Tag Archives: extinct

Paleontologists have described a new species of kiwi that lived during the mid-Pleistocene period on the North Island of New Zealand. The little spotted kiwi (Apteryx owenii). Artwork by John Gerrard Keulemans, 1870s. “Kiwi are an enigmatic and threatened group of birds, unique to New Zealand, with six living species …

University of Queensland’s Dr. Anthony Romilio has examined the ‘Meidum Geese,’ a painting from the Chapel of Itet at Meidum in Egypt. A Meidum goose (left), life reconstruction (center) and a modern red-breasted goose (right). Image credit: A. Romilio / Tambako the Jaguar. The Meidum Geese painting was found in …

Dr. Laura Chornogubsky, a paleontologist in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’ and CONICET, has described one new genus and three new species in the marsupial family Polydolopidae. Kramadolops maximus, the youngest known species of polydolopid marsupial. Image credit: Gabriel Lío. Polydolopidae is a family of extinct marsupials …

A new species of sandpiper has been identified from multiple Holocene fossil bones collected several decades ago on Henderson Island, an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean. The extinct Kiritimati sandpiper (Prosobonia cancellata), a close cousin of the newly-discovered Henderson sandpiper (Prosobonia sauli). Illustration by George Edward Lodge, 1907. …

An international team of scientists has sequenced and analyzed the entire nuclear genome of the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium latidens. Their results demonstrate that this extinct species was highly divergent from all living cat species and did not undergo any detectable gene flow with living cat species after their initial diversification …

An international team of scientists has discovered stylistically unique ancient drawings, including the only known prehistoric depiction of a now-extinct giant sloth lemur, on the walls of a rock shelter in western Madagascar. Photograph (top) and artist’s sketch (bottom) of the inferred hunting scene: hunter (background, left) extends weapon toward …

Meet Tongoenas burleyi, Extinct Giant Pigeon from Tonga A new extinct genus and species of pigeon has been identified from fossils found on six islands (Foa, Lifuka, ‘Uiha, Ha‘afeva, Tongatapu, and ‘Eua) in the Kingdom of Tonga. Tongoenas burleyi (right) likely featured the brightly colored plumage of other canopy-dwelling pigeons …