Extinct Animals: An Encyclopedia of Species that Have Disappeared during Human History

228 Pages·2009·4.11 MB·English

by  Ross Piper

EXTINCT ANIMALS

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EXTINCT ANIMALS

An Encyclopedia of Species That Have
Disappeared during Human History

Ross Piper

Illustrations by Renata Cunha and Phil Miller

GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Piper, Ross.
Extinct animals : an encyclopedia of species that have disappeared
during human history / Ross Piper ; illustrations by Renata Cunha and
Phil Miller.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–313–34987–4 (alk. paper)
1. Extinct animals—Encyclopedias. I. Title.
QL83.P57 2009
591.6803—dc22 2008050409

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.

Copyright © 2009 by Ross Piper

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008050409
ISBN: 978–0–313–34987–4

First published in 2009

Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com

Printed in the United States of America

Th e paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

We live in a zoologically impoverished world, from which all the hugest, and fi ercest,
and strangest forms have recently disappeared.
—Alfred Russel Wallace (1876)

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To my Mum, Gloria

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CONTENTS

Preface
xiii
Acknowledgments
xv
Introduction
xvii

1 Fewer Th an 100 Years Ago
1

Golden Toad
1
Gastric-Brooding Frog
3
Eskimo Curlew
6
Caribbean Monk Seal
8
Th ylacine
11
Carolina Parakeet
13
Passenger Pigeon
16

2 Fewer Th an 200 Years Ago
21

Rocky Mountain Locust
21
Pig-Footed Bandicoot
23
Quelili
26
Stephens Island Wren
28
Tarpan
31
Quagga
33
Warrah
36
Great Auk
38

3 Fewer Th an 500 Years Ago
43

Elephant Bird
43
Steller’s Sea Cow
45
Dodo
48
Aurochs
50

x
CONTENTS

Moa
52
Haast’s Eagle
55
Marcano’s Solenodon
58

4 Fewer Th an 10,000 Years Ago
63

Moa-Nalo
63
Du
65
Horned Turtle
68
Giant Lemur
71
Woolly Mammoth
73
Sivathere
76
Giant Deer
79
Giant Ground Sloth
81
Cuban Giant Owl
83

5 10,000–12,500 Years Ago
89

Glyptodont
89
Saber Tooth Cat
91
Scimitar Cat
94
American Mastodon
97
Giant Beaver
99
American Cheetah
101
American Lion
104
Woolly Rhinoceros
106
Litoptern
108
Dire Wolf
111
Cave Bear
113
Sicilian Dwarf Elephant
116
Merriam’s Teratorn
119

6 More Th an 12,500 Years Ago
125

Giant Short-Faced Bear
125
Flores Human
127
Giant Bison
131
Homo erectus
134
Neanderthal
137
Marsupial Lion
139
Diprotodon
142
Australian Th underbird
145
Giant Monitor Lizard
148
Quinkana
150
Giant Short-Faced Kangaroo
153
Giant Echidna
156
Wonambi
158

7 More Th an 50,000 Years Ago
163

Giant Rhinoceros
163
Megatooth Shark
165
Magnifi cent Teratorn
168
Pouch-Knife
171

Terror Bird
174
Giant Hyena
176
Giant Ape
179
Giant Camel
181
Glossary
185
Selected Bibliography
191
Selected Museums in the United States, Canada, and Worldwide
193
Index
197

CONTENTS
xi

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PREFACE

Countless books have been written about the dinosaurs, the reptiles that ruled the earth
for about 160 million years, yet remarkably few books have been written about the many
strange, fi erce, and enormous beasts that have disappeared in the time humans and our
recent ancestors have been around. Th e earth is certainly a poorer place for their passing,
but it’s fascinating to think that our forebears knew these animals—even worshipped them
and hunted them. Extinct Animals is an exploration of these creatures, from the giant, fl esh-
eating birds and saber-toothed marsupials of South America to the golden toad of Costa
Rica, which became extinct as recently as 1989.
A book on extinct animals would not be complete without a little about the process
of extinction itself, and so in the introduction, you fi nd out about how the earth has been
rocked by numerous mass extinction events. Th e last of these, the seventh extinction, is
happening right now as a result of the unchecked growth of the human population and
the habitat destruction that follows in the wake of what we call progress. Following the
introduction are 65 vignettes, each of which present a diff erent extinct animal. You will not
fi nd an exhaustive account of all the animals that have disappeared from our planet in the
last couple of million years because such a book would be immense, and all that we know of
many extinct animals is based on fragmentary fossils. Th e focus of this book is those extinct
beasts for which there are historical accounts of the living animal, a detailed fossil record, or
scant remnants that indicate a truly incredible creature.
Th e audience for Extinct Animals is anyone with an interest in zoology, earth’s remarkable
recent past, or the far-reaching consequences of an expanding human population. Th e main
purpose of Extinct Animals is to present what we know about the lives of animals that have
disappeared forever in a way that just about anyone can read and understand. Textbooks are
full of fascinating information, but all too often, they are inaccessible to general audiences.
Th is book provides a bridge to those resources for anyone who has even the slightest inter-
est in the world around him and what it was once like.

xiv
PREFACE

Along with the individual vignettes are a number of entries that describe some of the dis-
coveries and concepts that are crucial to understanding how life on earth has changed in the
last couple of million years. Th ese include the amazing bone deposits of Rancho La Brea in
Los Angeles, the ice ages, and the human age of discovery, which has seen humans exploring
every corner of the globe, often to the detriment of native fauna.
Wherever possible, I have tried not to use jargon. Th ere is a whole dictionary of special-
ized zoological and paleontological terms, which can sometimes be confusing or diffi cult
to say. I have tried to write in more general terms without using this specialized language.
However, there is a glossary at the end of the book to explain any jargon that was unavoid-
able. For those readers keen to trawl the Web for extra information, the best way is to type
the Latin name, or perhaps the common name, into a Web search engine. Th e amount of
information on the Web today is such that there will be numerous pages on most of the ani-
mals in this book, but only those sites ending in .gov or .edu are likely to carry information
that has been thoroughly researched and edited.
In this book, at the end of many entries, there is a list of resources for further reading.
Th ese lists, as well as the selected bibliography at the end of the book, include textbooks
and journal articles that can be found in any decent library. In addition to the Web and
books, you can fi nd more about the animals featured in this book by visiting natural history
museums. A list of some of the museums where you can see skeletons and reconstructions
of many extinct animals can be found at the back of this book.