennia ago, rainfall was much higher. The whole area was very productive\nand it is considered to be the cradle of civilization, where people \ufb01rst turned from\na hunter-gatherer existence to settled societies underpinned by agriculture. These\nverdant valleys may have been the last stronghold of the sivatheres, and such a rare,\nimpressive animal would have undoubtedly been held in high regard by the earliest\ncivilizations.\nFurther Reading: Colbert, E. H. \u201cWas the Extinct Giraffe (Sivatherium) Known to the Early Sumerians?\u201d American Anthropologist 38 (1936): 605\u20138.",
+    "ing the lasting reminders of these reptiles. What happened to the rest of the dinosaurs? The\nevent that ended their dominance is known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, or\nthe K-T event for short (Cretaceous is traditionally abbreviated as K, derived from the German word for chalk, kreidezeit), and it is the only mass extinction for which there is de\ufb01nite\nevidence of an asteroid impact. In numerous sites around the world, geologists saw that\nrock strata laid down in the Cretaceous were topped o\ufb00 with a thin layer of grayish material. This layer turned out to be ash, and further analysis showed that it contained a high\nconcentration of the very rare metal, iridium. Iridium may be rare on earth, but it is much\nmore abundant in certain types of asteroid. For years, skeptics argued that the iridium could\nhave originated deep in the earth\u2019s mantle and been ejected by intense volcanic activity. Also,",
+    "FEWER THAN 10,000 YEARS AGO\n\nSivathere\u2014There\u2019s a possibility that a sivathere survived into the era of recorded history. Note the large\nhorns and bony ossicones above the eyes. (Phil Miller)",
+    "S. F. Vizca\u00edno. \u201cMuzzle of South American Pleistocene Ground Sloths (Xenarthra, Tardigrada).\u201d\nJournal of Morphology 267 (2006): 248\u201363; Bargo, M. S. \u201cThe Ground Sloth Megatherium americanum: Skull Shape, Bite Forces, and Diet.\u201d Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 46 (2001): 173\u201392; Fari\u00f1a,\nR. A., and R. E. Blanco. \u201cMegatherium, the stabber.\u201d Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 263\n(1996): 1725\u201329.",
+    "harsh environment. Although the Falklands are a welcome refuge for marine animals such\nas penguins, seals, and sea lions, very few land animals have managed to make a living on\nthis stark, oceanic outpost. The only mammals known from the Falkland Islands are a small\nspecies of mouse and a mysterious dog, the warrah, which also goes by the names of \u201cFalkland Island fox\u201d and \u201cAntarctic wolf.\u201d\nWhether the animal was a fox or a wolf is a bone of contention among mammal experts.\nContemporary accounts of the living animal as well as stu\ufb00ed skins show that this carnivore\nhad both wolf and fox characteristics. An adult warrah was about twice as big as a red fox\n(1.6 m long), with a large, wol\ufb01sh head, but because of its short legs, it was only about 60\ncm tall at the shoulder. Its tail, unlike that of a wolf, was thickly furred, and like a fox, it",
+    "We know that this huge, prolonged volcanic eruption occurred in Siberia about 250 million years ago, but there is a possibility that it may have been triggered by a huge asteroid\nimpact. An errant cosmic body, bigger than the largest mountain, slamming into the earth at\n15 to 20 km per second generates an unimaginably huge amount of energy. Is this enough\nto disturb the currents of molten rock that \ufb02ow through the earth\u2019s mantle, causing the creation of a gigantic plume of molten rock that bursts from the surface and wreaks millions of\nyears of havoc? Possibly, but until we \ufb01nd the remnants of a crater of the right age and size,\nthe trigger of the Siberian eruption will remain a mystery.\nAnother very interesting proposed cause of the mass extinction at the end of the Permian\nis the release of huge quantities of natural gas from below the seabed. Beneath the seabed,\nthis gas (mostly methane) is locked away within the crystal structure of frozen water, and a",
+    "University Press, 1991.\nStrahan, R. The Mammals of Australia. Sydney, Australia: Reed Books, 1996.\nStringer, C., and P. Andrews. The Complete World of Human Evolution. London: Thames and Hudson,\n2005.\nTricas, T. C., K. Deacon, P. Last, J. E. McCosker, T. I. Walker, and T. Leighton. Sharks and Rays.\nLondon: HarperCollins, 1997.\nTurner, A., and M. Ant\u00f3n. The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives. New York: Columbia University\nPress, 1997.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. National Geographic Book of Prehistoric Mammals. Washington, DC: National Geographic\nSociety, 2004.\nWoods, C. A., ed. Biogeography of the West Indies: Past, Present, and Future. Gainesville, FL: Sandhill\nCrane Press, 1989.\nWorthy, T. H., and R. N. Holdaway. The Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric Life of New Zealand.\nBloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.\nZimmer, C. Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins. London: HarperCollins, 2005.",
+    "once pristine habitats.\nCollecting still goes on today, and in some places, it is a real problem, but the tide of public\nopinion has turned against seeing stu\ufb00ed animals in museums to appreciation of the living creatures\nin their natural environment. Sadly, the natural world is now confronted by the greatest man-made\nchallenges: the spiraling population of our species and the wholesale destruction of habitats, both\nat a time when our understanding of the natural world has grown to a point where we can see the\nfragility of the world we live in and what we must do to save it.\nFurther Reading: Grayson, D. K. \u201cThe Archaeological Record of Human Impacts on Animal Populations.\u201d Journal of World Prehistory 15 (2001): 1\u201368; Grayson, D. K., and D. J. Meltzer. \u201cClovis Hunting and\nLarge Mammal Extinction: A Critical Review of the Evidence.\u201d Journal of World Prehistory 16 (2002): 313\u201359;\nGrayson, D. K., and D. J. Meltzer. \u201cA Requiem for North American Overkill.\u201d Journal of Archaeological Science",
+    "plate under the South American plate. As a result, the \ufb02at grasslands of Argentina were\nswept continuously by westerly winds. High above these plains, soaring e\ufb00ortlessly in the\nsky, was the largest \ufb02ying bird that has ever lived: the magni\ufb01cent teratorn. The wingspan\nof this immense bird was about the same as a small airplane, at 6 to 8 m, and it probably\nweighed in the region of 80 kg, possibly more. This is really heavy when we consider that\nthe heaviest \ufb02ying birds today, the great bustard (Otis tarda) and the kori bustard (Ardeotis\nkori), are around 20 kg. Standing, the magni\ufb01cent teratorn was 1.5 to 2 m tall.\nBird skeletons are very fragile, and it is very rare to \ufb01nd an intact one that has stood the\ntest of time. All the vital statistics of this giant have been extrapolated from a few bones\nfound in Argentina. Paleontologists have unearthed some of the wing bones, fragments of\nthe feet, and portions of the skull. Even though we only have fragments, it is possible to",
+    "from the Jurassic: the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. This was minor compared to the\nevent that went before it, but it is signi\ufb01cant enough to have been preserved in the fossil\nrecord, with the disappearance of many marine forms as well as a range of land animals.\nSome scientists have challenged whether this was actually a real event or just a reduction in\nthe appearance of new species. An asteroid impact has been proposed as a possible cause,\nbut no crater of the right age or size has been found. This is de\ufb01nitely not the case for the\nnext major extinction, and perhaps the most famous of them all, for it is when the dinosaurs\ndisappeared from the earth.\nCretaceous-Tertiary\nDinosaurs have fascinated us since the \ufb01rst species was described in 1824, yet almost all of\nthem disappeared rather abruptly around 65 million years ago along with countless other\nspecies. I say almost all because birds are the direct descendents of these animals. Every time",
+    "giant bison. This extinct species was around 2.5 m at the shoulder and could have weighed\nas much as 1,800 kg. Not only were they big, but the giant bison also had incredible horns.\nLike all bovids, the giant bison\u2019s horns were composed of a bone core surrounded by a\nkeratin sheath. The sheath rots away to nothing after being buried for thousands of years,\nleaving us with just the bony cores curving out from the big skull. Some of these skulls have\na horn span of just over 2 m, but in life, the keratin sheath made the span even wider, as is\nshown by a Californian specimen in which the outer sheaths were replaced by a sediment\ncast. Today\u2019s male American bison are far larger than the females, but this sexual dimorphism was even more pronounced in the giant bison. A fully grown male giant bison with\nits huge, shaggy forequarters and amazing horns must have stood out like a beacon amid\nthe much smaller females.",
+    "Wonambi was the last of a long line of primitive snakes and one of many such giants\nthat once slithered their way around Australia. They seem to have died out with the rest\nof the Australian megafauna around 40,000 years ago, but as new evidence comes to light,\nthis date may change signi\ufb01cantly. Humans may have known these snakes, and it is possible that human activities, such as bush\ufb01res, led to their demise. Australia, like the rest of\nthe world, has been through some massive climatic changes in the past 2 million years or\nso, and perhaps the demise of these snakes coincided with the disappearance of the lush\nvegetation that once shrouded the Australian continent, leaving the arid landscape we know\ntoday. Water holes and other habitats favored by Wonambi disappeared, and its prey grew\nincreasingly di\ufb03cult to \ufb01nd. Confronted by this changing world and the pressure of human\nhunting, the Wonambi and the other primitive snakes eventually disappeared.",
+    "its species. Back in the South Atlantic, the onslaught of the sheep farmers and the hunters\nwas too much for the poor warrah, and in 1876, the last known animal was killed at Shallow Bay in the Hill Cove Canyon.\n\u2022 The origins of the warrah are a mystery. Did it evolve on the Falkland Islands, surviving\nas a relic from the time before the last glaciation, when the islands were forested and\nhome to a number of other land animals? Were the ancestors of the warrah brought\nto the islands by South American Indians as pets? Did the ancestors of the warrah\nwalk to the Falkland Islands thousands of years ago when sea levels were much lower?\nUnfortunately, the answers to these questions died with the warrah, and the one-time\npresence of this canine in the South Atlantic remains a tantalizing zoological mystery.\n\u2022 Charles Darwin saw the warrah during his time on the Beagle, and it was clear to him\nthat the species would not survive for very long in the face of human persecution. In",
+    "LITOPTERN\nScientific name: Macrauchenia patachonia\nScientific classification:\nPhylum: Chordata\nClass: Mammalia\n\n\f\n\n10,000\u201312,500 YEARS AGO\n\nLitoptern\u2014The litopterns were an unusual group of herbivorous mammals found throughout South\nAmerica. The species depicted here was the last of their kind. (Renata Cunha)",
+    "forays for food in the warmth of the evening sun.\nWhat happened to the pig foot? The last known de\ufb01nite specimen was collected in\n1901, and even long before this date, it was never considered to be a common species. We\ndo know that it was hunted by Australian Aborigines for its meat, which was regarded as\na delicacy, and its tail brush, which was sometimes worn as a decoration. The extinction of\nsome of Australia\u2019s other native animals has been blamed on Aborigines, but the pig-footed\nbandicoot coexisted with the Aborigines for thousands of years. The decline and extinction\nof this unique marsupial coincides with the spread of Europeans through Australia. For\nthousands of years, Aborigines practiced brush burning to clear land and encourage new\nplant growth. Many species of smaller marsupial pro\ufb01ted from this because of the food it\nprovided, not only in terms of fresh plant matter, but also in terms of the smaller animals"
+]
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