All articles tagged with "Extinct"
Expert-written guide to dinosaurs covering T. rex, Argentinosaurus, Velociraptor, Spinosaurus, and more. Explore the Mesozoic era, the dinosaur-bird connection, warm-blooded debate, and the K-Pg extinction event that ended their reign.
How big was Tyrannosaurus rex really? Science-based answers on size, weight, bite force, speed, and what recent fossil discoveries reveal about the king of dinosaurs.
Saber-tooth cats were not tigers. Expert guide to Smilodon's real hunting method, why the fangs evolved, and how this Ice Age apex predator actually lived.
Expert-written guide to the Big Five mass extinctions, from the Ordovician ice age to the Chicxulub asteroid. Covers causes, recovery timelines, survivor traits, and the current Sixth Extinction debate with specific data and peer-reviewed sources.
Dire wolves weren't closely related to modern wolves despite their name. Expert guide to these Ice Age pack hunters and their surprising evolutionary history.
Giant ground sloths reached 4 tons and 6 meters. Expert guide to these massive extinct sloths that lived with early humans until 10,000 years ago.
Glyptodons were armored mammals the size of cars with clubbed tails. Expert guide to these 2-ton relatives of modern armadillos.
Saber-toothed tigers had 18cm canines and hunted large Ice Age prey in packs. Expert guide to Smilodon and why these iconic predators went extinct.
Short-faced bears stood 3.4 meters tall, the largest carnivore to roam the Americas. Expert guide to Arctodus simus, the Ice Age bear giant.
Woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island until 4,000 years ago. Expert guide to why mammoths went extinct, who killed them, and de-extinction science.
Comprehensive expert guide to the woolly mammoth covering anatomy, distribution, extinction causes, frozen specimens, and the current science and ethics of de-extinction through Colossal Biosciences and related gene-editing programs.
Expert-written guide to prehistoric birds covering terror birds, elephant birds, moas, Archaeopteryx, Argentavis, the dodo, great auk, and Carolina parakeet. Explore the largest, tallest, and most fearsome birds that ever lived.
Expert-written guide to prehistoric insects covering Meganeura, Arthropleura, giant cockroaches, and griffinflies. Explore the oxygen-gigantism hypothesis, Carboniferous period insect giants, amber preservation, and what ancient insects reveal about modern biodiversity loss.
Explore the terrifying marine predators that ruled Earth's ancient oceans for hundreds of millions of years. Expert-written guide covering megalodon, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, Dunkleosteus, ammonites, trilobites, and Leedsichthys - with fossil evidence, size comparisons, and the science
Expert-written guide to recently extinct species including the thylacine, passenger pigeon, baiji dolphin, western black rhino, and golden toad. Covers extinction causes, de-extinction science, and species on the brink today.
The thylacine or Tasmanian tiger went extinct in 1936. Expert guide to what it was, why it was killed off, and whether genetic de-extinction could bring it back.
Definitive expert guide to Tyrannosaurus rex with verified biometric data, bite force measurements, sensory biology, growth curves, and the paleontological evidence behind the most famous predator in the history of life.
Everything about the dodo: size, habitat, diet, behaviour, extinction timeline, fossil record, and the strange facts that made Raphus cucullatus the most famous extinct bird in history.
Everything about the megalodon: size, teeth, bite force, habitat, diet, hunting, nursery grounds, extinction, and the strange facts that made Otodus megalodon the largest predatory shark ever to exist.
Everything about Meganeura: the 71-centimetre Carboniferous griffinfly that patrolled coal-swamp skies 300 million years ago, its oxygen-fueled gigantism, anatomy, prey, and extinction.
Everything about the terror bird: size, habitat, hunting, skull anatomy, extinction, and the strange facts that made Phorusrhacidae the apex predator of South America for 60 million years.
Everything about the sabertooth cat: size, habitat, diet, hunting, extinction, and the strange facts that make Smilodon fatalis the most famous Ice Age predator of the Americas.
Everything about Dunkleosteus: size, armour, bite force, hunting, evolution, the Late Devonian extinction, and the strange facts that make Dunkleosteus terrelli one of the most formidable predators that ever lived.
Everything about the woolly mammoth: size, cold adaptations, tusks, mammoth steppe habitat, extinction timeline, permafrost specimens, and de-extinction efforts to revive Mammuthus primigenius.
Everything about Archaeopteryx: the Late Jurassic Urvogel, its dinosaur and bird traits, the Solnhofen fossils, black feather pigmentation, discovery history, and why it remains the most iconic transitional fossil ever found.
Everything about Tiktaalik roseae: the 375-million-year-old fishapod that bridges fish and tetrapods, its Late Devonian habitat, anatomy, and the prediction-driven discovery on Ellesmere Island.
Everything about Tyrannosaurus rex: size, bite force, vision, feathers, growth rate, famous specimens, extinction, and the strange facts that make T. rex the most studied dinosaur ever unearthed.
Everything about the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger: size, stripes, habitat, hunting, jaw gape, the 1936 extinction of Benjamin, de-extinction projects, and the strange facts that made Thylacinus cynocephalus the largest marsupial predator of modern times.
Everything about Mosasaurus: size, habitat, diet, discovery, reproduction, extinction, and the strange facts that made Mosasaurus hoffmannii the apex predator of the late Cretaceous oceans.
Everything about Meganeuropsis permiana: the 75-centimetre Early Permian griffinfly from Kansas, the largest insect ever known, its oxygen-fueled gigantism, anatomy, prey, and extinction before the dinosaurs.
Everything about the moa: size, habitat, diet, extinction, ancient DNA, and the strange facts that made Dinornithidae the only bird lineage with no wings at all and the dominant herbivore of prehistoric New Zealand.
Everything about the giant ground sloth: size, habitat, diet, claws, Darwin's Beagle fossils, Thomas Jefferson's Megalonyx paper, and why Megatherium americanum vanished 10,000 years ago.
Everything about ammonites: shell shape, suture patterns, size range, 340-million-year fossil record, closest living relatives, the K-Pg extinction that killed them, and the cultural legends that grew up around their spiral shells.
Everything about the dire wolf: size, habitat, diet, hunting, La Brea tar pit specimens, the 2021 Nature reclassification revealing it was not a true wolf, Colossal Biosciences' 2024 de-extinction claim, and the pop culture rise of Aenocyon dirus.
Everything about trilobites: their 270 million year Paleozoic run, three-lobed bodies, mineralised calcite eyes, 22,000 described species, defensive enrolment, and their disappearance in the end-Permian mass extinction.
Everything about Hallucigenia sparsa: the bizarre 508-million-year-old Cambrian lobopodian from the Burgess Shale, reconstructed upside-down and backwards for forty years and now recognised as an ancient cousin of velvet worms.
Everything about the velociraptor: real size, feathers, the sickle claw, the Fighting Dinosaurs fossil, hunting behaviour, and why the Jurassic Park version is nothing like the real Velociraptor mongoliensis.
Everything about the passenger pigeon: size, habitat, diet, nesting colonies, extinction timeline, and the strange facts that made Ectopistes migratorius go from the most abundant bird in North America to extinct in fifty years.
Everything about Basilosaurus: size, anatomy, hunting, bite force, vestigial hind legs, discovery, and the strange facts that made Basilosaurus cetoides one of the most extraordinary early whales ever found.
Everything about Arthropleura: the 2.6-metre Carboniferous millipede that was the largest land invertebrate ever, its anatomy, diet debate, oxygen-driven gigantism, and its extinction in the early Permian.
Everything about Haast's eagle: size, prey, hunting, evolution, Maori pouakai tradition, and the strange facts that made Hieraaetus moorei the largest eagle ever known and the only raptor confirmed to have preyed on humans.
Everything about the giant beaver: size, habitat, diet, 15 cm incisors, extinction, and the strange facts that make Castoroides ohioensis the bear-sized Ice Age rodent that did not build dams.
Everything about Cameroceras: the giant Ordovician nautiloid with a straight conical shell up to six metres long, apex predator of 470-million-year-old seas, its role in end-Ordovician extinction, anatomy, diet, and why it may be the largest mollusc ever.
Everything about the glyptodon: size, armoured shell, tail club, taxonomy as an armadillo relative, mammoth steppe context, Darwin's Beagle fossils, and the late Pleistocene extinction of Glyptodon reticulatus.
Everything about Pterodactylus antiquus: the first pterosaur ever described, its Late Jurassic Solnhofen habitat, 1-metre wingspan, fish diet, pycnofibre coat, and why the word 'pterodactyl' is a misleading catch-all for all pterosaurs.
Everything about Anomalocaris canadensis: the 515-million-year-old Cambrian apex predator from the Burgess Shale, misclassified as three separate animals for 99 years, and armed with 16,000-lens compound eyes and a radial-toothed circular mouth.
Everything about Triceratops: size, horns, frill, the 1,000-tooth battery, the Torosaurus debate, combat with T. rex, and the strange facts that make Triceratops horridus the most iconic ceratopsian of the Late Cretaceous.
Everything about the great auk: size, habitat, diet, behaviour, extinction timeline, surviving specimens, and the strange facts that made Pinguinus impennis the original penguin and the clearest marker of human-caused extinction.
Everything about plesiosaurs: size, habitat, diet, discovery by Mary Anning, four-flipper flight stroke, live birth, extinction, and why Nessie is not one - a full reference to the ancient long-necked marine reptiles.
Everything about Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis: the 70-centimetre Carboniferous scorpion from East Kirkton, Scotland, its book-lung breathing, oxygen-driven gigantism, terrestrial lifestyle, and extinction in the early Permian.
Everything about Argentavis magnificens: size, wingspan, thermal soaring, diet, Miocene habitat, discovery in Argentina, and the strange facts that made this teratorn the largest flying bird ever known.
Everything about Diprotodon optatum: size, habitat, diet, the Lake Callabonna mummified herd, the 46,000-year-old extinction, the Bunyip oral tradition, and why this 2-tonne wombat-relative was the largest marsupial that ever lived.
Everything about the aurochs: size, habitat, domestication, cave art, the 1627 extinction in Jaktorow Forest, Heck cattle, and modern back-breeding programs working to resurrect Bos primigenius.
Everything about brachiopods: lophophore feeding, chitin-phosphate shells, the 540-million-year fossil record, the end-Permian mass extinction that wiped out 95%, and Lingula - the living fossil genus that has survived half a billion years largely unchanged.
Everything about the cave bear: size, diet, habitat, Pleistocene range, Drachenloch bone accumulations, Neanderthal coexistence, ancient DNA, and the extinction of Ursus spelaeus around 24,000 years ago.
Everything about the ichthyosaur: temporal range, anatomy, dolphin-like convergent evolution, live birth, Mary Anning's 1811 discovery at Lyme Regis, Ophthalmosaurus giant eyes, and why these extinct marine reptiles vanished 30 million years before the dinosaurs.
Everything about Opabinia regalis: the five-eyed, clawed-proboscis Cambrian oddity from the Burgess Shale whose 1975 reconstruction was so strange that delegates at the Paleontological Association meeting laughed out loud.
Everything about Spinosaurus: size, temporal range, semi-aquatic lifestyle, 1.8 m sail, fish diet, Kem Kem fossils, Ernst Stromer's lost specimen, and why this theropod was longer than Tyrannosaurus rex.
