Portal:Extinction

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The Extinction Portal

In biology and ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point; see population bottleneck). Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "re-appears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence.

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Silphium (also known as silphion or laser) was a plant of the genus Ferula. Generally considered to be an extinct "giant fennel" (although some claim that the plant is really Ferula tingitana), it once formed the crux of trade from the ancient city of Cyrene for its use as a rich seasoning and as a medicine. It was so critical to the Cyrenian economy that most of their coins bore a picture of the plant.

Silphium was an important species in prehistory, as evidenced by the Egyptians and Knossos Minoans developing a specific glyph to represent the Silphium plant.

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Bos palaesondaicus - Battus polydamas antiquus - Tule Shrew - Florida Naked-tailed Rat - Chadwick Beach Cotton Mouse - Heliaster solaris - Talpanas - Yunnan Lar Gibbon - Darwinius masillae - Saint Helena Shearwater - Great Ground-dove - Huahine Cuckoo-dove - Puijila darwini - Barbados Rail - Amitabha urbsinterdictensis - Snipe-rail - Lord Howe Boobook - Lord Howe Fantail - Norfolk Island Boobook - Gigantornis eaglesomei - Australodelphis - North Island broad-billed moa - Dinornis struthoides - Stout-legged moa - Norfolk Island Thrush - Rhinodrilus fafner - Réunion Rail - Huahine Starling - Coffea lemblinii - Chatham Island Kākā - Mohoidae - Waitaha penguin - Elephas mnaidriensis - Martinique Macaw - Galapagos damsel - Extinct Birds (Rothschild book) - Réunion Fody - Liverpool Pigeon - Bromus interruptus - Oceanic Eclectus Parrot - San Cristóbal Vermilion Flycatcher - Beelzebufo - Onychonycteris finneyi - Antioquia Brush-finch

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Did you know...

...that Walton Ford, a famous wildlife artist created a painting about the extinct Elephant Bird.
...that the 24-rayed Sunstar Heliaster solaris from the Galapagos waters died out during the El Niño-Southern Oscillation event in 1983/1984
...that the Aldabra banded snail Rhachistia aldabrae from the Seychelles died out because of climate change?
... that the Christmas Island Pipistrelle is almost extinct after a survey has failed to locate the last 20 individuals.
... that the Banggai Crow was rediscovered on Peleng in 2007 after it was only known by two museum specimens from the late 19th century.
... that the extinct flightless Snipe-rail had the smallest wings of all known rail species in proportion to its body size.
... that only 300 copies were published of Walter Rothschild's book Extinct Birds.
... that Cave Lions were about 25 percent larger than the modern African Lions and Asiatic lions.

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The British Large Copper (Lycaena dispar dispar) was an endemic subspecies of the Large Copper from the British Isles. It was last seen in 1851.

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Extinction news

17 November 2011 The Hula Painted Frog (Discoglossus nigriventer) has been rediscovered after 56 years.

27 October 2011 Researchers of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology published the only known footage of the possibly extinct Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis) which was filmed in 1956 in the Mexican state of Durango.

22 October 2011 Both the International Rhino Foundation and the WWF declared the Vietnamese Javan Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) officially extinct.

8 June 2011 After thought to be extinct for almost 70 years the Vegas Valley Leopard Frog (Rana fisheri) is now considered conspecific with the northwestern Mogollon Rim populations of the Chiricahua Leopard Frog (Rana chiricahuensis). Resurrecting an extinct species: archival DNA, taxonomy, and conservation of the Vegas Valley leopard frog

31 May 2011 Wicker ancylid (Rhodacmea filosa), listed as extinct by the IUCN Red List, has been rediscovered.

30 September 2010 Fossil remains of a giant penguin named Inkayacu paracasensis are discovered. A giant penguin plumed in earth tones

17 September 2010 Thyreophora cynophila, a strange looking fly from the Cheese fly family was rediscovered in Spain after it was thought to be extinct since 1849. 'Mythical' extinct fly rediscovered after 160 years

26 May 2010 The Alaotra Grebe, a bird endemic to Madagascar, is declared extinct, 25 years after the last confirmed sighting.

10 March 2010 Researchers from the Murdoch University in Perth, Australia extracted DNA from the extinct Elephant Bird. Extinct elephant bird of Madagascar could live again

2 March 2010 Researchers found the fossil remains of a new Late Cretaceous snake genus called Sanajeh which preyed on Dinosaur hatchlings. PLoS Biology

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Extinction topics

Extinction - Extinction event - Local extinction - List of extinct animals - List of extinct plants - Fossil - Holocene extinction event - Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event - Cambrian-Ordovician extinction events - Ordovician-Silurian extinction events - Triassic-Jurassic extinction events - Late Devonian extinction - Permian-Triassic extinction event - Signor-Lipps effect - Australian megafauna - Dwarf elephant - Ape extinction - Pseudoextinction - Extinction Vortex - Prehistoric reptile - Human extinction - Voluntary Human Extinction Movement - Evolution - Biodiversity - Invasive species - Breeding back - Lazarus taxon

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Extinction events

Minor events

↓End-Ediacaran?

↓Lau event

↓Toarcian turnover

↓Aptian

↓Cenomanian-Turonian

↓Middle Miocene
disruption

Major events

Neoproterozoic

Palæozoic

Mesozoic

Cenozoic

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Millions of years before present

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WikiProjects

The WikiProject for this topic is Extinction.

Other WikiProjects connected with extinction are:

See also Wikispecies, a Wikimedia project dedicated to classification of biological species.

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Related portals


Dinosaurs	Paleontology	Biology	Evolutionary biology	Ecology	Environment	Earth sciences

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