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- Tasmanian Tiger. The Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, was a type of marsupial that once lived in Australia, Tasmania, and Papua New Guinea.
- Quagga. Quaggas were a subspecies of the Burchell’s zebra. The two species have many similarities, except for the striping pattern. The quagga once lived throughout the southern portion of Africa in grassland habitats.
- Baiji. The baiji, also called the Chinese river dolphin, once lived exclusively in the Yangtze River in China. It lived in the river for millions of years until the Yangtze River became a high-traffic area that created an uninhabitable environment for these river dolphins.
- Woolly Mammoth. One of the best-known ice age animals, the woolly mammoth, has long been extinct. There are a few theories as to why woolly mammoths went extinct, but they’re still largely debated.
- Overview
- Six mass extinctions
- What can we do about it?
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Extinctions happen when a species dies out from cataclysmic events, evolutionary problems, or human interference.
The truth is, scientists don’t know how many species of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria exist on Earth. The most recent estimate put that number at 2 billion, and that will most likely change at some point.
One thing we do know: The western black rhinoceros, the Tasmanian tiger, and the woolly mammoth are among the creatures whose populations at one point dwindled to zero, and it’s possible that species extinction is happening a thousand times more quickly because of humans.
Extinction happens when environmental factors or evolutionary problems cause a species to die out. The disappearance of species from Earth is ongoing, and rates have varied over time. A quarter of mammals is at risk of extinction, according to IUCN Red List estimates.
To some extent, extinction is natural. Changes to habitats and poor reproductive trends are among the factors that can make a species’ death rate higher than its birth rate for long enough that eventually, none are left.
Humans also cause other species to become extinct by hunting, overharvesting, introducing invasive species to the wild, polluting, and changing wetlands and forests to croplands and urban areas. Even the rapid growth of the human population is causing extinction by ruining natural habitats.
Fossils show that there have been five previous periods of history when an unusually high number of extinctions occurred in what are known as mass extinctions. Most of the Earth’s species went extinct roughly 266 million to 252 million years ago in the Permian extinction.
Those losses, however, also paved the way for dinosaurs to evolve into existence, as mass extinctions create a chance for new species to emerge. Dinosaurs met their end about 65 million years ago in another mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period. A large crater off of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula suggests that an asteroid most likely struck there. Scientists believe that volcanic eruptions in India caused global warming that also may have contributed to the mass extinction.
Scientists are debating whether Earth is now in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. If so, it may be the fastest one ever with a rate of 1,000 to 10,000 times the baseline extinction rate of one to five species per year. Humans are largely responsible for the striking trend. Scientists believe that pollution, land clearing, and overfishing might drive half of the planet’s existing land and marine species to extinction by 2100.
Slowly increasing surface temperatures caused by heightened levels of greenhouse gases likely will cause many species to move toward the Earth’s poles and higher up into the mountains to stay in habitats with the same climates. But not all species will be able to adapt quickly enough to stave off extinction and many are expected to perish.
Using fewer fossil fuels by lowering the thermostat, driving less frequently, and recycling is one good way to slow the rate of extinctions. Eating less meat and avoiding products, like ivory, that are made from threatened species also can make a difference. At home, securing garbage in locked cans, reducing water usage, and refraining from using herbicides and pesticides can protect local wildlife.
See all National Geographic videos on wildlife conservation here.
Learn what extinction is, how it happens, and why it matters. Explore the history and causes of mass extinctions, and the current threats to biodiversity.
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- 32 orchid species in Bangladesh—One of the first papers of 2020 to report any extinctions announced the probable loss of 17 percent of Bangladesh’s 187 known orchid species.
- Smooth handfish (Sympterichthys unipennis)—One of the few extinctions of 2020 that received much media attention, and it’s easy to see why. Handfish are an unusual group of species whose front fins look somewhat like human appendages, which they use to walk around the ocean floor.
- 65 North American plants—This past year researchers set out to determine how many plants in the continental United States had been lost. They catalogued 65, including five small trees, eight shrubs, 37 perennial herbs and 15 annual herbs.
- 22 frog species—The IUCN this year declared nearly two dozen long-unseen Central and South American frog species as “critically endangered (possibly extinct)”—victims of the amphibian-killing chytrid fungus.
This page features lists of species and organisms that have become extinct. The reasons for extinction range from natural occurrences, such as shifts in the Earth's ecosystem or natural disasters, to human influences on nature by the overuse of natural resources, hunting and destruction of natural habitats.
Apr 23, 2024 · Extinction is the dying out or extermination of a species, which can be caused by environmental or evolutionary factors. Learn about the different types of extinction, the current extinction crisis, and some examples of extinct species from Britannica.
Oct 19, 2023 · Learn about the process and causes of extinction, the dying out of a species, and its role in evolution. Explore the history of five mass extinctions and the current threat of a sixth one due to human activities.
[2] [3] [4] [5] It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryote globally, [6] and possibly many times more of microorganisms, like bacteria, are included. [7] Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, dodos, mammoths, ground sloths, thylacines, trilobites, and golden toads .
